Stream It or Skip It: ‘The Underground Railroad’ on Amazon Prime, A Look Into The Real-Life Secret Network From Barry Jenkins

Another offering in the prestige drama set, Amazon debuts the 10-episode limited series The Underground Railroad, helmed by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins. An adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2016 historical fiction novel, the pilot is set in antebellum Georgia on a plantation where a spirited Cora (Thuso Mbedu) meets the newcomer Caesar (Aaron Pierre), who plans to escape his newfound surroundings.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The opening scene has various shots of people in states of distress or cautiousness. It’s a lot to keep up with and the moving parts seem disconnected at first. The first 30 seconds or so alternate between one Black woman trying to give birth and another one, along with a Black male, descending into what appears to be a pit or a cave, with a long ladder out of their reach. (We eventually discover these two are the protagonists Cora and Caesar.) With the wailing of a newborn in the background, the first woman is seen standing while pushing and agonizing from the pain, but after a bloodied umbilical cord falls out, her arms flail towards the floor. A flash back to the pit or cave where we see Cora still falling and reaching for something that isn’t in her grasp. A return to the house of the first woman, who is now burying the umbilical cord in the soil by hand; the sound of the crying baby still rings.

A shot of a rail tunnel and a bright light at its end is followed a rewind of Caesar running away. A different Black man (William Jackson Harper, who appears in later episodes) walks through a field with his hands up in the air. In a house, a seemingly upset white man stands at the entrance with someone else (face unseen) coming down the stairs with a candle. A Black woman in a nightgown walks backwards while exiting what could be a room on fire. A faceless figure stands in the dark, smoky night with a stagecoach and tree branches in the background.

The woman who buried the umbilical cord walks back inside the house, gown bloodied from the birth. Cora and Caesar are still falling in the depths of wherever they are. Our mother cradles her newborn, whose wails rattle off and on in these initial two minutes. Finally we get the first dialogue as Cora stands at a river. She turns and looks directly at the screen, with a voiceover that says, “The first and last thing my momma gave me… was apologies.” The camera pans away for several seconds before we begin Chapter One: Georgia.

The Gist: Caesar, a slave new to the Randall plantation, tells Cora of his plans to run away. We learn that Cora is the child born in the opening scene, and that her mother also tried to run from captivity, leaving her in the process. Having spent her entire existence in the plantation, she’s further hardened by her mother’s abandonment, but also fears the thought of fleeing. Yet when a captured runaway slave is whipped and burned alive in front of those working the field, Cora subtly agrees with Caesar that “it’s time to go.” They run into a complication as slavecatchers nearly bring them back to the plantation, sparking off the central tension in the remainder of the series.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of?: Immediately, viewers will think of HBO’s Lovecraft Country, starring Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Jonathan Majors. Both shows repurpose the brutal times to meld reality and fantasy, though Lovecraft Country has its fair share of detractors.

Another show that comes to mind is Underground, which aired for two seasons on WGN America (now called NewsNation). The reception for the WGN show, which also starred Smollett-Bell as well as Aldis Hodge, was quite positive during its airing.

Our Take: Films and shows about slavery are emotionally challenging, to say the least, and intentionally infuriating. Like 12 Years a Slave, the cruelty is unsparing on purpose. You’re meant to wince and shudder because this is what actually happened to enslaved Black people.

However, the final frame of the pilot challenges your notion on how the rest of this journey will go. Cora realizes that Caesar wasn’t telling a fairy tale about the railroad. And the cliché “there’s light at the end of the tunnel” is true to life, at least in this story. These two slaves are going to be free at some point, but what they will encounter on their way north will create enough tension and empathy to keep viewers’ attention beyond the first episode.

Sex and Skin: None in any joyful or desirable context. In an unfortunate circumstance that was common during slavery, Caesar is forced to “breed” with a female slave while plantation owner Terrance Randall (Benjamin Walker) watches.

Parting Shot: Caesar and Cora climb aboard the train. (Ironically, the real Underground Railroad was neither underground nor an actual railroad.) The white abolitionist who leads them down the tunnel hands Caesar a book that he had not finished reading yet. He then closes the door of the train car and says “if you want to see what this nation is all about, you got to ride the rails. Just look outside as you speed through and you will see the true face of America.”

With Ridgeway likely in pursuit of Caesar and Cora, it’s unclear how many faces will be friendly and how many will be hostile in their long journey up north.

Sleeper Star: While Thuso Mbedu is stirring as Cora, Aaron Pierre has such a commanding presence as Caesar. Much of it is due to his unquestionable size, standing at 6’3″ to go along with his deep cadence. Pierre uses that very cadence well as for Caesar, it belies an intellect or at least an awareness of something beyond the plantation, such as reading Gulliver’s Travels in his quarters at night. (Reading was forbidden by slave masters.) For the most part throughout the pilot, Caesar shows a silent rage despite the brutality he witnesses or is forced to take part in.

Most Pilot-y Line: Hard to quantify a line as “pilot-y” for a show of such subject matter, but you may flinch with each use of the n-word by the slave masters and their ilk. You could even say its overkill in one scene where Terrance Randall talks to Ridgeway (a slavecatcher played by Joel Edgerton) about Cora, dropping the slur five times in a single sentence.

Our Call: STREAM IT. There is a worthy debate regarding Black trauma being used for storytelling, whether for entertainment or even news such as the eternal loop of the murder of George Floyd. It’s safe to assume that Barry Jenkins and his partners had this conundrum in mind when producing this series. In depicting one of America’s original sins – one in which the effects still impact the nation today – entertainment in these moments is less about inspiration or humor, and much more about demanding empathy and understanding from viewers (most especially white viewers). Despite the promise of this fictionalized literal railroad, The Underground Railroad punches you in the gut repeatedly because it’s rooted in America’s dark and unresolved past.

Jason Clinkscales is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Whole Game, and his work has been featured at Awful Announcing, The Week and Dime Magazine. A New York City native, he is also a former media research analyst in both television networks and advertising agencies.

Watch The Underground Railroad on Amazon Prime