This review was based off the first four episodes of season one, which were provided to us prior to broadcast.
Harrowing and horrifying as its depiction of slavery might have been, one of the iconic shots of 2013’s 12 Years a Slave was also one of its simplest. As the abducted free man Solomon Northup, star Chiwetel Ejiofor silently takes pause on a Georgian plantation and just…looks. It’s a lengthy shot, discomfiting at first for its rigidity, then outright confrontational once Ejiofor’s gaze happens upon the camera. Whether its purpose was to indict the audience or close the last inches separating them from Northup’s experience, the moment demanded the viewer look into the eyes of an oft unseen, but defining face of American identity.
Widely advertised as being “From the screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave,” John Ridley’s new series, American Crime, shares more in common with...
Harrowing and horrifying as its depiction of slavery might have been, one of the iconic shots of 2013’s 12 Years a Slave was also one of its simplest. As the abducted free man Solomon Northup, star Chiwetel Ejiofor silently takes pause on a Georgian plantation and just…looks. It’s a lengthy shot, discomfiting at first for its rigidity, then outright confrontational once Ejiofor’s gaze happens upon the camera. Whether its purpose was to indict the audience or close the last inches separating them from Northup’s experience, the moment demanded the viewer look into the eyes of an oft unseen, but defining face of American identity.
Widely advertised as being “From the screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave,” John Ridley’s new series, American Crime, shares more in common with...
- 3/3/2015
- by Sam Woolf
- We Got This Covered
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