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Underground - A harrowing and compelling slavery drama - Wednesdays on WGN America

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Walpurgis

Banned
I wasn't feeling it at the start since I didn't know the characters and didn't care about any of them. Once the main guy got the instructions, it got good. At the start, I thought things were a little too Rosy since I watched 12 Years a Slave but things got dark and brutal fast.

I liked the part with the
good white guy's wife and the slave master's wife
. I never really thought about the political situation in the U.S. at that time.
"The South is carrying the economy" sounds exactly like what the kind of arguments that I would expect.
I think that same argument is still used today to justify global warming and a whole bunch of crap. That's probably why it sounded so familiar.

The main slave is pretty cool too. I didn't care for him at first but he's pretty clever. He's the perfect heist leader.

Shame about the baby
. That was messed up. I feel bad for the big guy. I think he's going to be awesome later on (based off that
bear attack character intro
).

In fact, those character intros in general were very awesome.

I definitely didn't expect
Uncle Tom
to join the team. He's better to have as an ally than an enemy but
I know his selfishness will get people killed
.

The one thing that I simply hated is the music. It's so distracting for me. I usually don't notice music in shows but this music feels so out of place. They should have used music like 12 Years a Slave.

Overall, I'm pretty into the show now and am looking forward to the next episode.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Whoa, those opening credits are really neat!

EDIT: The second episode was really good. Better than the pilot.

"Run with me"

omg
 
C

cameron

Member
This thread is a lot like the GAF thread for WGN's Manhattan. Not enough people watch or comment on the show. :/ But I'm guilty of just lurking in that thread.

Episode 2 was pretty good. A lot happened, and it feels on track for a ten episode series. Nothing dragged. And the show acknowledged the sexual harassment/assault endured by slaves. It is sometimes an unpleasant topic that gets glossed over or even avoided.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
- LA RB: Underground: Season 1, "War Chest" by Lisa Woolfork & Sarah Mesle.
This week, Dear Television welcomes guest critic Lisa Woolfork, Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
Click to expand...
This seems important since some of the show’s ambition (as noted with the musical experiment of integrating contemporary music into its 19c story) seems to be to collapse the divide between the past and present, to view the characters as *characters* rather than types (archetypes or stereotypes). I agree that the material world is densely drawn here (and it is difficult for me to look around the grounds of the Macon house and outbuildings and not see everything there as paid for by the forced extraction of labor from black bodies), but rather than seeing the epic scale of Game of Thrones, I see a bit of Sons of Anarchy here, especially the latter seasons of Sons where small gestures trigger a concatenation of events leading to huge consequences.
Click to expand...
Much more at link.
 
C

cameron

Member
ron_burgundy_escalted.gif

Crazy episode. The only goofy part was the harness mission impossible scene. And the music choices are hit-and-miss. Everything else was good. I'm starting to like Rosalee's mother. Her solution was clever.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
That was the best episode yet. Really tense stuff with the missing wax and seal. I had no idea how they were going to get out of that situation, but thankfully Ernestine came to the rescue with a clever as heck solution~

I wasn't clear on how Noah and Rosalee knew to get into that wooden "cargo" thing though, and while we're at it, why were the white dudes taking the cargo away in the middle of the night? These guys are working for their master, so I'm assuming they're not actively trying to help them escape...It all just seemed awfully convenient and it doesn't help that all of this is taking place over the course of about 15 seconds.

By the way, episode 3 is up on:

Crackle

WGN America
 
C

cameron

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
I wasn't clear on how Noah and Rosalee knew to get into that wooden "cargo" thing though, and while we're at it, why were the white dudes taking the cargo away in the middle of the night? These guys are working for their master, so I'm assuming they're not actively trying to help them escape...It all just seemed awfully convenient and it doesn't help that all of this is taking place over the course of about 15 seconds.
Click to expand...

It wasn't clear, but I believe that was an "empty" wagon. The one that had its wheel repaired after being broken by the big guy when his wife was being traded away. To make amends for the damage, the plantation owner lent his wagon to transport the slaves, while the broken was being repaired. This happened during the day. At night, the owner's transport wagon returned and the repaired wagon was sent off "empty." Noah would've known about the repaired wagon being scheduled to leave later in the day when he was hanging from the ceiling and overhearing the conversation. Not sure, but I think Noah and Rosalee are hiding under the wagon using the harness from before.
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
cameron said:
It wasn't clear, but I believe that was an "empty" wagon. The one that had its wheel repaired after being broken by the big guy when his wife was being traded away. To make amends for the damage, the plantation owner lent his wagon to transport the slaves, while the broken was being repaired. This happened during the day. At night, the owner's transport wagon returned and the repaired wagon was sent off "empty." Noah would've known about the repaired wagon being scheduled to leave later in the day when he was hanging from the ceiling and overhearing the conversation. Not sure, but I think Noah and Rosalee are hiding under the wagon using the harness from before.
Click to expand...

Oh okay, that makes a bit more sense. Thanks for breaking it down for me.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Wow, the pacing on this show! I can't believe most of the slaves are already on the run and it's only the fourth episode. And damn @ them burning almost the entire cotton field. The fallout from this is going to be insane.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
Wow, the pacing on this show! I can't believe most of the slaves are already on the run and it's only the fourth episode. And damn @ them burning almost the entire cotton field. The fallout from this is going to be insane.
Click to expand...
Dang why did inread/ enter this thread b4 watching the ep xd
Def gonna watch it tonite
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
New episode tonight!

Run & Gun

The Macon slaves face questioning over their plans; at the same time, the mad dash to catch a train heading north comes with complications at every turn.
Click to expand...
 
A

AxelFoley

Member
Walpurgis said:
I saw this on the front page of Metacritic and thought it was a new Walking Dead spinoff. I clicked on it and wow. I can't believe I've never heard of this show. I just watched 12 Years a Slave a few days ago and I am still depressed; I am so in the mood for this. It could not have come at a better time
and I love heist films.

I'm also surprised that it is reviewing well. Historical shows with interesting concepts have always disappointed me with bad reviews or it least it feels that way. I hope this leads to more. And I hope the series creators have plans for more than one season for this topic.

Finally, I am really looking forward to learning about the underground railway passage. One thing I love about historical shows is that I can learn about things through the story without knowing spoilers while also knowing that it is real (e.g. that OJ show and The Americans). I think the railway ends in Canada? I know next to nothing about African Americans in Canada and how they got there so this will be very interesting.


Ha! I didn't recognise her without all of that grounder paint/gear.

Wow. This is a very nice surprise.

I saw that this show had good reviews so I assumed it was just story/characters but I never expected this.

Everything I read about this makes me want to watch it even more.
Click to expand...


The bold part, bruh.
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
New episode tonight!

Troubled Water

The road takes its toll on August; at the same time, the runners are trapped in a floating coffin; and Ernestine struggles to maintain her influence.
Click to expand...
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Another good one this week. The baptism scene was intense - I was having Boardwalk Empire flashbacks during that last bit. :p
 
J

Jay Shadow

Member
Tizoc said:
Did I miss something?
What happened to
the little girl?
Click to expand...
Got on the train last week. It was kinda confusing cause they didn't show it, they just showed the before and after. So in one scene Noah said he'd throw her to Moses after Moses jumps on the train roof.
Then I assume they didn't have the budget for train roof stunts, so they cut back to the plantation, and when they go back to the runaways Rose is grabbing Noah to keep him from falling off the roof after the toss and she says "you did it". It was awkwardly done.
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
That was a really unusual episode. It wasn't entirely successful (in particular, some of the plot developments came off as ham-fisted due to the fact that we were seeing all of the storylines from the perspectives of the kid characters), but I appreciated that they tried something new.
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
New episode tonight!

Graves

In the face of near-certain death, the runners decide their only hope is a suicidal attempt to hide in plain sight. Meanwhile, Ernestine confronts her worst fear.
Click to expand...
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
goddamn it will someone stop visiting tragedy upon this poor mother's life already :(

has there ever been a tv show character forced to endure such brutalization in a single season? (
raped, one child killed, the other forced onto the cotton fields at, like, seven years old, the other forced to escape after killing someone who tried to rape her. Forced to choose between her daughter and her supreme empathy for the plight of a fellow mother under that oppression, tortured, forced to watch her daughter brutalized by lashings, thought she was gonna have to cripple her own son...
)

I am seriously trying to think of a main character that went through this much shit in such a short time. Stark family tragedy got nothing on her. And then, of course, the realization that this sort of thing was reality for millions of slaves in America... and it's all just haunting.
 
J

Jay Shadow

Member
With the body count and progress they rack up I'm worried about where a Season 2 would go. It seems like the progress they made would end the series in 1 Season. Kinda worried they're gonna reset like Prison Break or something.
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Jay Shadow said:
With the body count and progress they rack up I'm worried about where a Season 2 would go. It seems like the progress they made would end the series in 1 Season. Kinda worried they're gonna reset like Prison Break or something.
Click to expand...

I'm really curious to see what season 2 looks like as well. I'm thinking maybe the remaining slaves escape and establish themselves in a new home and then some time later decide to plan a trip back to the plantation to rescue the remaining slaves?
 
D

~Devil Trigger~

In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
One of the best New show no doubt

Theme wise, its a very.... digestible show about slavery. Its the delivered/paced in a very "primetime TV Show" way and it works lol

The acting is excellent.
 
G

golem

Member
This show is so good. The pacing especially is great, the story so far has been extremely well plotted and really intense. Especially liked how
Bill threw their whole plan out the window. The plantation fire was good thinking on Cato's part.
. Almost caught up now, cant wait for more.
 
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RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Similar to the kid-perspective episode, this one was interesting conceptually, but came up short in other, more important areas. The development with Kyle and Elizabeth was too rushed and too much time was spent on those hallucinations. I appreciate the effort in trying to do something different, but I think the writers should stick to regular (non gimmicky) episodes until they have a better handle on how to juggle all the different characters and plotlines.

Also, I hope Cato isn't really dead. They didn't show him die, so I think he's probably still alive.
 
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