Roots is coming back...YAY!

[salsmum]

Just that really, Quite right it was amazing let's hope it still is.

[normastits5]

This story had a huge effect on me . I remember the original so clearly, the characters stayed in my memory until this day. So I was very interested to see what this generation would make of it . All in all a very good remake although I must confess that I was unable to watch the whipping scenes at all, had to fast forward, they upset me just as much this time as the first series. I had no idea about slavery back then so roots was my education on the subject. Powerful stuff and I don't see why it shouldn't be shown in schools to pupils aged 15 ish? My DS is 12 and Too young to deal with the violence it yet in my opinion.

[CountFosco]

Finished watching it. Find it incredible to believe I watched it as a 7 year old, there is no way I'd let my DDs watch it yet because it is so distressing. I guess the special effects are so much better these days so the deaths were much more graphic (I'm particularly thinking about Noah's death and the duel that Tom Lea fought) than they were in the 970s. But it was probably the most influential TV show I watched as a child and the scene at the end of the first episode when Kunta Kinte has his foot cut off shocked me for a long time. I grew up in rural Scotland so didn't know anyone who wasn't white at that age so in a lot of ways that made it very important as well.

I know there are lots of historical inaccuracies in the book but I did wonder about Chicken George going to England for 20 years and returning on the eve of the American Civil War. That means he went to England as a slave in the 1940s, several years after the abolition of slavery in the UK and yet as a slave who could read he stayed in servitude there for another 20 years?

Thought the comparison with how Kunta Kinte was treated during the Revolutionary War by the English and how Chicken George was treated during the Civil War was interesting. Neither were allowed a gun so not much had changed even among the people who said they were against slavery.

Are they going to do the rest of the story up to the 1970s?

[NormaSmuff]

just started watchign this new series.
ok so far.

[salsmum]

I too watched the original series of Roots and don't usually watch period dramas but my 'excitement' was because I was looking forward to seeing the remake and for once having a programme on with a powerful cast and a story line more memorable than any school history book. It's about time that the BBC put some programmes on to warrant the increase in licence fee. Although in parts I suspect the story line has been changed and/or dramatised for the screen I think it has tried to stay fairly close to the original story line.

[DalekBred]

OMG! What a sob-fest! I cried for over half an hour solid at the last bit when everyone appeared! especially Fiddler!

and that bastard who hung up the spy guy and the womnan (Im terrible with names!).

So glad George made it back to be with his family again, although poor Kizzy.

only thing Ive found wrong with this series is the gaps.

lots of years mentioned but seems bits of storyline missing- like, how and when did kunte and belle die?

and also, why show such a superb series on BBC4??????? surely it was worthy of the main channel?

[clothespeggy]

Do you think that we'll stay with George or with Matilda's child?

I don't like the dates that come up on the screen. You realise that there's years and years until anything gets anywhere near better. Abolition and equal rights are miracles in a way.

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

Some interesting points made in ep. 3:

Kizzy facing the massive dilemma of leaving for her only chance of freedom and happiness with Marcellus vs staying to fight for/ protect her family, and having to continue submitting to Lea's abuse.

Strong ties to children with white owners: controlling way to help prevent female slaves from easily escaping, I suppose.

(I wrongly assumed Lea would end up killing Marcellus, out of sexual jealousy).

George realising Lea was his own father, whose relative 'friendship' was mostly due to his money-making with the birds, and who ultimately saw him as just another slave. As reflected in his comments about keeping Matilda "sliding them babies out" to increase his stock of workers...

The locking him back in chains was especially upsetting.

Lea ultimately reneging on his promise of freeman status to George (as if we didn't all see that coming from a mile off!). George being wrenched from his family, with no opportunity even to explain and say goodbye had me teary.

Wonder how differing English attitudes to slavery will be portrayed, next episode?

[DalekBred]

Bloody bastard Tom Lea.

I don't like Jonathan Rhys Meyers , but he's portraying TL brilliantly IMO. well done for the acting.

and the fact that George is his son he ''allows'' George to be quite authorative with him at times -the duel scene for example.

Slightly shallow note, but I think the actor playing George is nice looking.

so Tom Leas wife, in the last programme, she saw and heard Kizzy being raped, yes? so she'd know George is Toms son? yet shes friendly with Kizzy.

please tell me how the story ends with George and his family.

anyone who doesn't want spoilers, could anyone who knows please PM me?

Id like to know in advance as Im of a nervous disposition and this series has been really affecting me medically as well as emotionally.

[DalekBred]

Its all abuot Chicken George mainly I think this week.

I wonder (Cant remember the original) if part of his persecution is being of mixed race even though Kizzy was raped.

So is he acceptepted by the black people or the whites?

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

Anticipatory nerves ahead of tonight's episode, especially for Kizzy

But definitely watching.
(Though I expect not literally, at certain scenes).

Will be interesting to see where the storyline takes us next.

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

I watched the first episode, I don't know if I want to watch the next one. It was very graphic.

I remember watching the original as a young teen. I think they have made a much better job of conveying the culture Kunta came from this time. I'm sure the original was more savages and mud huts.

Also I never realised that Kunta was a muslim. Presumably that relates to why many black activists in the sixties and seventies became muslims, The Black Panthers, Muhammed Ali etc, it was part of a process of reclaiming their history.

[Jaynebxl]

I remember watching the original Roots when I was a kid with my family and was looking forward to this new version. I loved the characters and thought it was all very well done but had to turn off half way through the first episode because it was so graphic. I know the original was grim but it didn't show so much and left it more to your imagination. I'd like to watch this one but I just can't. I think it is too explicit and would touch more people if it wasn't so.

Before anyone says anything about it portraying reality, I know that but I still don't need to see it in detail, any more than I would need to see explicit child abuse.

[morningtoncrescent62]

I re-watched the original last year, TeaAddict, so I can compare. So far, I think the current series has dwelt on the brutal episodes for longer, so they've become more detailed, but somehow the less polished effects of the original plus the fact that they show enough of the brutality to shock but then cut away and leave the rest to your imagination, make the earlier version more shocking, I think. Something I think has been emphasised more in the new series has been Kunta Kinte's utter despair as he realises what's happened to him.

There's been one plot change so far. In the original there's nothing about the Revolutionary War - Kunta Kinte seizes an opportunity to run when he's sent on an errand, and then gets caught with the same consequence (his foot is chopped off). Also, not really a plot change, but in the original series they show slaves being caught by having a net thrown over them, both in Guinea and in America when runaways are caught by slave-catchers. It was one of the images I never forgot, seeing a human being caught in a net.

[TeaAddict235]

I haven't watched the entire programme (due to a teething Ds2) however, it could be that time had played on my memory, but this series seems a lot more glitzy (polished, clean, enhanced colours etc) than the original Roots. By that I mean that the original seemed grittier, although that could be due to the advances in technology. This version does seem somewhat less brutal.

Please someone tell convince me that time has meddled with my mind.

I want to order the original Roots but perhaps with German or French subtitles, why is it so hard to find?

[Magicpaintbrush]

I've just watched half of episode one to the part on board ship where the woman is trying to escape those awful men treating her like a piece of meat, and then they cut off the man's arm - I've had to turn it off. It's so horrifying I felt physically sick. I am so ashamed that people were treated like less than animals and viewed as property, not human beings. I cannot get my head around how people could be so evil. It's good that this series is highlighting what happened, and the acting is amazing, but I'm not sure I can watch further, I will have to see. I don't understand the comments about settling down with popcorn to watch this, it is totally traumatising and based on history, not fiction.

[Anasnake]

It's a 'blink and you'll miss it' moment but definitely him

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

Anasnake,

That's really interesting, and very poignant. I was too young to watch the original Roots, so wouldn't have recognised him. Will go back and find him now. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Lessthanaballpark]

I caught a few moments of it but found it too upsetting to watch.

[Anasnake]

Did anyone spot the original Kunte (Levar Burton) sat in a cart just after the auction scene in episode 1 ?

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

Amongst all the action stuff, I thought part 2 really got the subtleties across well:

That even the moments of white compassion, when I outwardly cheered, were mostly only superficial.
e.g. the Dr. angry that Noah's mother had been overworked (literally) to death was more down to the fact one of his 'belongings' had been taken out of the workforce, not that a real, living and breathing human had suffered and died.

He even docked Evil Little Bastard Spalding's wages, but not to teach him a lesson about his abuse, just that it had cost the Dr.'s family a worker...

His dehumanising comments about 'breeding' Kizzy with Noah, as you'd talk about effing prize cattle, really made me shudder.

The compare-and-contrast lives between his daughter and Kizzy were excellently played out. Even when the Missy/ Kizzy friendship initially seemed quite sweet, any small slave still had to know her place.

All those telling comments the white, privileged little girls let slip about their slave playmate possessions. But the reading came out of it, at least. A major, major advantage.

And I'm devastated lovely Fiddler was killed off...had hopes that he'd be a constant, kindly presence in their lives, and eventually achieve Freedman status in his old age .

I suppose at least he was able to reclaim his birth name in the faces of the white killers, and Kunta and Kizzy survived entirely because of his quick thinking. I properly welled up at that bit.

As I did at Kizzy's fate now. Especially the river scene. I'm really intrigued to see the next plotline, but am already repulsed by her owner.

Although many scenes are so hard to watch, I'm really glad the makers haven't shied away from showing the exact brutalities meted out in that era. (Foot scene...aaaargh). This was the daily reality, after all.

Dalek,
I noticed that, too, and also the penny finally dropped for me that Noah is played by his RL son, Mandela!

[hattymattie]

I can't remember much of the original series except "my name is Kuntakinte" - I didn't realise how important that phrase was. I remember that it was a hugely watched and talked about series at the time. I was 14 when the original came out in 1977.

I'm finding this version excellent, hard watching and very moving. I cannot understand the total lack of compassion that the whites seem to have. I find the doctor takes the stance of a good farmer making sure his cattle are well tended. He has no regard for human ties and the emotions of his slaves.

I feel desperately sorry for Kizzy.

[paulapantsdown]

I am finding this remake so moving. My mum and I LOVED the original Roots, and even thinking about it makes me think of and miss her. IT had a really profound effect on me as a teenager, and I think help to shape some of my political views.

I am finding this version just as affecting. It is not an easy watch, but so well acted. Yes Dalek, I have trouble sleeping after watching it.

Imagine giving birth to a child and knowing at any time, your owner could just sell you or your child like cattle? Mind you, as an Irish person, I have sometimes thought of the Irish women of history who had to watch thier children starve to death during the famine.

[DalekBred]

Do any of you go to bed after watching this and cant get the whole thin g out of your heads? Its so disturbing isn't it? took me ages to get to sleep.

YY good Connely was killed by Kunte.

I thought the Doctor (adultery aside) was a good chap and kind to his servants, obviously not. Poor Kizzy.

And I really sobbed when Fiddler and Noah were killed.

Beggars belief doesn't it how people can be treated that way and get away with it....and it still happens now in many ways

George is called 'Chicken George'' isn't he? I seem to remember that from the 1st version- because hes a poultry farmer, not cos of fear! wonder how hes treated, being of mixed rce?

Almost don't watnt to watch as its so distressing, but cant not watch, its too compelling and YY excellently made.

Noticed its directed by Mario Van Peebls, and Levar Burton is involved in the programme too.

[drigon]

Evil Little Bastard Connelly did indeed get his just Deserts! A terribly upsetting episode in many ways-poor, brave Fiddler. Very well made programme, though.

[ZuzuMyLittleGingersnap]

So, are we all braced for part 2 tonight?

I'm a mass of contradictions: interested to see in what direction the plot develops, am already jittery about the harder scenes, hoping the acting's as excellent as last week...and hoping Evil Little Bastard Connelly gets his comeuppance.