There are exceptions: A dynamic Dennis Haysbert, playing Queen’s live-wire, dedicated lover Frances Conroy limning an insidious Mrs. The miniseries, in need of outsized folks like Ben Vereen’s rich Chicken George or Leslie Uggams’ freshly minted Kizzy, settles for lesser images it’s a sad lapse.

John Erman, who directed episodes of both “Roots” adventures, finds himself hedged in by too many stock characters. Verging on mock Defoe and Fielding, her adventures lead to the birth of Abner, her subsequent meeting with the original Alec Haley (Danny Glover as the author’s grandfather), and a grim siege in a madhouse. Other such excesses are graphically reported, and the burnt body of a man hanging from a tree symbolizes other agonies, physical and spiritual, visited on blacks by whites historical wickednesses are horrifyingly timely.Īfter Easter’s death and the Civil War, teenage Queen lights out for Charleston. James marries spoiled-rotten Lizzie (Patricia Clarkson), whose mother advises her to be delighted with the situation: Slaves take care of lustful white husbands. Their mulatto daughter Queen (Halle Berry) grows up on the plantation without official Jackson acknowledgement.

Watching dressed-up slaves dance on a separate-but-equal footing with whites in a ballroom or sharing an elegant wedding ceremony are eye-openers but play more like dressing the story itself turns on racism and the plight of women folks.Įaster (Jasmine Guy), slave girl on the Jacksons’ plantation, and James Jackson Jr. Curiosity or fond memories will draw viewers to the story kicking off in 1841 at an Alabama plantation.

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