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‘The Underground Railroad’ is a flawless adaptation of a great American novel
In some cases it takes a lifetime of work to build a case for an individual’s genius. There are more remarkable minds lost to history than there are recognized posthumously, and an even smaller number of people are acknowledged as exceptional talents while they are still working. Barry Jenkins and Colson Whitehead are two living creators whose genius is evident today. Whitehead’s recognition comes from the critical acclaim and awards heaped on his books since the publication of his 1991 debut The Intuitionist, which continued through his back-to-back Pulitzer Prizes for The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. Jenkins’ two most recent writer-director film credits are the Academy Award–winning Moonlight and acclaimed If Beale Street Could Talk.
Prime Video Watch Guide | The Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad, streaming now on Amazon Prime Video, combines the skillsets of these two creative titans with overwhelmingly excellent results. Every episode of this show is a marvel of theme, character, and story that lives up to Whitehead’s literary vision of magical realism and perseverance; simultaneously each installment is a magnificent showcase of performance and visual direction that proves Jenkins’ mastery behind the camera is not limited to film and is instead a consistent, repeatable expression of his talent.
Both the show and Whitehead’s book hew to the premise of an alternate reality where the underground railroad, which in our world was a network of safehouses and routes that Black people used to escape slavery, is an actual subterranean train system with stations, cars, and conductors. When Cora and Caesar, two enslaved people on a Georgia plantation, escape and board the train their first ride is only the beginning of a journey through a warped mirror image of the American south and beyond.
