By Steve CrumDespite Snoop Dogg’s well publicized rant against the 2016 remake of Roots, I have to comment on the power and glory of the 4-part, 8-hour miniseries that ended last night. It is superb TV. For Heaven’s sake, it is superb movie making–probably the best television viewing of this year or several years. Based on Alex Hailey’s best selling book and 1977’s record setting TV mini-series, Roots can be compared to Schindler’s List in the sense it is a motion picture everyone, meaning every one of us, must see…and never forget.
The production is first rate, including multiple directors helming different episodes. Of the dozens of fine actors featured, these six are particularly impressive: Regé-Jean Page (pictured here as Chicken George), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Tom Lea), Malachi Kirby (Kunta Kinte), Forest Whitaker (Fiddler), Anika Noni Rose (Kizzy), and Michael James Shaw (Marcellus). Expect these, and probably more, to receive Emmy noms.