'Underground Railroad' Is A Hard But Beautiful Reflection On Black Pain

(Warning: This column contains descriptions of racialized violence and discusses some plot points in The Underground Railroad series.)

For this Black TV critic, completing Barry Jenkins' ambitious, beautifully brutal, 10-episode adaptation of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad was an emotional journey that touched every nerve of what it feels like to be a person of color striving to matter in America.

There has been a lot of discussion in pop culture circles about the depictions of Black pain in recent films and TV shows; I'll engage that debate more fully later. But, for me mostly earns the right to deploy such terrible, emotionally devastating moments. These depictions enable this talented Black director/producer/writer to tell an epic story about Black people