Good Lord Bird

Showtime ran them all the other day, wife expressed interest, so I recorded them all. Weather was crap the last couple days, so we watched them.

Not ‘Bad’, but way too much style over substance. I’d have rather watched a Ken Burns documentary on this subject, and have less jiggy. Not a whole lot happens till the finally. Coulda wrapped this up in 1-2 hours. No reason for 7 episodes. One thing I’ve noticed: Anything that credits Executive Producer as the same person who stars, usually a huge scenery chewing vanity project. And this was. But it was watchable.

I gotta say, however, John Brown around episode 3, before he got real shaggy, is the spitting image of my dead brother. Eerie!

Surprised there isn’t a thread already. But I really shouldn’t be.

I’m watching this show finally, due to a free weekend of Showtime, and I am loving it. I have always found John Brown to be one of the most interesting characters in American history and he was portrayed wonderfully (though exaggerated, of course) with no attempt to create a hagiography. I really thought it was a great idea to have the point of view to Brown’s story be through a black man. I also really liked how funny the show was.

Shame it was on Showtime. Same show on HBO would have been nominated for a ton of awards.