The Long Song

Many people see a show like this and immediately pick on small details about the times or actual history. Well this is fiction, most historical shows are because we don't what actually happened. If you want a story close to the truth watch the History Channel and as far as black and white goes watch something made in the 1950s.

Not because it is true, as it isn't. Nor because such stories have not been told before, which they have. But because to forget the evils depicted would be to diminish ourselves.

A powerful and moving drama, which shows both the horrors of slavery, with casual cruelty borne of disregard for the human-ness of people of a different colour, and more unusually the on going torment faced by those newly freed. Highly recommended.

Just finished the series and while it was frustrating, painful and heartbreaking at times, it is well worth watching. It touches on so many issues that remain relevant today - colorist, the arrogance of privilege, the desire to escape racial boundaries, yet the risks that can come when things go wrong. I felt the series did a good job of showing the casual brutality and sadism of the slave system and the utter immorality of the whites who owned slaves. The story of July was frustrating because she was clearly clever, yet seemed utterly unaware of the duplicity of the whites around her, including her "husband" and master.

Despite these shortcomings I found it compelling and well acted. Several commuters have claimed the actress who played July was too dark to be of mixed race or be a house slave. Neither is true. It is not the case that all mixed race people are fair skinned or that all house slaves were fair skinned.

Other critics have touched on the shortcomings of this production. I have only seen the first episode but find the series to be engaging and atmospheric. I don't think July's trickster ways were uncommon for enslaved people. She becomes a lady's maid under painful circumstances. There's an act or two that are somewhat comic. Then comes the cruelty and violence that are certainly omnipresent in the lives of the enslaved. Nevertheless, the first episode ends on an intriguing note. I am here for the rest of this program, and feel viewers of Masterpiece will not be disappointed. Historically accurate? It might fall short, but so does Downton Abbey and there are no complaints. Allow yourself to enter July's world for a spell and let's find out what she does next.

Its ok. Zip fasteners on the dresses though! A 20th century invention. Always a crass mistake.