WGN America sends a large ensemble cast out to tell a strong tale and tackle a troubling moral dilemma in Underground, which premieres at 10 p.m. ET Wednesday.
In fact, Underground tackles what some have persuasively argued is the central moral dilemma of the whole American experience: slavery and what it says about our broader struggle with the noble concept of “all men are created equal.”
Set in Georgia in 1857, the show explores the upstairs/downstairs dynamic on a large cotton plantation.
What we know, and the characters do not, is that while slavery had been American policy for 238 years, it was only a few years from its official termination.
Which of course was not the same as saying we were about to embrace that equality business. A hundred and fifty-nine years later, to our ongoing discredit, equality remains a work in progress.
Created by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, with support from executive producer John Legend, Underground has a first season run of 10 episodes.
Like other ambitious WGN America productions, including Outsiders and the lamentably cancelled Manhattan, Underground weaves multiple stories.
Most center on the efforts of slaves to find freedom, somehow, some way. The early episodes make it clear how difficult that goal could be, and the harshness of the penalties for those who tried and failed.
Few slaves, even though whose transgressions were minor, don’t walk with a limp or see through one eye or have their bodies pockmarked with scars from the lash.
But the physical abuse pales in comparison to the psychological whippings. The men are reminded daily they are powerless even to protect their loved ones. The women are made available like toys for the whims of masters or guests.
Underground pointedly gives all its characters, black and white, some nuance. No one is all noble or all evil. But it’s clear who is not on the side of the angels, and there is never a second of doubt about the cruelty and inhumanity of a system in which people became property.
The early central story revolves around the plans of a slave named Noah (Aldis Hodge, below, with Jurnee Smollet-Bell) to organize an escape.
It’s a ragged enterprise. It’s unclear who can or will commit to it, partly because they know that even if they make it, their families back on the plantation could face severe punishment.
It’s also unclear who can be trusted, not to mention that the escape itself is a long shot. Runaway slave-catching is a big and lucrative business.
Those that Noah must either trust or avoid include Cato (Alano Miller), a slave who has risen to a kind of deputy overseer; Henry (Renwick Scott), a teenager with much to gain or lose; Moses (Mykelti Williamson), a preacher; and Sam (Johnny Ray Gill), a carpenter.
They know their road to freedom is a river, to foil the dogs. They also know they can only navigate the river with guidance, which is hidden in the words of a gospel song whose written lyrics must be secretly circulated without any master knowing they exist.
Since slaves were not allowed to read, they rely on Pearly Mae (Adina Porter), who in a sense sings them the message.
Meanwhile, parallel dramas begin to unfold inside the big house, where the pragmatic head house slave Ernestine (Amirah Vann) tries to protect younger slaves like Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) from the life she has had to lead.
A few white folks, like John Hawkes (Marc Blucas) and his wife Elizabeth (Jessica De Gouw), take up the abolitionist cause and wrestle with how far to go with it.
Christopher Meloni plays August Pullman, an independent white man with a seemingly ambivalent agenda.
Most of the other white folks just like the world the way it is. They have their differences and dramas, but they see no reason God would want anything about the system to be different.
Underground isn’t a breezy show, and it’s not always easy to watch. It makes the viewer take some deep breaths. But it’s a powerful show, a worthy kin to Roots, and the large cast is uniformly strong.
It continues and advances the conversation we can’t avoid.