Black Earth Rising

Finding Black Earth Rising is one of the main reasons I love streaming services. There's always a show or a movie like Friends or The Office that you can go back to and comfort watch, but then there are random shows that nobody has heard of and probably will never hear of that you can binge and get a totally new experience out of. That's not to say Black Earth Rising doesn't have issues, but I don't think this show would have been made if it weren't for the streaming service era we live in.

I should mention that this is my first and probably my only review for February (unless I start watching some movies in the last week of the month). I've had some job related things that have made my schedule a bit busy where I haven't had the chance to watch a whole lot. It took me quite a bit to get through this mini series and there were only about 8 hour long episodes. Hopefully I'll jump back into it in March. I think there are some good movies that I need to see that are worth talking about. So please stay tuned and thanks for being patient.

Black Earth Rising is a political thriller miniseries centers around the International Criminal Court and the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide during the 90s.

The story mainly centers around Kate Ashby (played by Michaela Coel). She is a Rwandan born investigator who has a history of mental illness, depression, and a bleak outlook on her adoptive live in the UK. Her mother Eve (played by Harriet Walter) is a prosecutor for the International Criminal Court and she works with another lawyer by the name of Michael Ennis (played by John Goodman).

The story starts when a Tutsi military leader is brought up on war crime charges in the International Criminal Court. Kate takes these charges seriously as the man is one of the men who worked to end the genocide and her mother is the leader prosecutor on the case. However, this case is just the start of a long investigative journey for Kate and Michael as they begin investigating other war criminals and get wrapped up in the internal politics of Rwanda, a country with a dark history of violence and chaos, but trying to get on its feet years after a horrific systemic murder.

In case you didn't pick up on it, this is a show with a pretty heavy backdrop. The main character is personally invested in the events because she is a survivor of a horrific genocide. The show is also pretty dense with legal and political jargon and plot points that drive the story. If you're looking for an action heavy show, look somewhere else, because this show is about Rwandan and International Politics and it is quite a slow burn at times.

Unfortunately, with how dense it is and how political it is, and how frankly slow it is at times, Black Earth Rising has a little bit of difficulty finding its through line for a fully formed series plot. Especially if you're watching it for the first time, it wasn't until about episode 5 that I started to see a glimmer of what the through line was for the series and overall the show just feels very scattered and difficult to follow. I will say that a lot of things wrap up in the last two episodes, but you really have to be paying attention to connect all the dots. Furthermore, many of the names are African names that are foreign to me and difficult to remember at times. This is not a bad thing, its just another layer of this show that becomes difficult to track at times.

Something I should note is that the cast for this show is quite good. There's the obvious of John Goodman and Michaela Coel, and I'll get to them, but there are a lot of other actors in this show that do a really good job.

I've seen Michaela Coel in a couple of different things recently, most notably the new Star Wars films, but this was the first story where she was front and center and carrying it mostly herself. The truth is she has a pretty bright future ahead of her and I think this is a great display of her range and acting ability. However, her character is such a huge aspect of this show and I felt like as a character she was lacking a little bit. They sort of make her out as this unstable genius kind in the vein of Lisbeth Slander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo franchise and it doesn't work as well. She's apparently "mental" because she tried to kill herself and she "bends the rules", but the reality is, with a few exceptions, I didn't feel like she was the one driving the plot, it often felt like she was just along for a ride. The plot often times felt like it just unfolded in front of her and a lot of the conflicts, especially early on kind of resolve themselves and the main characters don't have a lot of control over the course of events even if they say that they do. It might be a shady rogue actor, or a random informant that at some points, literally shows up at their door and tells them to go in a different direction than the one they are headed down.

The most notable part about her performance was her emotional moments, especially the ones where she is experiencing a dark aspect of her past. There is a lot of passion and emotion in her delivery and I loved it.

That being said, I don't claim to be an expert or know what her character is going through, but there were moments where he unstable nature really made me dislike her as well as the people around her, including John Goodman's character. I think they tried to make a really unique and complex character comprehending the events around her and of her past, but there were times where it just felt annoying and I didn't like her as a character.

John Goodman is pretty good. I've seen him give better performances and the character of Michael Ennis only gives him so much range rather than just being the bureaucratic lawyer type, but I still enjoyed him in this.

Black Earth Rising is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. There's a little bit of a lot of good things I've seen in the past. There's some House of Cards in this, there's some Beasts of No Nations. There's kind of some Homeland thrown in there for good measure. But overall, I don't think it's gonna stick with me.

I think the way they handled talking about the genocide was very well done and it kind of makes you think that this was something that happened not that long ago and people are still processing it. That's why I thought the way they depicted the genocide was masterful and I didn't realize this until the end, but they never actually re-enact any sequences that take place during the genocide. All the memories and stories told of the genocide are told in a tribal animation that is very minimalist and focused on the words of the person telling the story. It's a subtle choice that again, I didn't realize until the end, but I thought it was quite clever and highlights the masterful approach to such a tragic historical event.

I can't say I whole heartedly recommend Black Earth Rising. Like I said, I don't think this would be made outside of a streaming service. And while I'm glad I get the opportunity to see a story like this, I don't think its going to be very memorable and it's quite dense and slow moving. If you're a fan of international politics like I am, maybe a fan of House of Cards, you might like this. Otherwise, unless you're looking for something totally different, it might be best to skip this one.

But those are my thoughts on Black Earth Rising. What did you think? If someone else saw this one, please let me know because I feel like I'm the only person in the world who actually watched this show. I wanna know other people's thoughts on this. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for Reading!