Black Earth Rising

All the actors should be praised for delivering delicious acting, but especially John Goodman is like a finely aged wine. He delivers a serious performance with just a pinch of goofyness to make a subtle contrast to the serious themes.

Seems a bit underrated to me. Should lean more towards 8 stars.

I can't remember seeing a more honest tv show about a contemporary African problem (rogue warlords) and the way white people in the west make a very good living taking 10 to 20 years 'bringing them to justice' and pulling political and economic strings to get those cushy jobs ...

The beautiful lead character plays a Rwandan that barely escaped the genocide. She is reared in the UK by a liberal white adoptive mother who is also a criminal prosecutor for the ICC in the Hague. Her daughter is totally against prosecuting the only 'hero' in the war and it is creating conflict in the family with discourse and dialogue on both sides of the genocide issue that I personally have never heard in public before. They leave no stone unturned in this show, also giving an overview of worthless UN peacekeepers and the French army, still in Rwanda.

What I like/LOVE about this show though, is they don't give you the answer.

They present all sides and let you sort thru it yourself and come to your own conclusion. I hope it's not snatched off the air. It's very political and I'm very surprised it even made it on screen for one episode. I look forward to seeing the rest of the series and I hope that the BBC doesn't capitulate to the puppetmasters that control the media and pull the plug on this early.

Fingers crossed!

Remember the actual dictator of Rwanda since 2000? Who were those two women supposed to be?

I have been writing reviews for this site for 17 years. Mostly films but also TV. Some great films, some very bad ones. Even the best ones had flaws - the acting was great but the direction was so-so etc. etc. But in Black Earth Rising, I think that I may at last have seen perfection - and I don't say that lightly. Where to start? I'll try to break it down then summarise.

Extrordinary complex but wonderfully constructed and written script. Acting to die for - from everyone. Certainly the best directed piece of film or TV I think I have ever seen. Blick's sense of timing is immaculate and his eye for detail stunning. Stunning visuals - the photography by Hubert Taczanowski is an example of perfection - the lighting, the perfect camera movement - just turn off the sound and watch each camera movement and each shot's lighting and composition. A masterclass - watch on a plasma or OLED not an LCD though. Perfect sound - every word, even every rustle of the actors clothes perfectly recorded with absolute clarity. The animated sections were a stroke of genius and so sensitively made. The music always a perfect choice - Lou Reed's Vanising Act especially.

There might be better made TV drama, but I have yet to see it.

I have come away from episode 5 absolutely mesmerized. Compelling, beautiful, powerful - stunning in every way.

An intelligent script digs below the superficial understanding that some of us (including me) have of the dreadful events in Rwanda, while creating strong characters to drive forward a human story. The actors are more than up to the task of making this balance work. I am gripped and eagerly await episode 3.