The Good Lord Bird (miniseries)
The Good Lord Bird is a 2020 American historical drama television miniseries, based on the 2013 novel of the same name by James McBride. Focusing on John Brown's attack on American slavery, the series was created and executive produced by Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard. Produced by Jason Blum, through Blumhouse Television, it premiered on October 4, 2020, on Showtime.[5]
The Good Lord Bird
- Ethan Hawke
- Hubert Point-Du Jour
- Beau Knapp
- Nick Eversman
- Ellar Coltrane
- Jack Alcott
- Mo Brings Plenty
- Daveed Diggs
- Joshua Caleb Johnson
"Come on Children, Let's Sing" by Mahalia Jackson[3]
United States
English
7
- Jason Blum
- Ethan Hawke
- Mark Richard
- Padraic McKinley
- Albert Hughes
- Jeremy Gold
- Marci Wiseman
- James McBride[4]
- Brian Taylor
- Ryan Hawke
- David Schiff
- Marshall Persinger
46–57 minutes
- Under The Influence
- Mark 924 Entertainment
- Blumhouse Television
October 4 –
November 15, 2020
Premise[edit]
The series is told from the point of view of Henry "Onion" Shackleford (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy, who is part of John Brown's (Ethan Hawke) motley crew of abolitionist soldiers during the time of Bleeding Kansas, eventually participating in the famous 1859 raid on the Federal Armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (since 1863, West Virginia). Brown's raid failed to initiate a slave revolt as he intended, but it was one of the events that started the American Civil War.[6]
It is not just the story of Brown but that of those that accompanied him. According to Hawke, "If you really study this character, he asks a lot of you philosophically. He challenges why so many of us accept the unacceptable". Author James McBride was involved in the production and according to him, "John Brown is a real hero to me and to many Black people who are no longer alive. John Brown gave his life and two of his sons' lives to the cause of freedom for Black people, and he started the Civil War. They buried this man's story for a long time....".[7]
Music in the miniseries is composed of Black musical genres: gospel, blues, and spirituals. Most is performed by Black artists or groups, with the theme song "Come On Children, Let's Sing", a gospel song, sung by Mahalia Jackson. Songs featured in the series include:
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Ethan Hawke and Jason Blum adapted the 2013 novel, The Good Lord Bird, for a limited series that premiered on October 4, 2020, on Showtime.[18] The series was created and executive produced by Hawke and Mark Richard. Jason Blum, via Blumhouse Television, served as a production partner on the miniseries.[19][20] Albert Hughes, Kevin Hooks, Darnell Martin, and Haifaa al-Mansour, Michael Nankin, and Kate Woods each directed an episode.[21]
Casting[edit]
In August 2019, Daveed Diggs and Wyatt Russell signed on to portray Frederick Douglass and First Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart.[22][23][24] In July 2019, Joshua Caleb Johnson and Rafael Casal joined the cast as Henry "Onion" Shackleford and John Cook.[25]
Filming[edit]
Principal photography for the series began in July 2019, in Powhatan, Virginia, near Richmond.[26][27]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
For the series, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 98% based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Ethan Hawke dazzles in The Good Lord Bird, an epically irreverent adaptation that does right by its source material's good word."[28] On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29]
In response to John Lahr's profile of Ethan Hawke,[30] The New Yorker published a letter to the editor,[31] written by Marty Brown, a descendant of John Brown. In the letter, Marty Brown welcomes the effort to bring John Brown's story to a wider audience but notes that his characterization in the series does not reflect the work of Brown's historians and biographers.[32]
