TITLE: Black Earth Rising
GENRE: Drama/Thriller
STARRING: Michaela Coel, John Goodman (!), Lucian Msamati, Tyrone Huggins, Harriet Walter (basically a ton of amazing actors you’ll recognize)
PRODUCTION COMPANY/DISTRIBUTION/COUNTRY: BBC2 and Netflix
YEAR: 2017
RATING: 🤷🏾♀️ (punting on a rating for reasons discussed)
WHERE CAN I SEE IT? Available to stream on Netflix starting 25 January 2019
I’m not so hot on political thrillers, hence, the 🤷🏾♀️ rating. But I am hot on Michaela Coel and I’m excited to see her getting to do a dramatic role. We knew she could do slapstick (see this blog’s first review ever for Chewing Gum), but she’s riveting in Black Earth Rising. She’s a soulmate to Meredith Grey and Christina Yang: dark and twisty.
Is that adequate attention to Michaela Coel’s acting so that it doesn’t seem like I’m objectifying her before I start going on about her cheek bones, amazing lips and skin I’d probably sell my non-existent first born for?
We’re introduced to Coel’s character, legal investigator Kate Ashby, in her therapist’s office. For someone who’s attempted to kill herself, Kate’s deadpanning her way through a quizzing by her therapist quite winningly. Kate’s survived the genocide in Rwanda and since been adopted by Eve. Eve is a British, international lawyer charged with prosecuting a militia leader for war crimes committed during the genocide for the International Criminal Court.
Eve: “What doesn’t kill us…” Kate: “…waits for another chance.”
