Director: Kevin Hooks
Starring: LeVar Burton, Louis Gossett Jr., Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ
SYNOPSIS
Kunta Kinte and Fiddler encounter a freed slave who is soon captured and enslaved once more for helping other slaves escape to the north. However, he still has friends on the underground railroad that might help him escape once again.
REVIEW
The original miniseries of Roots made television history, breaking viewership records and – due to more diverse modern viewing habits – will probably never be beaten as the most watch programme in TV history. One of the most notable revelations was a young actor, LeVar Burton, whose strong portrayal of the enslaved African Kunta Kinte was a breakout performance. Sadly, the plot required that he was replaced by a different actor to portray Kinte's later years.
During the 1980s, however, Burton had become a well-known actor both for his role as Geordi LeForge in Star Trek: The Next Generation and for hosting the children's book show Reading Rainbow. With a sequel to the original miniseries having taken Alex Haley's family history to the modern day, it was decided to revisit an earlier part of Kinte's life, here before Kinte has his foot removed for trying to escape too many times.
It's a rather slight and realistically pointless exercise, but it's nice to see these characters again. Gossett Jr. and Burton seem to effortlessly slide into their old roles while it's intriguing to see Burton teamed with future Star Trek actors Mulgrew, Brooks and Russ.
Being a TV Christmas special made in the 1980s, as well as being a story to which we know the ending (i.e. we know that the attempt to get Kinte and Fiddler to freedom is doomed), there is a mawkish feel to the whole thing as well as a feeling of general pointlessness to the whole exercise. Having said that, it's nice to see new footage from this classic TV series.
So, a bit of a throwaway exercise but there's enough here to keep interest so long as you don't expect anything too special.
6 / 10
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