Up till just lately, the general public deemed worthy of drawn-out biographical explorations have been white, nevertheless it’s a brand new day in Hollywood. In theaters, movies like Hidden Figures (2016) and Harriet (2019) introduced tales about lesser-known African American heroes from out of the shadows, and with Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, Netflix does the holy work of constructing the self-made millionaire the TV star she ought to have been lengthy prior to now.
Starring Octavia Spencer because the titular mogul who constructed an empire via hair care merchandise, Madam C.J. Walker begins Walker’s story via a considerably stunning slant: her skilled rivalry with former mentor Addie Munroe, performed by a sinister, snarling Carmen Ejogo. Primarily based on the ebook On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker from Walker’s great-great-granddaughter A’Lelia Bundles, Netflix’s sequence admirably recreates how Walker used will and self-reliance to go from a laundress to a businesswoman, only a few many years after slavery ended. Viewers see how Walker persevered via a dreadful marriage with advertising sleaze ball C.J. Walker (Blair Underwood), how she handled colorism, and the way she bucked towards entrenched sexism of the period to thrive managing all the small print of enterprise — product design, manufacturing, hiring and coaching a workforce, and so forth.
Self Made: Impressed by the Lifetime of Madam C.J. Walker
It is a thrill to see Walker rub shoulders with historic figures together with W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and John Rockefeller; it is rewarding to see her navigate political debates of the time, together with, for instance, Washington’s assertion that Walker’s empowerment of girls via cosmetology would make black ladies too useless to advance African American causes or, worse to him, eclipse males. Vital, missed pearls about American historical past, and black feminist historical past, come alive in Madam C.J. Walker‘s 4 episodes, and even viewers who, like myself, thought they knew Walker’s story is likely to be surprised to uncover truths about about her generally scandalous life. As a chunk of scholastic infotainment, the sequence has tons of benefit. However as a chunk of status tv, it falls quick.
Madam C.J. Walker makes many puzzling decisions. Because it begins, Walker — born Sarah Breedlove — is inexplicably proven prepping for a battle in a boxing ring, squaring off towards an unknown enemy. This is smart retroactively, as soon as we be taught that Walker and Munroe grew to become bitter foes, however even then, Walker’s hyperlink to boxing stays confounding (would dueling scorching combs have made extra sense?) and the machine returns so sparingly it reinforces the baffling determination to make use of it within the first place. Different quirky thrives — dance numbers, hazy dream sequences, glowing folks — additionally seem as add-ons, as if its storytellers could not decide to how greatest to inform this sprawling story. Dialogue has a soapy really feel to it, the place everybody says precisely what they’re feeling and pondering with no subtext. However Madam C.J. Walker‘s distinctive charms imply overlooking flat traces, like when Mr. Walker admits to an affair. (“You forgot what a spouse is meant to do. I’m a person, and Dora is aware of it. And that is why I slept along with her.”)
Blair Underwood and Octavia Spencer, Self Made: Impressed by the Lifetime of Madam C.J. Walker
Extra curiosities abound. There’s nearly no depiction of an precise hair salon, or visible proof of the merchandise’ energy. Sure, the hair-salon-as-safe-space-for-black-women thought has been labored over loads, however that is one occasion the place seeing black ladies in a hair salon would have served sensible goal. (And made far more sense than a boxing ring.) Actors do not even trouble making an attempt to sound like people of a different era. Then there’s the story of Lelia, Walker’s daughter (performed by Tiffany Haddish), who’s discovering her queerness; not solely is her story alluring sufficient to make you pause the present to be taught extra about her (do it), her “secret” same-sex attraction will get drawn out so laboriously that it drains momentum. Lastly, as Madam C.J. Walker specialists may’ve already identified, she makes a bombshell admission within the final episode that challenges our empathy for her, in impact flipping the antagonist-protagonist construction on its head and rendering an entire lot of the story moot. We depart feeling slightly bit betrayed and loads bit confused, questioning if we have been rooting for the improper individual the entire time. Crafting a biographical story the place the hero is not fairly a hero may work, and it has (see Final King of Scotland or Narcos, for instance). However this one doesn’t.
Regardless of its flaws, Self Made: Impressed by the Lifetime of Madam C.J. Walker serves an necessary operate: to coach folks a few black feminine entrepreneur the place faculty books, faculty techniques and, up till now, popular culture have failed. Thank goodness for streaming, with its canyons of content material to fill, for opening a gateway to another studying universe the place pioneering folks of shade get the dramatic therapies beforehand denied, and kudos to Netflix for taking this swing. Madam C.J. Walker is a good instructional, informative instrument, however its execution is not as impressed because the title suggests.
TV Information Ranking: 2/5
Self Made: Impressed by the Lifetime of Madam C.J. Walker arrives on Netflix Friday, March 20.