I’ve been reviewing each episode of the new, rebooted Roots — each episode covers one or more eras, so it’s giving me lots of fodder for discussion! And woo boy, did episode three provide the fodder … you’ve got your Jonathan Rhys Meyers perfectly cast as a low-class, rapey slaveowner; plus a serious hottie; plus some INCREDIBLY badly dressed extras (seriously, wtf?). Join me!
Roots:Â Episode 3
Plot-wise, this was another entertaining and thought-provoking episode. It mostly focuses on all-growed-up Kizzy and her son “Chicken” George (the bulk of this episode is set in the 1820s). George is the result of Kizzy’s repeated rapes by slaveowner Tom Lea (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and it is heart-wrenching to watch Kizzy work through her emotions about his origin/parentage. Tom makes most of his money from chicken fighting (which, pleasepleaseplease tell me all the chicken-fighting scenes were edited/digital to make them seem more realistic, because I was seriously putting my shirt over my head during them), and George becomes a prize chicken trainer/fighter. There’s also a lot of the horrible reality of “slave breeding,” as George falls in love with Matilda. Tom buys Matilda for George so the two can marry and encourages George to have LOTS of children. Ew ew ew. Plus, you get to see more of the realities of how families of enslaved people were split up, and the horror of not just never seeing your loved ones again, but literally not even knowing if they are alive or dead.
Also, Kizzy gets a love interest: Marcellus, a free African American played by Michael James Shaw, who, HELLO YES PLEASE fans self frantically
Okay, but let’s talk costumes, because we’re not just here to be lecherous (right? right? anyone?)…
Kizzy’s Costumes in Roots
We see the same actress (Emyri Crutchfield) give birth to George, then we jump to grown-up Kizzy played by Anika Noni Rose, in case anyone is confused.
George’s Costumes in Roots
Mostly I want to look at adult George. He’s really wonderfully costumed — you can see that he’s enslaved (nothing upscale here), and yet they totally show his weird position as unacknowledged son-of-the-owner through what again appear to be hand me downs … plus they show his character through his jaunty accents, tipped hats, etc.
Matilda’s Costumes in Roots
Matilda is George’s love interest then wife. She’s the daughter of a preacher, and the two have a cute interaction getting together as she stands up to cocky George … but then she very quickly becomes background. Too bad!
Tom Lea’s Costumes in Roots
Tom Lea is a low -status, Irish-descended planter who has aspirations of rising in society. He wore a lot of relatively simple/lower-quality clothes because of this, but when he’s trying to impress people, he gets very flashy.
Patricia Lea’s Costumes in Roots
Tom Lea’s dishwater wife.
(Almost) Everyone Else’s Costumes in Roots
Most of the upper-class extras were well-dressed, which is surprising when you see what’s coming next!
The Gallery of Shittily Dressed Extras
And now, what happened with this batch of extras? I feel like someone dropped the ball in terms of screening who got to be placed where during shooting, because whoo-boy, some of these ladies should have been shunted to the rear…
What did you think of Roots episode 3? Did red-bib make you howl with laughter like I did?
Love the crazy extras, and, I have to say it…he’s 6’2″ [covers head and dives under table]
In my head, I’m already working out some time-travel-y crossover piece where a bunch of pretentious Steampunk Cosplayers, who are so in love with the Difference Engine (the ruffles! the corsets! the lack of aspirins and basic antibiotics!) and such end up dropped into the real life nastiness that was the actual period… Like a mean spirited _Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court_, or something…..
oh, that sounds delightful! Imagine some of the Cosplayers delight with chamber pots, lack of sanitation, and no women’s rights. *evil grins*
Sounds perfectly lovely. *grinning and snorts*. But seriously have one of the women have….I’d read it.
I don’t know who did the costuming for the women extras at the cockfights, but . . . WTF??
SRSLY
ARGH! visable corsets with no chemise makes my blood boil. I see it all the time in the reenacting community. I want to grab those people and ask them if they would wear their bra over their shirt and visable to world? For a better idea of how the ladies of Hooker’s Army would dress, watch Hell on Wheels. Set after the Civil War but the ladies there are closer to what actual people wore. Also Common and Anson Mount are quite yummy.
Did anyone else look at the red in and think of Martha Stewart?
*red bib
Or carving pumpkins and turkeys with correct etiquette, after all that is one of the things Ms Stewart is known for. But seriously, I’m laughing so much at the horrid costumes that I almost didn’t notice what a hunk the actor playing George is.
The costumes on this are so uneven, some good like the Kizzie’s cap and George’s frayed collar on his coat to the unmentionable bad Ren faire stuff. I wonder what research went on. Nil, a soupcon, done in a haze…
It’s always so annoying when people wear the corset/stays and nothing else, either over or under. You TAKE CARE of your corset; you don’t let it get saturated with sweat OR let it chafe you!
Okay, my historic dress history is very rusty but when are clothing colours codified? During the Victorian Era (VE), which I know Roots precedes, it was pretty much set in stone that black/greys were either mourning attire or service attire, with black being for the first year of mourning and greys in the second year (service attire had no time constraints). Towards the end of the second year of mourning, muted greys and purples were introduced before leaving the usual two-year mourning period and wearing non-mourning colours. So when was that a well known custom? I ask because here and in a lot of other shows, people are wearing purples and greys without being in mourning and that was not the custom.
To show how serious they took mourning, women even had mourning jewels that were usually only worn during that two year mourning period.
(And I do remember there were customs for certain colours to be worn for morning, luncheon, afternoon, and evening attire, in addition to the mourning attire.)
Thoughts?
Nice costuming trainwreck…we seen this all the time on “Old West” movies. :-)