But these are ultimately quibbles about some incidental dissonant chords amid a complicated symphony of righteous anger, bone-deep agony, searching beauty and the tenderest of love.

Nor can a few changes of the word “son” to “daughter” encompass the enormous intersectional differences between Black men and Black women, or those between cis, straight Black people and their queer counterparts. That gap between the father and son’s disparate vantage points coming of age is harder to grasp when we’re ensconced in the homes of wealthy actors and the campus of an aspirational Howard, represented here by a glimpse of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Part of the rare power of Coates’ remembrances, too, is the contrast between the constrained world he grew up in and the panoramic one his son will hopefully embrace. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine. I missed the autobiographical details that led the author to his particular intellectual journey - a sojourn started on the hard-bitten streets of Baltimore, in fear-based fiefdoms that demand a survivalist’s toughness that Coates, as a parent, hopes his child won’t ever have to muster. Between the World and Me, Part I: (52 71) 'The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. Vance, as well as many lesser-known performers - makes sure that the occasional mannered monologue is soon followed by an interpretation that renders Coates’ words something resembling spoken poetry.įorbes expands Coates’ book from a letter by a father to his son to a more universally Black address - a decision that feels right on paper, but slightly less so in execution. But the sprawling cast - which also includes Mahershala Ali, Phylicia Rashad, Janet Mock, Wendell Pierce, Mj Rodriguez, Yara Shahidi, Jharrel Jerome and Courtney B.

No series made during the pandemic has boasted consistently great acting, and that’s the case here, too. It’s in those recitations that the HBO special occasionally falters.

From between the world and me