I'll Fly Away

"I'll Fly Away" is a drama of substance, a big subject, a show about real people with great acting, great writing and strong emotion. [7 Oct 1991]

[A] beautifully crafted, tough-minded hour ... I'll Fly Away has already lived up to its hype as the season's strongest new drama.

I'll Fly Away, set in the South in the late '50s, is all about ideas and values, about the clash of human nobility and imperfection. Sometimes - not as often as it could be - it is a drama as compelling as its material and actors. [7 Oct 1991]

The year's most substantial new series. [7 Oct 1991]

In any season, I'll Fly Away would stand out for its sensitive writing and acting. [7 Oct 1991]

I think 'I'll Fly Away' richly deserves the 'quality' label. That's not to say it has sprung full grown and perfect from the forehead of its creators. [7 Oct 1991]

This is a very special, terribly fragile, series. [7 Oct 1991]

The echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Member of the Wedding are hard to miss, and the show's two-hour pilot moves as slowly as, well, molasses in January. Yet producers Joshua Brand and John Falsey (St. Elsewhere, Northern Exposure) have created a drama of rich texture, few tricks and much truth.

It's painful to criticize a show that has intelligence and depth, but there's no getting around the fact that overarching earnestness and a subtle but troubling air of fatalism combine to make this a dolorous hour.

Sam Waterston is terrific -- and rises above the melodrama. [28 Oct 1991]

No doubt about it -- "I'll Fly Away" has much to recommend it ... But something is missing, or maybe it's a case of too much being added. "I'll Fly Away" seems to be so concerned with appealing to an audience on many levels, to mix heartwarming moments with social messages, that it bogs down far too often. [7 Oct 1991]

"I'll Fly Away" makes it easy for us, relegating racism to a time and region that we can confront comfortably, steeping ourselves in self-righteousness as the series steeps itself in self-importance. ... Waterston and especially Harper give performances in these early episodes that bode well for whatever future "I'll Fly Away" has in its perilous time slot. But by the time the premiere has ended and Waterston gives his final pensive pause, you'll be the one wanting to fly away.