- Network: HULU
- Series Premiere Date: Jan 26, 2023
Critic Reviews
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It succeeds both technically and as a piece of art, skillfully weaving shots of Black Americans with firsthand accounts, explanations, interviews and stories that have been consistently omitted from the historical record.
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Whether you’ve read Hannah-Jones’ work or are coming to it for the first time, The 1619 Project is a fascinating look at the Black population’s significant contributions to the building of the U.S., with a nuanced approach that was never in our U.S. History books.
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Each episode of “The 1619 Project” feels like a conversation as well as a collection of personal essays. It is an educational memoir of Black America.
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Anyone who follows the news will be familiar with many issues the series addresses, which makes some episodes feel a bit remedial. But at its best, The 1619 Project makes astute—and highly personal—connections between the antebellum and pre-civil-rights past, and a present in which Black Americans still disproportionately face police violence, workplace exploitation, and other forms of inequality.
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As constructed, it certainly doesn’t lack for ambition, which as a TV production turns out to be a source of weakness as well as its strength, even among those willing to hear it.
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Hannah-Jones’ skill with interview subjects and her deftness at drawing small but crucial connections are both so strong that I came to yearn for her to craft a narrative less sweeping — to capture America, for a moment longer, through any of the individual threads she so ably pursues, without the obligation of trying to fit it all within a worthy but increasingly massive project.
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Hulu’s The 1619 Project remains cogent, smartly argued and persuasive, but in failing to sufficiently adjust its storytelling to the visual demands and possibilities of TV, it fails to make itself essential. ... In this medium, the game was already changed — showrunner Shoshanah Guy worked on Netflix’s High on the Hog, another probably superior predecessor — and The 1619 Project is just a participant.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 3 out of 19
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Mixed: 0 out of 19
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Negative: 16 out of 19
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Feb 20, 2023Pure work of fiction. This does a disservice to the viewer and its target audience.
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Feb 6, 2023Wow I can’t believe this made it to the screen. Hollywood is embarrassing
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Jan 31, 2023Absolute lying, garbage, divisive woke trash from a race grifter! Complete and utter b.s!