The Red Line tackles institutional racism in a way that feels like The Wire meets - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 04-29-2019, 02:07 AM

...This Is Us

https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/the-...bs-review.html

There is a human touch to the way the eight-part limited series from Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti focuses on institutional racism, says Matt Zoller Seitz. "CBS’ description of The Red Line, an eight-part mini-series about the aftermath of a police shooting in Chicago, makes it sound like an urban layer-cake drama about systemic racism and institutional failure, in the vein of The Wire (or, more accessibly, CBS’ The Good Wife)," he says. "And to an extent, that’s what it is. But it’s also a series in the mode of This Is Us, complete with massive contrivances central to all of the major story lines, and regular, tying-up-loose-ends montages that are lyrically photographed and set to pop songs guaranteed to make you cry even if you hear them faintly from the next room. There’s quite a bit of clunky narrative hand-holding that feels as if it were foisted on the series via network notes — people describing where they’ve just been and what was discussed in the previous scene, etc. Turns out The Wire meets This Is Us is a rather satisfying sweet spot."

ALSO:

Despite The Red Line's flaws, it's the kind of show the broadcast networks should have the guts to do more frequently
The Red Line is so underwhelming, it allows its vigorous messaging to overwhelm the storytelling
The Red Line is clunky and heavy-handed, but Noah Wyle delivers a must-see performance
Noah Wyle got involved in The Red Line thanks to a failed CBS pilot about a whistleblower: "Doing that pilot got my mind around the idea of doing an interesting story on network again"

04-29-2019, 02:07 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,403	The Red Line tackles institutional racism in a way that feels like The Wire meets ...This Is Us https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/the-...bs-review.html There is a human touch to the way the eight-part limited series from Ava DuVernay and Greg Berlanti focuses on institutional racism, says Matt Zoller Seitz. "CBS’ description of The Red Line, an eight-part mini-series about the aftermath of a police shooting in Chicago, makes it sound like an urban layer-cake drama about systemic racism and institutional failure, in the vein of The Wire (or, more accessibly, CBS’ The Good Wife)," he says. "And to an extent, that’s what it is. But it’s also a series in the mode of This Is Us, complete with massive contrivances central to all of the major story lines, and regular, tying-up-loose-ends montages that are lyrically photographed and set to pop songs guaranteed to make you cry even if you hear them faintly from the next room. There’s quite a bit of clunky narrative hand-holding that feels as if it were foisted on the series via network notes — people describing where they’ve just been and what was discussed in the previous scene, etc. Turns out The Wire meets This Is Us is a rather satisfying sweet spot." ALSO: Despite The Red Line's flaws, it's the kind of show the broadcast networks should have the guts to do more frequently The Red Line is so underwhelming, it allows its vigorous messaging to overwhelm the storytelling The Red Line is clunky and heavy-handed, but Noah Wyle delivers a must-see performance Noah Wyle got involved in The Red Line thanks to a failed CBS pilot about a whistleblower: "Doing that pilot got my mind around the idea of doing an interesting story on network again"