Self-Made

[osprey_archer]

asakiyume and I watched the miniseries about Madam C. J. Walker, Self-Made, sometime near the beginning of social distancing - as time has lost all meaning, I can't be more accurate than that - and I've been procrastinating about writing it up ever since, because it falls in that in-between area where I neither loved it nor hated it, and therefore it's hard to write about.

Madam C. J. Walker's haircare company for black women got its start in Indianapolis, which means that she was on the list of famous Hoosiers when I did Indiana history in fourth grade: Madam C. J. Walker was the first self-made African-American female millionaire. The title of the miniseries refers both her status as a self-made millionaire, but also to the way that her product allowed black women (and Madam C. J. Walker herself) to fashion their own identities, their own selves.

I loved one conceit that ran through the first three episodes (they dropped it in the fourth and final episode, for some reason), where the show took some aspect of African-American history/pop culture from the early twentieth century - boxing, the New Negro Woman (a light-skinned black woman riding a bicycle, Gibson-Girl style), a chorus line - and used it as a sort of extra-diegetic commentary on what's going on in the episode. Madam C. J. Walker is not literally having a boxing match with her business rival: it's a representation of how their conflict is playing out in her mind.

I love it when movies or TV shows play with their formats like this, and I've never seen a show do something quite like this before, with this visual representation of the character's thoughts and feelings that also gives us extra insight into the cultural background and historical milieu the story is set in.

The costumes and sets are also beautiful, and it was fun to see a sumptuous costume drama with an all-black cast. (There are a few incidental white people, but IIRC all the main characters are black.)

I think the main drawback of the series is that I did not love the amount of time it spent on the divorce plotline. Madam C. J. Walker and her husband did historically divorce, so the show had to deal with it one way or another. I just don't personally enjoy stories about divorces, so I wish they had spent less time on it, and maybe more time finding Madam C. J. Walker's daughter Lelia a girlfriend who sticks with her... but again they may have been hamstrung by history in this department.

Comments

[kore]

I just read a really gutwrenching article about it by the woman who wrote the biography: https://theundefeated.com/features/netflixs-self-made-suffers-from-self-inflicted-wounds/ It's like an absolute object lesson in how Hollywood can break your heart.

[osprey_archer]

In a way I find it especially sad because the television additions are exactly what reviewers complained about - so not only are those plot lines a departure from history, but they didn't even work on the level of *story*.

[marycatelli]

She was the first self-made African-American millionaire and the first self-made female millionaire. Both.

[asakiyume]

I was going to chime in with this, but you beat me to it!

[asakiyume]

Yeah, I liked the stuff relating to her growing the business and being a successful businesswoman and *not* the personal drama stuff so much. Loved the supporting family members. And like you, I really loved the gorgeous costumes and sets and the almost entirely African American cast.

[osprey_archer]

kore linked an article above that talks a little bit about the adaptation process. A'Lelia Bundles, who wrote the biography the miniseries is loosely based on, isn't too happy about the personal drama that got heaped into the story, either.

It's funny, because I feel filmmakers often add this sort of thing with the idea that it will appeal to viewers - but often times, that's exactly what I see viewers complaining about. Maybe the viewers who don't write TV reviews love it? Or maybe it's just one of those things where the givens in the film industry are out of touch with reality. Like "people won't watch female action stars!", when people have been watching female action stars since the 1910s.

[asakiyume]

It could also be the first thing, but I definitely think the second thing plays a big role.

[ancientreader]

"Diegesis" is a new concept to me, so apart from anything else, thank you for introducing me to it!

[osprey_archer]

I've read about non-diegetic sound before, but I've never seen non-diegetic visuals used quite like this before, so that was a lot of fun.

Also glad to see that you're back on your feet! Or at least back on the internet.

[lokifan]

I love it when movies or TV shows play with their formats like this, and I've never seen a show do something quite like this before, with this visual representation of the character's thoughts and feelings that also gives us extra insight into the cultural background and historical milieu the story is set in.

That's such a cool use of it! I like that kind of thing too. Much as the linked article from the biographer is sad :(

[osprey_archer]

I've read that the number of episodes in the series got more than halved partway through development, so I wonder if maybe there was more nuance that had to get cut because of the drastic time constraints. There's no way to know at this point, of course.