In an attempt have a better life of freedom, a group of courageous slaves, who under the leadership of a courageous slave, Noah, leave Macon Plantation, to the underground Railroad, risking their life, as they struggle against survival.
It is hard to imagine a more inherently gripping premise than escaping slaves, but Underground tosses in pop music, lurid sex scenes, and a breakneck pace, undermining its own ambition.
Underground seems to have hit the sweet spot between quality and commercial potential, and between being respectful of the time it's depicting while finding a way to function as ongoing entertainment.
The characters of the slaves are sharply drawn, the action riveting and the mood not always grim. Hodge and Smollett-Bell are magical together. All that makes Underground an important series that doesn't feel like medicine going down.
Underground is a thriller, an adventure yarn, before it's a Brussels sprouts message drama. Perhaps that's why Underground may not find itself an Emmy contender, but why it ought to be able to attract an enthusiastic audience.
It's an escape drama... with all the tension and action-show drama that comes with it. But it's also about the lives of African-American slaves in the antebellum American South...
