Word: queenly
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...SHOW: QUEEN...
...Queen is not exactly a sequel to Roots (Roots: The Next Generations, all but forgotten, aired in 1979), but it is a fitting bookend. It is based on Alex Haley's account of the other side of his family, namely his paternal grandmother, who was the illegitimate daughter of a white plantation owner and his slave mistress. When Haley died last February, he was in the process of dictating the story to screenwriter David Stevens. Stevens has now fashioned it into a six-hour drama that John Erman (An Early Frost) has directed and CBS, with much fanfare, will present...
...Queen has poignant moments, thanks largely to Halle Berry's delicate, deeply felt performance in the title role. But the mini-series seems both dated and distressingly up to date. It bears less resemblance to Haley's earlier epics than to a 1990s woman-in-jeopardy TV film, or maybe a Danielle Steel soap opera. Queen is the classic innocent heroine who embarks on a picaresque journey in which evil and injustice lurk around every corner...
...Queen eventually triumphs, of course, thanks to her pluck and the love of a good man (Danny Glover). All of which would be more inspiring if it weren't for the florid melodrama and tinhorn dialogue. The villainous racists do everything but twirl their mustaches. The shallow plantation wives are cliches of another sort: "If it were not for the slave girls," says one, excusing the menfolk's sexual dalliances, "we women would have to submit to our husbands whenever they feel . . . healthy." The young Queen expresses her romantic outlook in sappy lines like "I want to marry a prince...
...Like Queen, Tyson grew up in a harshly segregated society (the Brownsville section of Brooklyn) and was taken in by a white father figure (trainer Cus D'Amato). Like Queen, Tyson had an emotional, childlike personality (in one clip he weeps in anxiety before a match at the Junior Olympics). His encounters with the outside world, like Queen's, leave him bitter and disillusioned. Says Tyson about the various promoters, managers and other gold diggers who fought over him: "My philosophy was, like, people basically suck...