I still don't know how I feel about this, so right down the middle seems fair. Chapter 9 is a tour de force.. Jenkins' intimate and heartfelt direction: Britell's sweeping, melancholic, and dread-filled score: and Laxton's meticulous and caring eye, neglecting not one detail. All of this in service of the story they (as well as staff writer Crowther and, of course, author Whitehead's) tell. It could've been a feature film in of itself. That felt like the story Jenkins and co wanted to tell, the reason why they took on this project, the new spin they could offer on the miserable slave narrative.

It's a shame it's just one episode.

Nobody's coasting on this. It's artfully shot, the entire cast acts their heart out, most notably Mbedu, Jackson Harper, and Pierre. But for most of the series I just kept asking 'Why?' After a daring film like Moonlight exploring not just black love but gay black love with a tenderness and intimacy so rarely seen, why was this Jenkins' next project? The parade of trauma in all chapters besides 9 left me mostly exasperated or frustrated. They felt obligatory. You gotta hit your marks in your slavery story. And the last episode is fine, but fails to stick the landing. It fails to really tie everything together and justify itself. What was gained from Cora's arc? She's constantly trapped in her trauma, with every effort to move forward met with a shove back, and it makes the ending feel hollow. There's no catharsis or revelation when you're left feeling things are just going to go wrong again off screen.

But Chapter 9... what it has to say about black capitalism, about assimilation, about colorism, about whether to use the tools of the oppressors or to discard them to try and find our own path, and how nothing black can stay in America if it strays out of its place... it almost makes me wish it was a standalone piece. I can't regret watching the series, not when it gave me so much to think about. But ultimately, I'm left wishing I got more of what made me check out the series to begin with: Cora and Royal playfully flirting, calling each other pretty when they smile. In its own way, it felt just as revolutionary as Chapter 9, and something we need to see more of than any of the other litany of tragedies the series artistically displays.