Roots - The Next Generations

Buy This Item Roots - The Next Generations by Warner Home Video  Available from Amazon  $33.49  on 11-26-2008     Could there be a worthy follow-up to the most-watched miniseries ever? "We felt the other did so well," Alex Haley said, "that we should just let it hang there." But Haley began carrying around a tape recorder, dictating more of his family's tales as they came to his memory. Those remembrances filled a 1,000-page transcript: raw material for Roots: The Next Generations. Winner of the Emmy for Best Limited Series, this landmark continuation of a landmark event - with 53 stars and 235 speaking parts - "is in many respects a superior achievement," Newsweek said in comparing this to Roots. Twenty-five years later, it has lost none of its dramatic and emotional power to make us confront history and examine ourselves. One man's family remains everyone's! Reader Reviews I recently watched ROOTS, the original because when I saw it as a child, I really didn't understand what I was watching. After I watched it, I was deeply moved by what black people had gone through. I was anxious to learn of the lives of Chicken George and the family, AFTER they were set free so I purchased ROOTS: The Next Generations. I wasn't as impressed with this version. I found the casting to be questionable. A child would have coarse hair and dark skin and 20 years later would grow up with "good hair" and light skin. Haley, as a child was cast as a light skinned boy with "good hair" and grew up to be a dark-skinned man with coarse hair. The casting was distracting. Because of poor casting, I found it difficult to keep up with the story of various individuals. You go to watch the next segment and ask yourself: who the heck is that and HOW can that person be the same person as before. Another prime example is Bertha Palmer. As a child, she was dark-skinned with coarse hair. She grew up to be light-skinned with "good hair." Another problem I had with the movie is the number of characters and storylines. There were entirely too many. Although many of the characters connected to the Palmers/Haleys/Kintes in some way, there simply was not enough time to address everybody. For instance, the Warners really were a family I was interested in, but after Frank Warner became a doctor, we never heard from the family again. Did Ms. Warner (the mother-in-law) ever come to accept Frank? Was there a relationship at all with the Warners and Carey (the black wife) or her husband? Why introduce us to the Warners and not follow up? Well, the answer to the question is here: Basically, Haley then started to discuss Simon Haley's involvement in the military. I didn't find this part of the story interesting at all. The point was to show the lack of racial separation in the military. Instead, it came across as filler. Another character I liked and who was not fully explored was Elizabeth. Elizabeth Palmer was Bertha Palmer's sister. She ended up unmarried because her father forbade her from marrying a mulatto. I heard them say she was teaching in Arkansas and then Oklahoma, but the depth of her life was largely left unaddressed. My point is that he introduced us to these characters, we took an interest, just when the interest peaks, he stops all mention of these people to introduce filler to the storyline. Among this filler, however, he failed to tell us what Bertha Palmer Haley did with her college degree. I assumed she just was a stay at home mom. Other reviewers seem to indicate that she was a teacher in Henning, TN. Anyway, after a while the story just seemed too long and because it concentrated so much on Alex Haley it really should have been separated out. Basically, it should have been ROOTS, ROOTS post-slavery, THEN the biography OF ALEX HALEY. I will keep ROOTS for my future generations, but I don't think I will be watching or keeping ROOTS, the next generations.

Roots - The Next Generations Available from Amazon Price: $33.49 Updated on 11-26-2008.

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