Kindred Review: Mallori Johnson Shines In An Imperfect Adaptation Of Octavia Butler's Seismic Sci-Fi Novel
The story that drives "Kindred" is deceptively simple: Dana James (Mallori Johnson) is a modern-day Black woman who is violently yanked back in time to a pre-Civil War plantation. It doesn't take a genius to map out what comes next. Modern-day sensibilities will clash with antebellum-era subjugation, and though audiences will cringe away from the brutality, unwavering resilience will carry our protagonist through. Haven't we seen this narrative in all the agonizing iterations that came before?
But anyone with a passing knowledge of trailblazing sci-fi author Octavia Butler knows better than to assume simplicity. Her genre-bending novel made waves for its complexity, telling a story in which misery porn is not a requirement to communicate the horrors of slavery and Dana's fragility is every bit as true as her strength. Writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins assures that his eight-episode television adaptation, which was produced by FX and will stream on Hulu, follows suit. And while it may not succeed on every count, it never sways to the side of simplicity.
A purposeless present and a dangerous past
It's no coincidence that the time traveling begins just as Dana arrives in Los Angeles, ready to claim a future that is absolutely hers. The death of her grandmother is a tragedy, but it leaves the aimless 26-year-old in charge of the family home. Rather than accept the stability of her past, Dana chooses to forge a bright new future: selling the house, banking the cash, and moving to LA to pursue her new dream as a TV writer. To her relatives, it's yet another show of her instability — impulsive decision-making? An artistic career path that she has no experience in? She's dismissed outright, but Dana perseveres.
Support be damned, Dana has all the courage she needs to make her dream a reality. Except for the fact that she can't quite shake her past. So before she has a shot to move forward, Dana is violently yanked backwards — eventually waking to a nineteenth-century plantation, when aspirations for Black women were nonexistent.
It's not a one-and-done situation. Dana is repeatedly pulled between past and present, with no control over her travels. But one thing becomes abundantly clear: her ability has something to do with the plantation owner's son, young Rufus Weylin (David Alexander Kaplan), who frequently finds himself on the verge of death. Despite the insanity of the situation, Dana dutifully and empathetically answers the call. In doing so, she discovers a familial connection between herself and the Weylin plantation, setting her on a mission to uncover family secrets and make sense of her purpose in both the past and present.
Mallori Johnson makes a stunning debut
The series walks a fine line that will no doubt ask a big question: Is "Kindred" downplaying the cruelty of slavery? How is Dana not whipped seconds after making eye contact with the white man in charge? Across its eight episodes, the series explores the depths of the twisted relationship between master and slave. The subjugation of this series is certainly harrowing, but never needlessly traumatic. Plantation owner Thomas Weylin (an effectively temperamental Ryan Kwanten) fancies himself paternalistic, a benevolent owner, and even a sort of friend, as though owing the Black workers is a favor to them. Make no mistake (they certainly don't), in his eyes, they are his property through and through.
Without a doubt, Dana is the series' greatest success. The first episode is impeccably directed by Janicza Bravo ("Zola"), who establishes an unsettling atmosphere as Dana stumbles between two realities. As the series progresses, the shuffle of characters and storylines leaves that potency behind, straying from Dana into the lives of the much less compelling Weylins, among others. But when we return to Dana's crisis, to watch her grapple with the trauma she works so hard to suppress, that is where the series thrives. Johnson's performance paints a portrait of a beautifully complex woman. Far from infallible, she is often so caught up in her own grief that she fails to recognize that of those around her.
But it's one thing for Dana to make this mistake and another for it to be a fundamental flaw of the series. Beyond Dana and her initially single-minded goal, there is much at stake for those without the luxury of leaving the plantation. While Dana is pulled back and forth, flitting in and out of time, others are sold and killed but rarely given the substance they deserve. The weight of history is heavy and where Butler's novel stood strong, this adaptation buckles beneath it.
Many complicating factors
It's worth noting that Dana is not alone in her travels. Caught up in her mess is a white man she barely knows, who goes from one-night-stand to her companion through time. Kevin (Micah Stock) initially seems like the worst kind of tag-along — clueless, clumsy, and constantly leaning on Dana for support. Is the woman not carrying enough on her shoulders?! Their dynamic is primed to get really tiresome, really quickly — even Dana seems to grow weary of his presence — but Jacobs-Jenkins glides past that possibility with their dire circumstances.
In the present, Kevin is just the cute waiter she spent a single night with (despite his occasional habit of putting his foot in his mouth). But once her travels begin in earnest, he's a saving grace in more ways than one. First, he's living, breathing assurance that she isn't going crazy. And in a very visceral sense, he's the only thing keeping her from being thrown to work (or worse) on the Weylin plantation. Unintentionally, they assume the disguise of master and slave (a terrible second-date dynamic). And though the stresses of the past accelerate their relationship, they don't change the fact that they barely know one another.
The interracial romance — obviously complicated by the time travel at hand — is one of the more interesting threads throughout the series. Then there are the others: the Weylin family drama, the revelations of Dana's past, the conflict that emerges with her aunt, and the fact that her very nosy new neighbors are obsessed with her strange disappearances. They have potential, but next to the internal turmoil that bubbles inside of Dana, they don't stand a chance. Johnson's character is our beacon through time.
"Kindred" premieres on December 13, exclusively on Hulu.