EPISODE 1.1
4 October 2020
Meet the Lord
The Good Lord Bird: Season 1
From Ethan Hawke, a limited series adaptation of the 2013 James McBridge novel, winner of the National Book Award. An enslaved teenager (Joshua Caleb Johnson-Lionel) becomes a member in abolitionist John Brown’s (Hawke) motley crew during the Bleeding Kansas era before the Civil War. They would eventually participate in the 1859 raid on the Army depot at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Brown's raid failed to initiate the slave revolt he intended, but was the instigating event that started the American Civil War.
2020USAShowtime
Drama
Reviews & comments
Vulture
pressSpeaks to the present as well as the past. This is one of the most thoughtful and surprising series of an already impressive year: a historical epic of real vision.
Slant Magazine
pressWhen it works, especially at the start, The Good Lord Bird invigorates its material with the rousing trappings of a semi-comedic western that gives it a particularly memorable sort of power.
Variety
press“The Good Lord Bird,” Showtime’s new limited series about Brown and his mission, percolates with quirky and strange energy, overflowing with its sense of America as a place defined by its oddity.
RogerEbert.com
pressAnchored by a truly remarkable performance from Ethan Hawke, “The Good Lord Bird” is smart, entertaining television that doesn’t highlight or underline its timeliness or messages as much as it allows the viewers to do half the work.
Vanity Fair
pressThe miniseries is good—at times, great. But Hawke is beyond great; he is incandescent.
Rolling Stone
pressIt’s startling how many laughs Hawke generates — and, for that matter, how funny The Good Lord Bird is as a whole, given its subject matter. Hawke, Richard, and their other collaborators (among the directors: Albert Hughes, Kevin Hooks, and Haifaa Al-Mansour) have managed to retain the satirical spirit of McBride’s book.
Hollywood Reporter
pressSeven hours of The Good Lord Bird left me both clear-eyed about John Brown as a historical figure and curious to learn more. Above all, it left me with zero doubts about Hawke’s ever-evolving talent.
Vulture
pressSpeaks to the present as well as the past. This is one of the most thoughtful and surprising series of an already impressive year: a historical epic of real vision.
Slant Magazine
pressWhen it works, especially at the start, The Good Lord Bird invigorates its material with the rousing trappings of a semi-comedic western that gives it a particularly memorable sort of power.
Variety
press“The Good Lord Bird,” Showtime’s new limited series about Brown and his mission, percolates with quirky and strange energy, overflowing with its sense of America as a place defined by its oddity.
RogerEbert.com
pressAnchored by a truly remarkable performance from Ethan Hawke, “The Good Lord Bird” is smart, entertaining television that doesn’t highlight or underline its timeliness or messages as much as it allows the viewers to do half the work.
Vanity Fair
pressThe miniseries is good—at times, great. But Hawke is beyond great; he is incandescent.
Rolling Stone
pressIt’s startling how many laughs Hawke generates — and, for that matter, how funny The Good Lord Bird is as a whole, given its subject matter. Hawke, Richard, and their other collaborators (among the directors: Albert Hughes, Kevin Hooks, and Haifaa Al-Mansour) have managed to retain the satirical spirit of McBride’s book.
Hollywood Reporter
pressSeven hours of The Good Lord Bird left me both clear-eyed about John Brown as a historical figure and curious to learn more. Above all, it left me with zero doubts about Hawke’s ever-evolving talent.
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