Self Made (2020)

I was excited about this miniseries, but overall, it didn’t live up to expectations for me. It’s a shame – this is the story of an interesting real-life person who accomplished a lot in her life, but despite a talented cast and some strong production design, I came away feeling let down.

Sarah, the future Madam C.J. Walker, finds renewed strength and confidence in herself when she meets Addie Munroe, a door-to-door entrepreneur selling “miracle hair grower” for Black women. When her hopes of working alongside Addie are dashed, Sarah goes into business for herself, going on to build an empire of Black haircare products and salons.

We’ll start with what I like. The bare bones of the story is lovely, a woman who makes a name for herself through herculean levels of hard work and determination, one whose eye for expansion and improvement never takes a day off, and one who helps many other Black women raise their circumstances along the way. I really like how Sarah/Madam C.J. recognizes the importance of haircare products catering specifically to Black women, knowing from experience how Black hair can be damaged without appropriate care and how prejudiced ideals of beauty hold Black women back if they’re not deemed to look “respectable” by society at large. For a Black woman, healthy hair can be key to opening up opportunities, and beyond that, Madam C.J. herself becomes a major employer of Black women as her business expands, hiring workers to sell her products, run her salons, and more. Another major theme is colorism – as much as Madam C.J. is aware that Black women need to look a certain way to get ahead, she’s mindful of not equating that the look with whiteness. She wants all Black women to look and feel beautiful, not just light-skinned women with “good hair.”

I appreciate any period piece that depicts Black people outside the context of slavery, Jim Crow, or the Civil Rights movement, because there just aren’t enough projects that venture beyond those topics. This miniseries takes place across several states in the early 1900s, and we’re treated to glimpses of other prominent African Americans of the day like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, along with some terrific sequences set in Harlem. I love seeing Madam C.J., and especially her adult daughter Lelia, getting a taste of Harlem life and the sense of possibility that permeates it. It’s an ideal setting for Madam C.J.’s vision, because it’s a place where it feels more possible for all shades and textures of Black beauty to be celebrated. The clothing, hairstyles, and production design here are gorgeous.

Unfortunately, for my money, the scripts hamper what could’ve been a really neat miniseries. There’s a self-conscious Oscar-bait feel to it (even though I suppose it would be vying for Emmys, not Oscars,) kind of slickly-polished and capital-I Important in a way that announces it rather than conveys it. But simultaneously, for all its gloss, the writing is a little haphazard, taking tangents that either don’t go anywhere or have little payoff. There are also some weird flourishes that don’t quite work for me, recurring fantasy sequences in individual episodes (ex: Madam C.J. imagining herself in a boxing match against Addie) that come across as more self-indulgent than artistic.

There are a lot of great people in the cast, but again, I think the material they’re given here does them no favors, and no one is as effective as I’ve seen them in other roles. On paper, Madam C.J. Walker is a great fit for Octavia Spencer, and I’d would loved to see what she would’ve done with the part under different circumstances. Tiffany Haddish is enjoyable as Lelia, and her overall storyline is probably my favorite in the miniseries. Blair Underwood and Carmen Ejogo (who I recognize best as President Picquery in the Fantastic Beast movies) both do what they can, but their roles – Madam C.J.’s husband and Addie Munroe – are both underwritten.

Warnings

Violence (including domestic violence and attempted rape,) language, sexual content, drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.