Over the past few days, as protests have gripped the nation after the death of George Floyd and police abolition has become a seriously discussed possibility, folks have rushed to Netflix in droves to watch...The Help. Per the streamer, the Oscar-winning film is currently one of the most-watched movies on its service. Millions of people are, apparently, getting their fix of wokeness from this controversial 2011 drama, based on the novel about a white woman who told the stories of African American maids working and living through the civil rights movement.
The streaming stat was quickly met with derision on social media over the weekend, because watching The Help to understand racism is about as useful as, say, watching The Help to understand racism. It’s simply not going to do the trick! Setting aside its plot—which hinges on the actions of an archetypal white savior—the film, which earned $217 million at the global box office and a best-supporting-actress Oscar for Octavia Spencer, has a controversial backstory; Ablene Cooper, the real-life maid who inspired Viola Davis’s character, filed a $75,000 lawsuit against The Help author Kathryn Stockett after the film was released, calling the portrayal “embarrassing” and claiming her likeness was used without her permission. The suit was eventually dismissed by a Mississippi judge. Davis has also distanced herself from the film over the years, calling it one of her career regrets.
“I just felt that at the end of the day that it wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard,” she told the New York Times in 2018—though Davis added that her issues were with the film itself, not the experience of working with her costars and director Tate Taylor.
Clearly, this resurgence proves that people need a guide for what to watch on Netflix in order to contextualize the revolutionary period we’re currently living through—movies and TV series that are not The Help. Here are a few other, much more helpful suggestions.
13th
Ava DuVernay’s 2016 Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary is a must-watch (and is currently available for free on Netflix’s YouTube). It’s a rigorous deep dive on our country’s broken prison system, contending that the 13th Amendment—which abolished slavery—led directly to racist carceral practices. The documentary includes interviews with activists and academics like Angela Davis, lawyer Bryan Stevenson, and Henry Louis Gates, among others, whose insight will, hopefully, lead viewers on a deeper path to learn more about racial injustice.
When They See Us
While you’re at it, you may as well watch DuVernay’s trenchant miniseries about the Exonerated Five, formerly known as the Central Park Five. The four-episode drama revolves around Steve Lopez, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise, five teenagers who were falsely accused and charged with assaulting and raping Trisha Meili, a white woman who was jogging in Central Park. The series delves into the legal battle and how their lives were forever impacted because of brutal, racist police and legal tactics.
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June 09, 2020 at 12:13AM
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What to Watch on Netflix Instead of ‘The Help’ - Vanity Fair
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