SummaryThe limited series from Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick (who also narrates) examines the challenges Colin (Jaden Michael) faced as he grew up in California's Central Valley with his white adoptive parents (Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker).
SummaryThe limited series from Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick (who also narrates) examines the challenges Colin (Jaden Michael) faced as he grew up in California's Central Valley with his white adoptive parents (Nick Offerman and Mary-Louise Parker).
DuVernay and Kaepernick have crafted a hybrid docudrama limited series that is both personal and universal, educational and raw. It gets at the heart of how the general and the specific, family and country, obstacles and accomplishments all work together as the soil in which a person grows into themselves.
["Colin in Black & White"] tackles the depressing truth of discrimination inside and outside the world of sports. And it does so with a clever balance of YA humor, strategically deployed data — in a league that’s more than 70% Black, less than a third of the quarterbacks are — and an emotional authenticity that sheds light on who Kaepernick is today, and why he was willing to risk his career in the name of justice.
The message of overcoming adversity and prejudice behind Colin Kaepenick’s is timely. This message has been spoken a number of times through many lenses, but this retelling is necessary. While watching Kaepernick’s formative years through his own eyes, the brilliant acting of Jaden Michael, & the talented direction of Ava DuVernay I felt connected, torn apart, and yet hopeful for a brighter day. Thank you to Netflix and Kaepernick for sharing this story with the rest of us. Blessings on your continued work!
Colin in Black & White is an interesting, thought-provoking, and entertaining series. Because of Kaepernick's celebrity - and the reasons behind that celebrity - there's a certain expectation of what you're going to see. This isn't that story. It's targeted toward a much younger, less critical audience. Colin has a good deal of cartoonish characterizations, and heavy-handed dialogue that many older adults are likely to find tiresome. Still, the overall themes of social awareness, importance of community, and an attempt at explaining the effects of race and racism in America are undeniably important and significant in today's reality. The push to pursue personal truth through those parts of life that makes us happy, makes us love, makes us passionate, is a righteous and noble theme, worthy of portraying. Each person who views this series - child, teen, adults of all ages - will probably recognize something of themselves in Colin in Black and White. That along with an engaging, fully realized, and beautifully handled lead performance by Jaden Michael as the young Kaepernick, makes this a must see for teens, young adults, and those who need to know the reality of race relations in America. In that regard it's well worth a look. And for those adults who may be a bit more jaded when it comes to shows such as this ... watch it again and this time imagine you're a teen, just starting to make your way through a complicated maze of social dos & don'ts. Colin in Black and White can serve as a kind of primer of what young people can expect going through life. In one way this is illuminating. In another way it's a bit of a slog to be reminded that race continues to be an issue in American culture ... so get prepared now because it's not going to go away any time soon. Colin lends itself to being viewed as an adult with all our current baggage blocking any real appreciation of the series, or as a young adult/teen where one hopes the viewer will enjoy the YA drama and at the same time leave with its important life lessons firmly rooted and able to grow in each viewer.
It occasionally sometimes stumbles in trying to do too much. Yet the moments when the story and the sociopolitical commentary blend perfectly are fantastic — and suggest just as much possibility as Kaepernick’s QB play at his best.
Buried inside the loose folds of Colin in Black & White is a lean, sharp-edged polemic about the American sports-industrial complex. As it stands though, this series stumbles some way short of the end zone.
“Colin in Black and White” can feel sentimental and blunt in a way that feels as disparate as those two terms are. But there’s something highly watchable about it, particularly in young Colin’s narrative.
Colin Kaepernick possesses greater gifts as an athlete and activist than as a TV personality, which becomes apparent watching "Colin in Black & White," a series that -- much like NBC's "Young Rock" -- revisits a famous person's early life, here by awkwardly mixing documentary and dramatic elements.
very well acted particularly by the young Colin played by Jaden Michael. The kid is very likeable. A lot of interesting points made about incipient and subtle racism. A little heavy handed and obvious at times. The parents seem a little too oblivious but seem well meaning and loving. Certainly well worth seeing.
Imagine working for a shoe company that uses near slave and child labor to make their products and still having the audacity to compare the NFL combine to the slave trade.