History Series / Roots2016

* AssholeVictim: Kunta Kinte chokes Connelly to death with the latter's own gun. Considering Connelly was responsible for torturing Kunta at the end of Episode 1, however, it's especially hard to feel any sympathy for the overseer.

* AwfulWeddedLife: Tom and Patricia Lea's marriage is incredibly cold. He [[DomesticAbuse emotionally abused]] her for being infertile and raped [[spoiler:Kizzy]] within hearing distance of her. She eventually left him when his gambling habit grew out of control.

* BatmanGambit: Mr. Jewett wanted to buy Chicken George but Tom Lea wouldn't sell him, so he came up with a couple of schemes to get what he wanted.

* HateSink: Tom Lea is crude, ruthless, and petty. He emotionally abused his wife and rapes [[spoiler:Kizzy]], later growing irrationally possessive of her when she tries to find happiness with Marcellus. He ends up squandering the few PetTheDog moments he has with his son Chicken George by [[spoiler:holding him at gunpoint at the behest of his fellow whites and selling him off to an Englishman, keeping from his family for two decades.]] Not even the other slaveowners of the story have anything nice to say about him.

* PrisonShip: Kunta, his uncle, and dozens of other Africans are chained together and crammed into the cargo hold of a slave ship where they have to endure the middle passage, [[AuctionOfevil before sold of to plantation owners on the Marryland coast.]]

* AdaptationNameChange: Tom Lea was named Tom Moore in the book.

* HeroicBSOD: After having half his foot cut off by fugitive slave hunters, Kunta comes to the sad realization that he will never again see Juffre, or his family, ever again and resigns to being a slave for the rest of his life, and becomes distant to everyone else, including Fiddler and Belle, who had been nursing his wound. Sometime later, he decides to make the best of the situation, and after thanking Belle for staying by his side and nursing him back to health, he decides to ask her to marry him and even starts a family with her.

* ArchnemesisDad: Tom Lea eventually becomes this to [[spoiler: Chicken George]].

* {{Irony}}: While being driven about town by his slave, Kunta Kinte, Dr. Waller celebrates the end of the [[TheAmericanRevolution Revolutionary War]] by proclaiming "Long live freedom, boys!"

* TokenMinority: During the [[TheAmericanRevolution Revolutionary War,]] among the runaway slaves that join the British Army in exchange for their freedom, is a Native American who wants the colonists to stop encroaching on his land.

* TokenMinority: During the Revolutionary War, among the runaway slaves that join the British Army in exchange for their freedom, is a Native American who wants the colonists to stop encroaching on his land.

* SexSlave: [[spoiler:Kizzy]] is repeated raped by her master for many years, starting the very first night she was brought to his farm.

''Roots (2016)'' is a MiniSeries based on Alex Haley's novel ''Roots: The Saga of an American Family'' and TheRemake of [[Series/{{Roots}} the 1977 original miniseries]]. Much like the original, the remake tells the story of Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka Muslim warrior who was enslaved and brought to America. From there, the plot focuses on how he and his descendants struggled with coping with slavery from the beginning of the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution American Revolution]] to the end of the Civil War. While the series largely draws from Haley’s novel, the remake focuses on a contemporary perspective and incorporates new facts regarding Kunta Kinte’s life that were discovered since the premiere of the original miniseries.

''Roots (2016)'' is a MiniSeries based on Alex Haley's novel ''Roots: The Saga of an American Family'' and TheRemake of [[Series/{{Roots}} the 1977 original miniseries]]. Much like the original, the remake tells the story of Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka Muslim warrior who was enslaved and brought to America. From there, the plot focuses on how he and his descendants struggled with coping with slavery from the beginning of the UsefulNotes/AmericanRevolution to the end of the Civil War. While the series largely draws from Haley’s novel, the remake focuses on a contemporary perspective and incorporates new facts regarding Kunta Kinte’s life that were discovered since the premiere of the original miniseries.

''Roots (2016)'' is a MiniSeries based on Alex Haley's novel ''Roots: The Saga of an American Family'' and TheRemake of [[Series/{{Roots}} the 1977 original miniseries]]. Much like the original, the remake tells the story of Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka Muslim warrior who was enslaved and brought to America. From there, the plot focuses on how he and his descendants struggled with coping with slavery from the beginning of the American Revolution to the end of the Civil War. While the series largely draws from Haley’s novel, the remake focuses on a contemporary perspective and incorporates new facts regarding Kunta Kinte’s life that were discovered since the premiere of the original miniseries.

* AdaptationalNameChange: Tom Lea was named Tom Moore in the book.

** Episode 3 has two major instances: [[spoiler: During Nat Turner's rebellion, the local militia attack the slaves at the Lea farm, forcing them to flee into the woods. Chicken George comes home to find all the cabins on fire and his family missing. Fortunately, they all eventually turn up alright. Later, at the end of the episode, Tom Lea loses a bet and sells George to an Englishman to cover his debts. George is forced to cross the Atlantic without knowing if he'll ever see his family again or what will happen to them in his absence]].
** Then in Episode 4 [[spoiler: Chicken George]] returns home after over two decades to find that his mother has died and his wife and children had been sold off. He later reunites with most of his relatives, but three of his children had been sold again and he never sees them again.
** Tom (not Tom Lea, George's son) saw his wife get raped by their master's son and was powerless to protect her. [[spoiler: This is why he agrees to help Nancy with her spying]].

** First, [[spoiler: he invited Lea to sit with him at Easter brunch knowing that the other aristocrats would provoke him into a duel. He hoped that Lea would get himself killed, but Lea ended up surviving]].
** Second, [[spoiler: he lured Lea into a cockfight with his English cousin, a fight he knew George would win. Then he had his cousin propose a bet that his rival couldn't afford and Lea took the bait. Then Jewett pulled out the big guns, and when George lost Lea had to sell him]].

* BrokenPedestal: Happens to Chicken George in regards to his master after [[spoiler: his master pulls a gun on him in paranoia and callously lets Mingo die. And even more so when he goes back on a promise to set George free]].

* ChildhoodFriend: Missy serves as this for Kizzy throughout most of Episode 2. [[spoiler: Sadly, Missy turns out to be a FalseFriend at the episode's end]].

* DisappearedDad: [[spoiler: Chicken George]], though not by choice. [[spoiler: He was sold to an Englishman and had to work for over twenty years to get his freedom so he could go home to his family. His children and grandchildren welcome him back with open arms; apart from Tom, though he eventually warms up to Chicken George too]].

* DuelToTheDeath: After an aristocrat insults him, Tom Lea attacks him and is challenged to a duel. He asks Chicken George to be his second. [[spoiler: In the end, both combatants are badly wounded, but the other man yields and they both live. According to Marcellus, Lea's rival Mr. Jewett arranged this hoping for Lea's death because he wouldn't sell him Chicken George]].

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Fiddler, the... fiddler. His real name is [[spoiler: Henry]], something he only shares with Kunta Kinte.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Fiddler dies protecting Kunta Kinte and his newborn daughter from slave patrollers]].
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: George's master Tom Lea promises to set him free if he wins a $10,000 cock fight, which he does. However, Lea takes an additional bet, loses, and sells George to cover his debt]].

** Tom Lea is actually surprised that Chicken George stopped being friendly toward him despite the fact that [[spoiler: Tom pulled a gun on him during the Turner Rebellion]].

** [[spoiler: Fiddler was Kunta Kinte's guide in America, and eventually dies protecting him and his daughter from white patrollers]].
** [[spoiler: Mingo, the one who taught George all about cockfighting, is savagely beaten by white militiamen who are angry about Nat Turner's revolt. Despite George's pleas to fetch a doctor, their master doesn't spare Mingo a second thought and he succumbs to his wounds]].
* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Nancy shoots her fellow spy, Jerusalem, to spare him a long, tortuous hanging. For that, she too is hanged]].

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Nancy and Jerusalem are spies for the Union. Nancy gets close to the Murray family so she can steal information about Confederate army. Eventually, they're both caught and executed]].

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Chicken George's father and son are both named Tom. One of his granddaughters is named [[spoiler: Kizzy]], after his mother.

* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler: Chicken George attempts to murder Tom Lea, his owner and biological father, for not sending a doctor to save his mentor, Mingo. His mother manages to talk him out of it]].

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: George gives a scathing one to [[spoiler: Tom Lea for going back on a promise to set him free, saying that he's just as worthless as the Southern aristocrats always said he was]].

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Kunta Kinte and Carlton desert the battlefield once they realize the British are sending slaves to die against heavily-armed American rebels. [[spoiler: This ultimately leads to Carlton being shot to death and Kunta Kinte losing half of his right foot.]]
* SexSlave: [[spoiler: Kizzy]] is repeated raped by her master for many years, starting the very first night she was brought to his farm.

* TokenGoodTeammate: For slave owners, Mr. and Mrs. Murray are pretty decent, especially in contrast to their {{Jerkass}} son Frederick. [[spoiler: Mr. Murray [[PetTheDog even wishes George's family luck]] when they decide to leave the plantation after being freed]].
** The teenage cabin boy does not look like he's enjoying his time onboard the slave ship. [[spoiler: One kind of feels bad when he's accidentally killed by the ship's captain during Kunta's failed slave revolt.]]

* WellDoneSonGuy: Chicken George is very fond of his master and seeks his approval. [[spoiler: That is, [[BrokenPedestal until his master turns on him]] during the Nat Turner Rebellion]].

** [[spoiler: Missy and Kizzy's friendship ends when Missy allows her uncle to sell Kizzy to another owner]].
** [[spoiler: Chicken George loved his master, Tom Lea, and [[WellDoneSonGuy wanted nothing more than to impress him]]. Until Nat Turner's rebellion. Lea becomes paranoid that George is going to betray him and orders him to chain himself up until they make it back home. And he allows another slave, Mingo, to die of injuries inflicted by overzealous white militiamen. After this incident, [[BrokenPedestal Chicken George finally sees what a disgusting, terrible man Lea is]]]].

** In the first episode alone, the PrisonRiot Kunta Kinte leads ends in the death of Uncle Silla and many other slaves. He later tries to escape Dr. Waller's plantation, only for him to be caught and brutally whipped by Connelly. It only gets worse for Kunta at the end of Episode 2, with an escape attempt from serving as British CannonFodder leading to his recapture [[spoiler: and amputation]], his ritual of naming his new baby girl [[spoiler: ending in Fiddler getting killed by patrollers]], and his attempt to raise a family with Belle [[spoiler: ending in his daughter being sold to Tom Lea]].

* TokenMinority: During the Revolutionary War, among the runaway slaves that join the British Army in exchange for their freedom, is a Native American who doesn't the colonists to keep encroaching on his land.

* BatmanGambit: Mr. Jewett wants to buy Chicken George but Tom Lea wouldn't sell him, so he came up with a couple of schemes to get what he wanted.

** Secondly, [[spoiler: he lured Lea into a cockfight with his English cousin, a fight he knew George would win. Then he had his cousin propose a bet that his rival couldn't afford and Lea took the bait. Then Jewett pulled out the big guns, and when George lost Lea had to sell him]].

* BrokenPedestal: Happens to Chicken George in regards to his master after [[spoiler: his master pulls a gun on him in paranoia and callously lets Mingo die. And even more so when he goes back on a promise to set Geroge free]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Cockfighting is a considered a gentlemanly sport and some sympathetic characters are involved in it, namely Chicken George (in fact that's where he gets his nickname), Mingo, and Marcellus. Nowadays they'd all be in prison for animal cruelty.

** [[spoiler: Fiddler was Kunta Kinte's guide in America, and eventually dies protect him and his daughter from white patrollers]].

* EtTuBrute: [[spoiler: Frederick Murray is ''livid'' to learn that Nancy was a Union spy and has her hanged]].

* HappilyMarried: Kunta and Belle, and later George and Matilda. Frederick and Nancy seem to be this, [[spoiler:except Nancy is an abolitionist spying for the Union. Once Frederick finds out, he brutally kills her not long after she grants Jerusalem a MercyKill.]]

* HappilyMarried: Kunta and Belle. George and Matilda. Tom and Irene.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** We never learn the final fates of Kunta Kinte and Belle.
** In-universe. Three of George and Matilda's children were sold by their second master and never reunited with their family.

* CallingTheOldManOut: George gives one to his father, Tom Lea, after being betrayed and sold by him 20 years earlier.

** In a previous scene in the same episode, we see a Southern aristocrat berate Tom for his poor spending, excessive drinking habit, as well as his Irish heritage. What causes Tom to [[BerserkButton lash out]] at the aristocrat,is when he lets him know that he prefers blacks to him.

** In a previous scene in episode 3, we see a Southern aristocrat berate Tom for his poor spending, excessive drinking habit, as well as his Irish heritage. What causes Tom to [[BerserkButton lash out]] at the aristocrat, when he lets him know that he looks up to blacks more than he does him.