Did John Brown, the infamous abolitionist who led the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, really take a cross-dressing teenage slave under his wing and name him Onion? No, not at all. “The Good Lord Bird,” which never purports itself as a true retelling, opens each episode with the tagline “All of this is true. Most of it happened.” Usually playing with the past, especially with a history as traumatizing as America’s original sin, slavery, can quickly go left.

Continue reading ‘Good Lord Bird’: Ethan Hawke Is Delightfully Unhinged In Showtime’s New Abolitionist Series [Review] at The Playlist.