'Underground': A Vivid Saga of Slavery and Escape

A big-canvas portrait of slavery marked by moments of jolting energy, Underground is a skillfully agonizing new series about Civil War-era slavery and the underground railroad. Premiering on Wednesday night, it’s another solid achievement for WGN America, which is trying to establish itself as a destination channel for quality programming, following the artistic success of its atomic-bomb drama Manhattan. The show does a good job of quickly sketching in the lives of slaves who labor both inside and outside the mansion overseen by the loftily cruel owner Tom Macon, played by Reed Diamond. In its initial hours, much of the drama is centered around Noah (Straight Outta Compton’s Aldis Hodge), a slave who yearns for freedom with a passion that pegs him as a disruptive force, and Rosalee (Friday Night Lights’s Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a more quiet but just as rebellious slave whose work attending to the pampered white women on the house gives her access to information useful in a budding rebellion.