I expected Sterling K. Brown’s new show, Washington Black, which you can stream now with a Hulu subscription, to be a straightforward story of an enslaved man escaping bondage in the United States and finding freedom in Nova Scotia. It is that, but at least one episode in, it seems like it will be much more, and I can’t wait to keep watching.
There Is Some Light Magical Realism I Didn’t Expect At All
To be sure, the magical realism is subdued, but it makes for a very steampunk vibe at times that I really dig. The first episode of Washington Black, which stars Eddie Karanja as the younger titular character and Ernest Kingsley Jr. as the older version, reminded me at times of a great Jules Verne novel. Wash (as the character is known) is taken under the wing of his master’s brother, Titch (Tom Ellis, who is set to star in an upcoming FBI spinoff), an inventor in every 19th-century sense of the word. He’s building things with iron and powering them with steam, and attempting to invent a flying machine.
Wash is a precocious kid and Titch takes a liking to him and starts educating him in the ways of science and engineering. Wash inherently understands much of what he sees in Titch’s workshop, even fixing a device he’s never seen before, much to Titch’s amazement. When the show flashes forward to Wash in Nova Scotia, these lessons have paid off, and he is clearly very educated and working to carry on Titch’s attempts to build a flying machine.
There Is An Ominous Undertone, And I Think I Know Where It Is Headed
I’m already rooting for Wash and worried about his future. As it must have been for all the formerly enslaved people living in Halifax (where Emmy-nominee Sterling K. Brown is the group’s de facto leader), there is a sense of impending doom. A bounty hunter has arrived, looking for Wash, as he continues to work on his invention. Wash has also become smitten with another new arrival to town, Tanna (Iola Evans), so there is a budding love story happening at the same time.
Towards the end of the episode, Wash finds Tanna on the beach, where he has come to test his model airship. She is amazed by his work and encourages him to continue. I think this sets up how the show might end, with Wash escaping the clutches of the bounty hunter on his flying machine, and I can’t wait for it. Steam-powered flight was first achieved in the 1850s, some decades after the show's time period, so seeing a steampunk, Jules Verne-style airship at the end fits the light magical realism that I sense in the show.
If you haven’t watched Brown's second great show on the 2025 TV schedule, I would encourage you to do so. The set pieces and locations look amazing. It’s a much bigger production than I expected, as well. It takes viewers from the cane fields of Barbados to the brisk beaches of Nova Scotia (all shot on location), and I can’t wait to see where else it takes us.
