What is it? Finding Your Roots, Season 4, 10 episodes on three discs from PBS
How much? $39.99
When? Now
Does this have to do with genealogy? It does indeed.
In this PBS series hosted by Henry Louis Gates, famous people from the worlds of entertainment, politics and the media learn about their ancestors and where they come from.
Each episode features two or three guests. Gates and a team of geneticists, historians and genealogists explore the guests' family histories to fill in blanks or uncover whole, unknown branches. Gates presents that information to the celebrities in a sit-down interview. A whole raft of mixed emotions inevitably follows.
The celebrities are grouped by common threads. For instance, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd and John Turturro learn about the difficulties their immigrant ancestors faced. Political violence shaped the predecessors of Lupita Nyong'o, Carmelo Anthony and Ana Navarro. And Tea Leoni (whose mother was adopted) and Gaby Hoffman (who had little contact with her father) learn the answers to family mysteries.
The series also puts the findings in context with the culture and history of the country at large, so this has a much broader scope than simple family stories.
Isn't there another show like this? Yes, there's Who Do You Think You Are?, renewed for its 10th season, which is also about celebrities exploring their family trees. This series is a little different, though.
While Who? has one celebrity per episode and follows that celebrity as he or she travels the country and the world visiting historic sites and archives, in this show, there are multiple subjects who all stay put. Gates presents them with the finished product, a "Book of Life," and the full story, as much as they've been able to uncover. The detective work is explained, but we are the experts doing it.
Is it any good? Yes. If you have any interest in genealogy, history or the people involved, it's a fascinating show. The methods and procedures out there may not be available to everyone -- the genetic testing done for Leoni and Hoffman, for example, is probably not cheap -- but watching may spur the audience to take an interest in their own family histories.
Gates makes a scholarly, likable host and it's interesting to see the guests sharing their personal histories and just chatting as themselves. Their excitement, happiness, sadness and, in some cases, dismay, humanizes people who are primarily known for the parts they play or an image they usually present.
New this week: Animal Kingdom, Season 2; Ben 10, Season 1, Volume 1; Broad City, Season 4; The Deuce, Season 1; Doctor Who, The Complete Peter Capaldi Years (Blu-ray); The Kids in the Hall, complete series; Mystery Science Theater 3000, Volume 7; The Sinner, Season 1; Three's Company, complete collection
New next week: Doctor Who, 2017 Christmas Special; The Master, complete series; Midnight, Texas, Season 1.
Style on 02/11/2018