美国国家公共电台 NPR BET Continues To Redefine Brand With Nelson Mandela Miniseries

 

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The centerpiece of the Black History Month programming on the cable channel BET is a miniseries called "Madiba." "Madiba" is a three-night special on the life of Nelson Mandela. It debuts² tonight. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans has this review.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE³: Laurence Fishburne has the kind of commanding presence that jumps off a movie or TV screen. So it's no wonder that BET drafted the man who once played Thurgood Marshall on Broadway to personify another civil rights hero, Nelson Mandela.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MADIBA")

LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (As Nelson Mandela) I have been called many things in my life, but perhaps they got it most right the first time. Rolihlahla - that was the name my parents gave to me. It means troublemaker⁴.

DEGGANS: Fishburne shows just how much trouble Mandela brought to South Africa's racially oppressive apartheid system in "Madiba." It's a comprehensive look at the leader's life. The title comes from his clan⁵ name, which was often used to refer to him with affection and respect.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MADIBA")

FISHBURNE: (As Nelson Mandela) Government keeps pushing and pushing and pushing, but they don't know our strength. They don't know the strength of the South African people.

(APPLAUSE)

DEGGANS: The miniseries comes off as a bit of an oversimplified primer on Mandela and the work by his African National Congress to dismantle⁶ apartheid. There are times when it can feel plodding⁷. The beefy Fishburne doesn't look a whole lot like Mandela, and there are an awful lot of scenes with people talking at each other.

But viewers do see Mandela progress from an attorney for victimized black South Africans to a nonviolent protester. Later, he becomes an advocate for the bombing of government buildings. Mandela's justification⁸ - the South African government directly inflicted⁹ violence on nonviolent protesters in a way the U.S. government did not do in America.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MADIBA")

FISHBURNE: (As Nelson Mandela) To oppose the armed might of the South African government with passive resistance requires a kind of sacrifice. It requires a level of courage that I no longer have. The fact is if the ANC believes in its vision, it must be prepared to fight for it.

DEGGANS: This is a major project for BET, which teamed with Mandela's grandson, Kweku Mandela, to create the six-hour miniseries. Stephen Hill, BET's president of programming, said "Madiba" is a progression from projects like it's 2015 miniseries on black people during the Revolutionary War, "The Book of Negroes," and its drama about a successful TV news anchor, "Being Mary Jane."

STEPHEN HILL: There's an emotional connection to the characters that we have to be careful to serve, right? That's what people think of "Being Mary Jane," and they see either themselves or their sister friends or someone else in it. "Book of Negroes" was a fantastic historical piece, you know, getting to a piece of history that people didn't necessarily know about.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NEW EDITION STORY")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, New Edition...

DEGGANS: BET's miniseries, "The New Edition Story," which aired just last week, broke ratings records. It drew 29 million viewers over repeated airings and topped social media as black Twitter weighed in.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE NEW EDITION")

NEW EDITION: (Singing) Candy girl, you are my world.

DEGGANS: The miniseries is part of an ambitious rollout of scripted shows on BET. Viewers of "The New Edition Story" saw ads promoting "Madiba." Now the channel has moved the debut¹ of its new drama about a historically black college, "The Quad," to air after "Madiba's" debut tonight. Overall, BET will air five high-quality scripted shows before the end of March, including "Rebel," a drama about the tension between black communities and the police from "Boyz N The Hood¹⁰" director John Singleton.

These are bold steps for a channel once known mostly as a home for music videos and talk shows. But if the quality and scope of "Madiba" is any indication, BET is on the right track, offering well-made shows with compelling stories about black life at a time when the audience's appetite has never been higher. I'm Eric Deggans.

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 debuts   

演员首次演出( debut的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He never really debuts the idea of taking money from his parents any longer. 他从此就再也没有认真起过向父母要钱的念头。
• This young soprano debuts next month at the metropolitan opera. 这位年轻的女高音歌唱家下个月将在纽约大都会歌剧院举行首演。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 troublemaker   

n.惹是生非者，闹事者，捣乱者

参考例句：

• I would hate you to think me a troublemaker.我不愿你认为我是个搬弄是非的人。
• Li Yang has always been a troublemaker.李阳总是制造麻烦。

5 clan   

n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派

参考例句：

• She ranks as my junior in the clan.她的辈分比我小。
• The Chinese Christians,therefore,practically excommunicate themselves from their own clan.所以，中国的基督徒简直是被逐出了自己的家族了。

6 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

7 plodding   

a.proceeding in a slow or dull way

参考例句：

• They're still plodding along with their investigation. 他们仍然在不厌其烦地进行调查。
• He is plodding on with negotiations. 他正缓慢艰难地进行着谈判。

8 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

9 inflicted   

把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
• Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。

10 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。