TV Talk: Excellent 'The Good Lord Bird' premieres on Showtime

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

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Based on the National Book Award-winning novel by James McBride, Showtime’s adaptation of “The Good Lord Bird” (9 p.m. Sunday) proves to be as entertaining as it is tonally messy. But it’s acceptably messy – that’s part of its shaggy charm.

“The Good Lord Bird” is the story of true-to-history abolitionist John Brown (Ethan Hawke) as told through the eyes of a fictional enslaved boy, Henry “Onion” Shackleford (newcomer Joshua Caleb Johnson, who delivers a nuanced performance).

The story begins in Kansas as an orphaned Onion joins Brown’s family of abolitionist soldiers, which offers Onion a Forrest Gump-like right-place, right-time interaction with historical figures, including Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs, “Snowpiercer”), J.E.B. Stuart (Wyatt Russell) and Harriet Tubman (Zainab Jah) over the course of this seven-episode, close-ended limited series.

McBride’s novel drew comparisons to Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” upon its publication in 2013 and that carries through to the series. Each episode begins with an animated opening credits sequence set to Mahalia Jackson’s upbeat, jaunty gospel tune “Come on Children Let’s Sing.”

Sometimes “The Good Lord Bird” is an action- adventure. In other moments it delivers character-driven drama. And at other times it’s a satire and farce.

Upon meeting, Brown mistakes Onion for a girl. Onion is too terrified to correct Brown, so Onion spends the whole series wearing dresses and passing as a girl to most he encounters, although not escaped slave Bob (scene-stealer Hubert Point-Du Jour), who is wary of Onion’s lie. (While “The Good Lord Bird” develops Bob’s character, mostly through Point Du-Jour’s terrific performance as opposed to writing, most of the secondary characters, particularly Brown’s gang members, are underdeveloped.)

While Hawke is the star — he also co-created the series and co-wrote episodes with showrunner Mark Richard (“Hell on Wheels,” “Tyrant”) — thankfully his character is not always the focus. When he’s not bellowing scripture, Brown’s endlessly speechifying. Hawke delivers a rousing performance but Brown is a lot to take.

Onion comes to love Brown like a father figure but he also sees Brown’s faults, including that Brown is myopically, maniacally focused on ending the “wicked practice” of slavery, justifying any means (including indiscriminate decapitations) to an end.

And yet Brown’s cause is righteous and he displays genuine care for Onion so “The Good Lord Bird” has to walk a fine line in its depiction. Brown can’t just be a caricature. Producers wisely remove Brown from the stage for most of episode two, bringing him back in episode three for what’s largely a comedic farce, albeit one laced with tempering perspectives.

Episode two focuses on Onion and Bob separated from Brown in slave-trading Pikesville, Mo., as Onion navigates cross-dressing in a hotel full of prostitutes, including Pie (Natasha Marc), who Onion develops a crush on.

Episode three proves the highlight of the series as Brown and Onion travel to Rochester, N.Y., to meet Douglass, who appears to be part of a throuple and refers to Brown as a lunatic who brings more trouble than freedom. While it’s the series’ funniest episode, there’s also a dinner scene where Douglass pushes back on Brown’s methods as Brown schemes to raise a Black army in insurrection against the United States.

“As someone who has never lived in bondage, never been owned, never been savaged, never been used to death and then discarded,” Douglass says, “please, do not presume to tell me what a slave will or will not do!”

Hawke mesmerizes as Brown — excellent casting for a wild-eyed character — and Johnson brings a mix of a child’s innocence and a young man’s recognition of the craziness of the world around him to his sometimes heartbreaking performance as Onion.