The Best Period Pieces To Watch For Juneteenth

Watching a shift in societal mores usually happens at a glacial pace. One looks back after 25 years and discovers that the world has changed from one’s childhood, slowly, inexorably, mostly when one was doing other things. But the 2010s were not like that. The rise of social media, specifically Twitter, suddenly and loudly flattened the landscape, giving voices and opinions that were previously easily ignored — those of women and people of color — a megaphone. While those voices have struggled to effect change in politics and other places, in the entertainment sphere, a revolution has come, especially in the world of period drama.

The shift in the last decade is striking, when one looks at the most popular shows when Telly Visions started: Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Endeavour, the original casts of Grantchester and Call the Midwife, casts that haven’t a single person of color in them. Nowadays, that’s simply unthinkable. Even the mostly white Marie Antoinette included Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George, as a Black character.

However, some period dramas are more willing to explore Black characters and Black history fully than others. With Juneteenth falling on a Friday, let’s run down the best period-piece drama shows that include Black stories.