'The Confessions of Frannie Langton' Is Precisely the Kind of Period Drama We Need More Of

It's possible, perhaps even likely, that you haven't heard of the period drama The Confessions of Frannie Langton, which arrives on BritBox in early March. But this four-part series may be one of the best shows — of any genre — you'll see on television this year.

A story that's one part murder romance, one part historical drama, and one part murder mystery with a heaping dose of Gothic vibes on top, The Confessions of Frannie Langton does much more than simply cross genres to tell its story. It works to completely upend our ideas about what sorts of stories these kinds of shows should be telling in the first place, firmly putting marginalized characters at the center and wrestling with complex philosophical themes.

After all, it's a truth universally acknowledged that period dramas all too rarely feature characters of color, to begin with — let alone cast them in leading roles. Too many like to pretend that characters from marginalized or oppressed groups didn't exist in everyday life of history. Black characters too often only exist in slave stories, which are almost always tragedy porn. These tales hyper-focus on violence, suffering, and misery, as though the most interesting thing about their lives was that they were enslaved. Frannie Langton aims to change all that, giving us a heroine who, yes, is a former slave but also a woman with agency and desires of her own, full of joy, rage, and love.