Review: 'Queen Sugar'

When it was announced that Oprah Winfrey had partnered with Discovery Communications to launch the cable network OWN, there were a lot of snarky jokes about the programming (or lack thereof) and the meager ratings for the first couple of years.

But what critics missed is that the network was ultimately targeting a well-to-do and currently under-served niche of the television landscape. African-American viewers who are looking for programming that represents their experiences and is more than just another VH1 reality show, broad and over-acted sitcom or drama set in the tough world of rap music.

OWN has slowly been rolling out an impressive lineup of original programs and the latest is "Queen Sugar," a dense and elegantly paced drama based on the 2014 novel by Natalie Baszile. Co-created by Oprah Winfrey and director-writer Ava DuVernay ("Selma"), "Queen Sugar" is a confident mix of familiar television drama topics dropped into a distinctive and original setting.

Shot in and around New Orleans, the show centers around a family of sugar farmers and what makes the show special is that it deals with its stories in a quietly emotional pacing that matches it roots in the Deep South. The stories themselves aren't all that unusual to the primetime TV drama genre: dealing with aging parents who want to remain independent, trying to raise a child as a single parent, struggling to decide if you should keep the family business going or move on. But it all unfolds in this quiet way that makes it seem more like a great Sundance independent film than a traditional television drama.

Much of the show's distinctive feel is due to DuVernay, who wrote the first two episodes of the season and made sure that a woman directed every episode. Like her film "Middle Of Nowhere," this show explores a point of view that rarely gets such careful attention on primetime television.

She has also assembled an impressive group of actors, beginning with Glynn Turman, who plays family patriarch Ernest. He suffers a stroke while working in his sugar fields and his illness brings his flock of scattered children back into his world. Charley Bordelon West (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) lives in Los Angeles with her basketball player husband Davis West (Timon Kyle Durrett). A sex scandal threatens his position as team captain and perhaps his career and she uses her father's stroke as an excuse to escape back to the family homestead.

Her siblings have struggles of their own that threaten to overwhelm them. Brother Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) is an ex-convict who has been raising his son on his own after the drug-addicted mom disappears from the scene. Sister Nova (Rutina Wesley) is a quirky investigative journalist who also does spiritual readings. The siblings don't have much in common and in fact harbor some long-standing grudges. But their father's illness and its impact on the family and the sugar business forces everyone to deal with some issues they'd just as keep tucked away.

In lesser hands, "Queen Sugar" could have been an overblown, over-acted primetime soap. But DuVernay has sheparded a show that is as good as any primetime drama you'll see on TV this fall. You hear a lot of whining from TV critics that there is "Too Much TV" and that the talent pool is being spread too thin. But "Queen Sugar" is a proof that there is always room for great television, no matter how much competition there might be.

"Queen Sugar" premieres September 6th at 10:00 p.m. on OWN.