Netflix's 'Self Made' is a disappointing attempt at celebrating black excellence

It is despicably rare for historical television dramas to center their stories on black women.

When a TV show or film does focus on black history, it is often on narratives of slavery, Jim Crow, and other historical sufferings. These topics are well worth dramatizing, but when covered unyieldingly for decades as the only black histories on TV, they cement the false notion that the only black stories worth telling are those of bondage and oppression. They also tend to focus on men — great men, but men nonetheless.

Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker is based on a story of black excellence. That alone sets it apart from any other American period drama ever produced for television. It also centers the excellence of black women — the real Madam C.J. Walker was America’s first self-made female millionaire, a philanthropist, and the founder of a company that gave black women economic freedom in the form of independent jobs and income.

Her true story of unprecedented rags-to-riches success deserves to be told with all the pomp and glamour seen in costume dramas that exist with far less at stake. Self Made delivers none of that, and only gets worse as it goes on.

The best thing that could be said about Self Made on Netflix is that it appears to be the first draft of a miniseries that wouldn’t be good by draft five, but might have gotten a little better. Its writing is elementary and at times egregious, with characters repeating the same expository lines three times in one episode and barely keeping any of each episode’s nine plots moving forward.

The rest of the dialogue is a jumble of cliches, with cartoonish stock villains scheming to take the Walker Hair Company down while Octavia Spencer half-tries to add depth to Madam Walker’s interminable tirades about hope, hard work, and legacy.

For most of the actors, it’s not their fault that their performances fall flat. No one can elevate staid lines and platitudes to the point where they appear artful and necessary. Blair Underwood is good as Madam’s husband C.J. Walker, until his heel turn in the third act of the series, and Spencer has a few emotionally arresting scenes alongside Kevin Carroll as her lawyer Mr. Ransom.

The rest of Self Made is straight up miscast. Tiffany Haddish isn’t funny enough as Madam’s daughter Leila to justify her too-modern and out-of-place performance, Carmen Ejogo reads her villainous lines like a Maleficent impersonator, and the rest of the cast is easily slotted into one of many stock black stereotypes that have no place in a show that ostensibly intends to celebrate and uplift its characters.

The story of America’s first woman millionaire should look and feel as expensive as do stories about fictional Georgian-era sex workers or three generations of people being mean over dinner. Instead, the lack or mismanagement of Self Made’s budget is obvious onscreen. The costumes fit poorly, the minimal CGI is rough, and the wigs — how do you tell the story of a woman who founded a hair company and not shell out for decent wigs? The aura of cheapness feels out of place on Netflix and lasts until the final credits roll.

Self Made’s failures generate disappointment more than any other emotion. With each cringeworthy moment and flat line of dialogue, one can almost see the show become disappointed with itself. This isn’t how the Netflix audience should see Madam C.J. Walker’s story. It’s disheartening that Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker is a flop, and the rarity of seeing stories like Madam Walker’s on screen only makes the apparent lack of care put into its production even more disrespectful.

Perhaps one day, there will be so many stories about historical black women that Self Made can be viewed as a blip, or simply bad TV in a sea of bad shows. That day is not today, and it’s hard not to take Self Made’s complete ball drop as an insult. Better shows have been made about less important people, but Self Made comes nowhere near the excellence of its own subject.

Self Made: Inspired By the Life of Madam C.J. Walker is now streaming on Netflix.