S01:E01 Mother and Son

[AgentRXS]

 

Quote

Mamie Till Mobley, a young mother living a simple life in Chicago, begrudgingly lets her adventurous 14-year-old son, Emmett, go on vacation with his great uncle and cousins to Mississippi. Days after his arrival, tragedy strikes and Mamie is faced with a mother’s worst nightmare when her son goes missing.

Original Air Date: Jan 6, 2022

[DanaK]

There will be two episodes shown each week. 
 

For this week: “Mother and Son”: Mamie Till Mobley, a young mother living a simple life in Chicago, begrudgingly lets her adventurous 14-year-old son, Emmett, go on vacation with his great uncle and cousins to Mississippi. Days after his arrival, tragedy strikes and Mamie is faced with a mother's worst nightmare when her son goes missing

“Only Skin”: After receiving the call that her son was kidnapped by white men in Mississippi, Mamie rallies her community in Chicago to bring Emmett home. As a result, Mamie is thrust into the spotlight while facing unimaginable tragedy

 

[Spartan Girl]

My stomach is hurting so much watching Emmett get on that train and knowing what’s coming.

[CeeBeeGee]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

My stomach is hurting so much watching Emmett get on that train and knowing what’s coming.

Right? I kept thinking "don't get on the train...don't leave the farm...don't go over to the Bryant grocery store..." I couldn't even bear to watch half of it. What a terrible, terrible story. That poor kid.

[secnarf]

I thought the scene at the store was well done - details that we don’t know for sure were left ambiguous - but that dire music made it so much harder to watch. I would expect most if not all of the audience was already aware of the consequences of that  visit. I didn’t think the music was needed to convey that. 

[Spartan Girl]

I really don’t like how the show might be trying to give Carolyn Bryant a bit of a sympathy angle by showing how abusive her husband was. I’m sorry, but being a battered wife doesn’t excuse shit.

And pulling a gun on a child just because he may or may not have whistled at you?!?** Are you fucking kidding me?!? He’s 14, you’re an adult! Just ignore him!

**Granted, that detail may not have even happened, since it’s been disputed by the accounts of those present. She lied about everything else, so…

Edited January 11, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[AgentRXS]

2 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I really don’t like how the show might be trying to give Carolyn Bryant a bit of a sympathy angle by showing his abusive her husband was. I’m sorry, but being a battered wife doesn’t excuse shit.

And pulling a gun on a child just because he may or may not have whistled at you?!?** Are you fucking kidding me?!? He’s 14, you’re an adult! Just ignore him!

**Granted, that detail may not have even happened, since it’s been disputed by the accounts of those present. She lied about everything else, so…

Agreed. I don’t care what Carolyn was going through. She unnecessarily facilitated the murder of a child. Unforgivable. I read that she later lost a son of her own. I hope it opened her eyes to the pain and suffering Mamie went through because of her. 

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, AgentRXS said:

Agreed. I don’t care what Carolyn was going through. She unnecessarily facilitated the murder of a child. Unforgivable. I read that she later lost a son of her own. I hope it opened her eyes to the pain and suffering Mamie went through because of her. 

Considering how she's never owned up to what she had done, let alone apologized to the Till family, and is still living free, I doubt it.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Spartan Girl

[kirkola]

I don't think it's sympathy so much as context.  Carolyn Bryant lives in her bubble.  A bubble that includes both racism and misogyny.  She never steps outside her bubble or thinks about anyone or anything beyond what she was raised to know.  Her world is very black and white, quite literally.

Her pulling the gun ended the threat level for her.  Which, to be honest, in a post 1964 Civil Rights Era, is a little hard to swallow.  He was 14 and a child.  Hardly an actual threat.  But in 1955 Mississippi none of that was perceived as true.  And the gun might have been the end of it, if Roy Bryant hadn't been such a raging misogynist racist.

Of course, where I grew up in the south we had a similar tale--white lady accusation, black teenagers "taught a lesson" by racists (sheriff included).  And it's weird to think that I likely went to school (and was friends) with the children of the accuser's family and racists attackers of those poor teenagers.  It's even weirder when they all pretend that they never were actually racist at all...but that's probably a conversation for a different board.

Regardless though, those brief scenes of Carolyn and Roy helped established who they were and why the murder was happening now, and not a few days earlier. It also reinforced that this is not their story, but the story of Mamie and Emmett. 

[Racj82]

On 1/12/2022 at 10:41 AM, kirkola said:

I don't think it's sympathy so much as context.  Carolyn Bryant lives in her bubble.  A bubble that includes both racism and misogyny.  She never steps outside her bubble or thinks about anyone or anything beyond what she was raised to know.  Her world is very black and white, quite literally.

Her pulling the gun ended the threat level for her.  Which, to be honest, in a post 1964 Civil Rights Era, is a little hard to swallow.  He was 14 and a child.  Hardly an actual threat.  But in 1955 Mississippi none of that was perceived as true.  And the gun might have been the end of it, if Roy Bryant hadn't been such a raging misogynist racist.

Of course, where I grew up in the south we had a similar tale--white lady accusation, black teenagers "taught a lesson" by racists (sheriff included).  And it's weird to think that I likely went to school (and was friends) with the children of the accuser's family and racists attackers of those poor teenagers.  It's even weirder when they all pretend that they never were actually racist at all...but that's probably a conversation for a different board.

Regardless though, those brief scenes of Carolyn and Roy helped established who they were and why the murder was happening now, and not a few days earlier. It also reinforced that this is not their story, but the story of Mamie and Emmett. 

Yes. I think there is more and more movement to not ever humanize the enemy or bad person. A lot of people are not all one thing. There are serial killers out there that if you are talking about them through the prism of their family, they were just a great spouse and parent. Humanizing them doesnt necessarily explain away their actions. That's just reality. Also, nothing about her marriage explains away any of her actions at the store that spawned all of this. She made a grand spectacle that created the tragedy. Word was going to get out. Her husband, in that time, would never of ignored it. I find nothing sympathetic about her.

Edited January 13, 2022 by Racj82

[andromeda331]

On 1/13/2022 at 2:10 PM, Racj82 said:

Yes. I think there is more and more movement to not ever humanize the enemy or bad person. A lot of people are not all one thing. There are serial killers out there that if you are talking about them through the prism of their family, they were just a great spouse and parent. Humanizing them doesnt necessarily explain away their actions. That's just reality. Also, nothing about her marriage explains away any of her actions at the store that spawned all of this. She made a grand spectacle that created the tragedy. Word was going to get out. Her husband, in that time, would never of ignored it. I find nothing sympathetic about her.

Neither do I. She started the whole thing. A kid who did absolutely nothing. I wish I could be surprised but there's been enough of that bullshit still going on today. They don't rise to the level of murder thankfully. But the bitch who called the cops on the black kid because his backpack brushed her as he past by or any of the many other white women calling cops on black men and women who have done nothing wrong. I don't care about Carolyn's marriage or anything else. She did a horrible thing, got away with and still doesn't give a crap about what happened. She'll burn in hell for it but that's little comfort.