The activist is not central to the Huey Newton series

While much attention is paid to the civil rights movement, the Black Panther Party has not been as closely examined in popular culture. Apple TV+’s ‘The Big Cigar’ is an adaptation of Joshuah Bearman’s 2012 article of the same name. (Bearman also wrote the 2007 article on which Ben Affleck’s 2012 film ‘Argo’ was based.) The series centers on Black’s escape Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton (a carefully calibrated André Holland) to Cuba in 1974. The miniseries highlights his political work within the organization and the systems and choices that led him to flee the country. Because the show focuses on Newton’s four-week departure from Los Angeles to Havana under the guise of a film production, the truly fascinating aspects of his legacy are barely touched upon. Despite the great acting, detailed set design and electric musical score, “The Big Cigar” never finds solid ground because the core of Newton’s story is not depicted.

Episode 1, directed by Don Cheadle, “Panther/Producer,” begins with a brief overview of the founding of the Black Panther Party. As narrator, Newton explains the various contradictions in his life, why he and Bobby Seale formed the Panthers in 1966, and the trumped-up murder charges that led to his decision to leave the United States just eight years later.

After his release from prison in 1970, Newton is introduced to film producer Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola) and his best friend and business partner Steve Blauner (PJ Byrne). Fascinated by the “Free Huey” campaign, which had only grown since Newton’s 1967 arrest for the alleged murder of a police officer, Schneider decides that a biopic about Newton starring comedian Richard Pryor (Inny Clemons) should be his next project are. Although the revolutionary activist is initially apprehensive, he is ultimately charmed by the producer’s tenacity and the thousands of donations he spends on the Panther’s survival programs. Although the film is never made, the men eventually form a bond, which is how Newton and his girlfriend, Gwen Fontaine (Tiffany Boone), end up on Schneider’s doorstep four years later, evading the LAPD.

Over the course of six episodes, the series details how Blauner and Schneider worked to create an escape plan for Newton under the guise of a fake movie titled “The Big Cigar.” Unfortunately, this months-long, accident-riddled escapade is one of the least intriguing aspects of the activist’s life. While most of the story features Newton fleeing by foot, plane, car, and boat, flashbacks from his youth, the founding of the Black Panthers, and his feuds with both Bobby Seale (Jordane Christie) and Eldridge Cleaver (Brenton) are All) treated alone. in short flashbacks.

Additionally, Newton’s drug use and paranoia are represented in some scenes of the show, but they are only peripheral topics. Newton’s mounting mental health and addiction issues, exacerbated by his forced isolation in prison and under constant surveillance by the FBI and Agent Sydney Clark (Marc Menchaca), could have been unpacked here. It’s always nice to see Boone too – who was so good in Prime Video’s “Hunters” – in any role, but she barely gets to do anything. Throughout ‘The Big Cigar’ she is simply an emotional blanket for the Dutch Newton. While female Black Panther leaders like Moses Ingram’s Teresa Dixon kept the group from falling apart when the men were killed, imprisoned, or forced into exile, their contributions are barely explored in this story.

The series moves at a breakneck pace. Still, episode 5, “Lost Paradise,” is the strongest of “The Big Cigar,” because it moves a bit slower. Additional information about the incident and the arrest that caused Newton to flee came to light. Additionally, it also focuses on his relationship with his father, Walter (Glynn Turman), who was a catalyst for his desire to change the status quo for black Americans.

While Newton’s absconding to Cuba was undoubtedly big news when it happened, “The Big Cigar” fails to capture the heightened stakes of the event. Furthermore, the show never clarifies the depth of Newton and Schneider’s friendship. Schneider’s decision to help Newton, bored by his own circumstances as a wealthy Hollywood executive, feels rather complacent and slides into the realm of a Great White Savoir.

Huey P. Newton was a very complicated person. However, his contributions to the Black Panther Party, whose Free Breakfast for Children is still used in schools across America, and the Black Power movement cannot be overstated. Because “The Big Cigar” is so focused on a singular event (which Hollywood happens to co-star), much of the legacy of Newton and the Panthers is neglected, leaving the viewer wondering who this series is for. is intended. .

The first two episodes of “The Big Cigar” will premiere on Apple TV+ on May 17, with new episodes released weekly on Fridays.