Review: Octavia E. Butler's genius comes to life with haunting slavery story 'Kindred'

"The Underground Railroad." "Antebellum." "12 Years a Slave." "The Birth of a Nation." "Harriet." "Them." "Lovecraft Country." "Emancipation."

There's something of a cottage industry in Hollywood's recent stories of slavery and historical racism, and an even more specific subgenre with a science fiction, fantasy or horror elements. Some of these films and TV shows are transcendent and affecting, while others are exploitative and in poor taste. With saturation can come exhaustion, repetition and stereotype: Will Smith's "Emancipation," which arrived on Apple TV+ this month, was met with some criticism for its use of the tropes of the slavery narrative.

It is in this context that FX debuts "Kindred" (streaming Tuesday on Hulu, ★★★ out of four), an eight-episode adaptation of celebrated science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler's 1979 novel about a modern-day Black woman (Mallori Johnson) who's transported back in time to the slavery plantation of her ancestors.

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The recent spate of similarly themed projects may make "Kindred" feel derivative, even though its source material predates most of them. And perhaps on the surface, "Kindred" looks like many of these other stories. But it is far closer to the breathtaking "Railroad" than the graceless "Antebellum."

It is a haunting, horrific story, told with nuance, care and excellent timing by creator Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ("Watchmen"). It is not just another one of those slavery stories, where the humanity of the enslaved characters is wiped away by the narrative need for them to be heroes, defined only by their enslavement and quest for freedom. This is a story about one woman, her past and her future, and its scope is both intimate and epic.

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Dana James (Johnson) has just left a life of familial obligation behind in New York and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of writing for television. She barely has time to furnish her new house and spend time with her new romantic interest Kevin (Micah Stock) when she starts to see flashes of a very different world: a plantation in the antebellum era owned by Tom Weylin (Ryan Kwanten), a brutish dullard of a man. It becomes clear all too quickly that these aren't visions or dreams, but that she is being yanked to and fro through time. Eventually, Kevin, who is white, is transported with her, and the two are forced to play the narrative of slave owner and slave in order to survive.

Dana's familial connection to the plantation comes into focus slowly over the course of the series. The title provides a clue to the themes and intricacies of the story; this is an intimate tale about kin, family and roots, and what happens when, as a Black person descended from enslaved people, Dana feels unmoored.

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Dana is an ideal protagonist for a story as complex and layered as this, a woman who took control of her life at last only to have it brutally pulled away from her by whatever force is sending her back and forth through time. Dana is an observer, a writer and student of humanity. In the series premiere, she is busy diagramming old episodes of the 1980s soap "Dynasty," documenting every element of the story and the larger-than-life characters who populate it. She applies her keen awareness throughout her ordeal.

Johnson carries the weight of Dana's trauma and emotional whiplash handily, managing scenes of horror and lightness with equal aplomb. The actress anchors a strong cast that stands out amid a flurry of time-traveling and period costumes that in lesser shows can detract from the performances.

Considering the breadth and depth of Butler's bibliography in the past half-century, it's shocking that Hollywood has never gone to the well of the award-winning author's oeuvre before (more are currently in development).

I'll let her fans decide if it's a worthy representation of her prose, but as a stand-alone series, "Kindred" has plenty to say.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Kindred' review: FX/Hulu bring genius of Octavia E. Butler to life