Details from IMDB:
- 2022
- 1h 27m
Chronicles the journeys of broadcasters, educators and filmmakers who believed television could inspire a lifelong love of reading.
Initial Thoughts:
Reading Rainbow takes me back to my childhood. It was a show I was excited to watch, I have always really loved reading and I think that was a show that encouraged me to do that. Reading Rainbow helped to ignite my imagination and I think is one of the reasons I have written 6 books (working on my 7th) and of course love reading (though I’m 99% comic books, preferring to listen to books the past several years). Also of course I’ve always enjoyed watching Levar Burton, right from Roots to Star Trek: TNG, and of course with Reading Rainbow, more recently Star Trek: Picard, and all too briefly as the host of Jeopardy. He’s a great actor and a wonderful person and there was never any doubt I would watch this documentary and would enjoy it.
Main Points:
I am always honest about my bias, I think it’s a natural part of human nature, we watch things (at least in my case) almost always because we want to, we already have an interest in the genre/actor/subject/franchise and that helps us start on the right foot. I was smiling from the moment this started and I heard the theme song. This is a fascinating documentary where you learn about the huge impact that Levar Burton/Reading Rainbow had on a whole generation of children and how hard everyone involved fought to keep it on the air for an incredible 26 years.
I learned plenty from this documentary, like how congress tried to shut it down/take away funding, how the world changed so much from 1983 to 2009 that it just couldn’t survive, how deeply those involved with it cared about the show and how they tackled really important topics like imprisonment of a parents/the lasting effect of 9/11 on children, how tough it was for some of the producers when the show ended, how much Levar personally sacrificed and fought to keep it going and a whole bunch of other things to make this run-on sentence even longer.
Sure, I didn’t love every second, even though it was only 1.5 hours I thought maybe a few parts could have been tightened up, my friend says I find everything too long and while I wouldn’t go that far, I would say my attention span has gotten a lot shorter than it once was. I think more than anything you take away from this how important it is to encourage children to read, it helps them to understand the world, be happier people and they, in turn, will go on to make the world a better place and get to know themselves better given the time to think and be introspective.
Final Thoughts:
If you have ever watched “Reading Rainbow” you need to watch this. I found myself getting emotional and I was immensely impressed with the love and work put into this show by everyone involved. While I can’t possibly grasp the issue, I always think it draws attention to the important idea that we need to have more people of color on television and Levar Burton was uncompromisingly himself and served as a great role model for children, especially those of color. I give it a solid 8.5 out of 10 and, for a change, am able to recommend this to everyone. I’ve got to say Netflix is doing a good job with documentaries that interest me and yes, I know they didn’t make it but I am so happy they picked it up.