The Porter finally centres Black ambition on Canadian television — and it's a revelationVibrant characters and a rich setting have Amanda Parris hooked on the new CBC period drama.

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Vibrant characters and a rich setting have Amanda Parris hooked on the new CBC period drama

Amanda Parris · CBC Arts(CBC)

This world is filled not only with clubs and associations but also with brothels and gambling houses. We see characters dealing with issues of colourism, living with yet-to-be-diagnosed neurodivergences and engaged in passionate closeted sexualities.

Liberating the narrative from genre confines makes The Porterincredibly exciting television. During Episode 2, I found myself feeling like I was watching a heist film. In Episode 3, there were hints of a spy thriller. With Caribbean dialects smoothly moving in and out of the dialogue, the series reminds us that the story of the porters is also a story of Black diaspora. As Arnold Pinnock, who created the show with Bruce Ramsay, told me, "These men and women were not only from the southern States, but also from these small little [places] in the Caribbean: Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana. They came to this country and they actually changed policy." 

It feels like there are so many possibilities for The Porterand its sprawling world. I'm excited to watch these characters work toward their wildest dreams.

Take a video tour of The Porter set:

The tour

9 days agoDuration 3:19The Porter co-creator Arnold Pinnock gives Alexa Joy a behind-the-scenes tour on set of The Porter.Talking about Beale Street: What the movie gets right (and wrong) about Black life and love

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