A nosy neighbour puts the wrong kind of spotlight on Dana before a nasty fall triggers a trip back to the past…

Episode 2 sees Dana and Kevin travel to the past together. For all the difficulties of being in the past, the real challenge before them is dealing with their neighbours in the present day who have decided that Kevin is beating Dana.

That this section at the front end of the programme is tenser than anything that comes after is a problem. The majority of this episode takes place in antebellum America and it felt, through much of it, not entirely seamless and not entirely more than a drama documentary.

I really want to like this show but I’m not quite sure where we go with it. I worry that the way it’s been released in the US (all in one go) means it’s going to be set free and then abandoned.

All of which is to say that the most interesting part of the show is how the two main characters manage to adapt in the modern day to their experiences. With Dana’s condition meaning they’re likely to spend the majority of their time in the past I’m not sure watching a show that essentially follows a modern day couple as they live in the past is going to maintain our interest.

The cinematography remains well composed and clearly put together but when compared to Barry Jenkins’ masterpiece – The Underground Railroad – this feels like television rather than cinema and suffers for it.

There is nothing wrong with this show. It has incredible source material; it’s been adapted interestingly enough so far and the leads are excellent. Dana and Kevin’s portrayal is a little inconsistent but it’s absolutely not a deal breaker.

Verdict: I think the problem might simply be that in a field where this period has been explored and dramatized from this point of view a number of times now, Kindred is threatening to be an also ran rather than the leader of the pack.

Rating? 7 broken legs out of 10.

Stewart Hotston