Screenshot: Amazon Studios Barry Jenkins’ new Amazon Prime miniseries, Underground Railroad, is a tour-de-force. At once gut-wrenching and awe-inspiring, I wrapped up the show convinced that we don’t even need television awards shows in 2022 because this cast and crew deserve all the accolades. This is one of those works of art that could be taught in film school for technical skills, acting school for craft, and high schools and colleges for history lessons. It is exquisite on every level. [Some spoilers ahead] The show is set in an alternate reality version of our world, sometime in the mid-1800s. In this world there is no talk of succession or civil war, but there are slave states and free states, as well as the Missouri Compromise mucking up things out west. The story begins in Georgia with Cora (Thuso Mbedu), a young woman enslaved on the Randall plantation: After the plantation is taken over by a man who delights in extensive cruelty, Cora flees with her friend Ceasar (Aaron Pierre). They make it to the underground railroad, here a literal train in underground tunnels, and are deposited in South Carolina.