Binge or Cringe: ‘Beyond Black Beauty’
Growing up on an estate in Belgium, Jolie Dumont (played by Kaya Coleman) wins her first Grand Prix at fifteen years old, beginning her equestrian career. However, unexpected events take her and her mother, Janelle Dumont (played by Sagine Sémajuste), to the latter’s hometown on a ranch in the middle of Baltimore. Suddenly restricted from the life she knew, Jolie navigates family and relationships in an unfamiliar environment while obstinately pursuing her dream of climbing the ranks on the equestrian scene. As she warms up to her new life, Jolie gradually learns that community and family will take one further than forging one’s path alone.
“Beyond Black Beauty” is a co-production between Amazon Studios, Sinking Ship Productions, and Leif Films. Created by Carmen Pilar Golden, this Canadian-Belgian series gives its audience high-quality cinematography showing the life of an equestrian. It takes its audience through ranch living, horse stables, training rings, and high-class riding arenas. Following the trope of an untamed horse choosing the protagonist, “Beyond Black Beauty” depicts the relationship between rider Jolie and her capricious horse, Beauty, as they each break down the walls around their hearts.
The audience enters the world of equestrian athletes right as the main character loses her means of sustaining her sport. Jolie’s difficulty in pursuing upper-level equestrian in Baltimore introduces the question of funding and class-related sports. Equestrian is often viewed as an elitist and classist sport. Based on a survey by AKD Solutions and commissioned by British Equestrian, 76% of respondents felt that they were underrepresented in this sport. Another 61% said a lack of finances prevented them from accessing the “full benefits” of equestrianism. Pilar Golden’s series emulates these opinions by juxtaposing Jolie’s experience in Belgium and Baltimore. Moreover, her ability is further questioned by those in the field due the state of her horse.
Beauty is a black mustang that Jolie’s aunt, Yvonne (played by Lisa Berry), savesfrom a kill buyer — someone who buys horses to sell them for their meat abroad. At first, the horse caused trouble for the ranch. However, after finding a likeness with Jolie, both horse and rider form a bond that helps them open up to the world around them. Unfortunately, in the equine world, Beauty is not the horse of a winner due to her history of being a wild horse rather than a well-bred one. Thoroughbred horses are often purchased by upper class people in the equestrian world to symbolize privilege and status. They also have a higher chance of success in show rings and increase opportunities for higher status in important competitions. Jessica Dallow explains this further in her book Race, Gender, and Identity in American Equine Art available for download here.
While the premise of the show is for Jolie to chase her dreams, it becomes an unbalanced mesh of a coming-of-age within a competition sport, that ends with exploring racial tensions in said sport. The idea is interesting, however the execution is unsatisfactory. Plot points also have no build up and feel very black-and-white. Scenes where tensions rise rarely develop fully and result in unneeded cuts to characters talking about the unseen event. Hence, dialogues between characters are hollow and over-explained. Creating a series where there is not much “show” and a lot of “tell.”
The acting does nothing to save the odious dialogue, unfortunately it makes it harder to watch. There is no depth to the actors as they speak, a lot of them have minimal changes in expression and tone. One would expect the main character to outwardly express the turmoil they feel at life’s unfair developments, however, Kaya Coleman maintains a stagnant tone despite shifts in mood such as anger, sadness, or happiness. Lisa Berry is the most commendable actress of this series with her ability to express hurt and anger with her eyes, opposed to simply using her words. On one hand, this could be attributed to Sinking Ship Entertainment which is known for producing content for younger audiences. However, “Beyond Black Beauty” is listed as a “family show” so there should be more diversity in how it portrays the experiences of its characters.
Overall, “Beyond Black Beauty” had an interesting premise that collapsed under factors such as unsatisfactory acting and dialogue, confusing focus, and questionable plot points. Unfortunately, this series is definitely Cringe.
