'American Soul'

In the new BET television series, American Soul, chronicles the rise and fall of Don Cornelius (Sinqua Walls), creator of the groundbreaking and legendary dance/music program, Soul Train, the first season focusing on its creation and drama behind the scenes and in his and dancers' personal lives. I find the show to have decent acting and story lines, but I do have qualms with the overall aesthetic of the show. At the beginning of episode 1, "Man is First Destiny", we see Simone Clarke, played by Katlyn Nichol, in which appeared to be an audition. We see her and a group of other performers dancing and singing along to a song, "You're The One That I Want", which is from the musical Grease, released in 1978. If the show is starting at the beginning of Soul Train, which was in 1971, why were they performing a I also found the costumes and set design overall, I just did not feel like I was in the 1970s, especially when looking at characters' hair and outfits. The Afro wigs did not look something I would've seen on Soul Train, as the Afros were pretty immaculate. Whoever is in charge of costume/hair/makeup design, I feel did not do their research, especially with the dancers, their hair outfits should look more like the time period it is set, such as getting better wigs.
 The reason this could be is probably the budget for the show, although BET is owned by Viacom. In comparison to another period TV drama, AMC's Mad Men, with the set design and costumes and overall narrative, I felt that it depicted the 1960s and the changes throughout the decade pretty well. I do not feel this while watching American Soul. Maybe as the show goes on this will improve, or maybe I am being too picky. If the show focused on fictional characters instead of people who actually existed, maybe I wouldn't pick at these things. I would like them to do a better job at capturing the aesthetic and style of the decade. Overall, the acting is decent and I am enjoying the story lines. I am a bit late at recapping each episode, as I will do my first recap for the March 19 episode. I will overlook this and continue to watch the series. I would love to see an improvement in this and see BET give the show a chance, so this can be introduced to younger audiences, as I feel BET does not really give their original content a chance to survive, such as The Quad and Rebel, which was cancelled after one season. I would like the show to look more like the pictures below, to capture the essence of the decade.

Soul Train dancers ca. 1970s.

Soul Train