Holy Week
5.0/5
Critic Rating
The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968, is often recounted as a conclusion to a powerful era of civil rights in America, but how did this hero’s murder come to be the stitching used to tie together a narrative of victory? The week that followed his killing was one of the most fiery, disruptive, and revolutionary, and is nearly forgotten. Over the course of eight episodes, Holy Week brings forward the stories of the activists who turned heartbreak into action, families scorched by chaos, and politicians who worked to contain the grief. Seven days dive...
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Chanel Dubofsky • Mashable • Jun 1, 2023
"...collision of grief, frustration, anger, longing, and hope following King's murder, and how it birthed a new movement. Holy Week is an urgent merger of the recent past with the present realities, told through the eyes and the voices of the activists then and now."
Score: 5
Nicholas Quah • Vulture • Mar 21, 2023
"...a magisterial new narrative podcast from The Atlantic, named after the burst of grief, fury, and violence that washed over the country in the wake of King’s assassination. Holy Week carries out its business with an ear for the present...producers Jocelyn Frank and Ethan Brooks, wisely handles these echoes with a soft touch....there’s a musicality to the series...The score is rich with jazz-inflected minimalist ambience, heavy on brass, resulting in a vivid sense of melancholia. These elements add to and are complemented by Newkirk’s dependably engaging voice: quiet, inquiring, dutiful."
Score: 5
Lauren Passell • Podcast The Newsletter • Mar 20, 2023
"Holy Week, we get a granular look at how the wave threw not only our country into a whirlwind, but families and individuals, too. The writing for Holy Week is tight and could read as a novel. The music is a character itself, perfectly rising and waining to accentuate the highs and lows of the story. "
Score: 5
Hannah Verdier • The Guardian • Mar 16, 2023
"...so important. Newkirk gives a strong flavour of the mood of 1968, followed by despair and rage. "
