( Debra Winger also appears, briefly as Dinah’s frightening grandmother Rebekah).

Giving them, or any of the other ten brothers, any kind of story of their own would have evened the narrative out more, but then again, The Red Tent is all about girl power (though it does sparingly, and without satisfaction, weave a version of the more popular and well-known story of Joseph in with Dinah’s).įrom a secular perspective, The Red Tent may not exactly be an epic, but it’s an engaging and very well cast story of the triumph and resilience of the female spirit.

The most egregious example is of blonde-haired, blue-eyed and fair-skinned Joseph ( Will Tudor), who stands in stark contrast to his brown, scheming brothers Simon ( Saif Al-Warith) and Levi ( Pedro Lloyd Gardiner). The Red Tent becomes particularly problematic, though, in the casting of white actors exclusively in prominent and positive roles (which also reinforces the idea, especially accent-wise, that heroes are English, and everyone else is indistinguishably foreign).

Read more Watch Jesus Return in Trailer for NBC’s ‘The Bible’ Follow-Up ‘A.D.’ This is, curiously, a tale about the schemes of man, and not the hand of God as described in scripture. There are idols and prayers to a mother goddess, but though it takes its characters from the Old Testament, nothing about the miniseries’ faith (or lack thereof) links up with Judeo-Christian beliefs. As the narrator, Dinah even refers to Rachel’s miracle birth as “by fate or by the irony of the gods,” firmly uninterested in the nuances of the Almighty. The women-centric telling (particularly of the determined and resourceful Dinah) makes sense airing on Lifetime, although despite it being a Biblical tale, God is nowhere to be found. Just as she was in The White Queen (which, early on, bares some interesting similarities to Dinah’s story) Ferguson is a luminous presence who easily carries the story, making it compelling throughout. The Red Tent‘s first and second episodes are very different, with the latter slowing down and closing in specifically in Dinah’s self-imposed exile to Egypt, as she reinvents herself several times. Read more ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’: Film Review

The red tent bible story