Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Let The World See’ On ABC, A Docuseries About The Life And Legacy Of Mamie Till-Mobley

Let The World See is a three-part docuseries that is a companion docuseries to the scripted miniseries Women Of The Movement; it gives some more insight into the life of Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till. Till-Mobley’s efforts to attract national attention to the murder of her 14-year-old son in Jim Crow Mississippi in 1955. 

LET THE WORLD SEE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes of cotton fields in Mississippi. We also see other nature vistas from the region. We hear excerpts from Mamie Till-Mobley’s memoir Death Of Innocence, read by Nia Long.

The Gist: Directors Jeanmarie Condon and Fatima Curry, through the use of archival footage, newspaper clippings, photos and interviews, puts together a picture of how Till-Mobley and her son Emmett lived in Chicago in the ’40s and ’50s, the mysterious death of Emmett Till’s father Louis, and the circumstances that led to Till’s brutal murder in August, 1955.

Among those interviewed for the documentary are Michelle Obama, who reflects on the differences and similarities of Black life in Chicago and Mississippi, Jesse Jackson and Common, along with authors Angie Thomas, Christopher Benson, John Edgar Wideman and Michael Eric Dyson. Some of the most powerful interviews, though are with relatives and friends of the Tills, including cousins Ollie Gordon, Amos Smith and Thelma Wright. Finally, Rev. Wheeler Parker, the cousin who witnessed Emmett’s abduction, recalls the incident and it’s just as powerful for him 66 years later as it was then.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Let The World see echoes the events shown in Women Of The Movement, though it’s interesting that there are facts given in the docuseries that directly contradict with how things were depicted in the scripted series.

Our Take: As much as seeing insights from Michelle Obama and Common are interesting, where Let The World See really shines is in the interviews with Emmet Till’s and Mamie Till-Mobley’s cousins. They not only help paint the picture of what life was like for Till and his mother in Chicago but how things were in Mississippi in the 1950s.

The most impactful interview, though, is with Rev. Parker, who was a witness to Till’s abduction. Wheeler’s wife, Dr. Marvel Wheeler, quotes the reverend by saying that he looked in Emmett’s eyes as he was taken away. “I wonder what he was thinking.” To this day, he wishes he could have done more. But when white men with guns come pounding on your door in the middle of the night in 1955 Mississippi, doing something would have put the entire family in jeopardy.

While the docuseries does a decent job filling in details that the scripted series either changed or bypassed — like the circumstances of Louis Till’s death after being court martialed for a sexual assault — it feels like this could have stood on its own from Women Of The Movement and vice versa. Each episode will air after the two-hour airing of Movement, and it feels that it’s going to repeat a lot of the story already covered in the scripted series. And where the two differ, the viewer is left comparing and contrasting rather than paying attention to the actual story.

Let The World See is definitely worth watching, but it might be better to DVR it — or stream it on Hulu — after completing the six hours of Women Of The Movement.

Parting Shot: As we see newspaper photos of Mamie Till-Mobley crying over the sealed box that transported her son from Mississippi to Chicago. Angie Thomas says, “That one little act of ‘I’m gonna see my son, I’m gonna see my son’s face’ literally changed history.”

Sleeper Star: Michelle Obama really gave good insight into how, in her hometown of Chicago, family members lived near each other to foster the same familial feeling that originated in Southern states like Mississippi, before the mass migration of Black families to northern cities in the early 20th century.

Most Pilot-y Line: None.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Let The World See is definitely worth watching as a primer on Mamie Till-Mobley’s life and role in the civil rights movement, but it might be better to DVR it — or stream it on Hulu — after completing the six hours of Women Of The Movement.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.