--- description: Apple TV+'s bold, thrilling miniseries tells the stranger-than-fiction story of how a Hollywood radical helped Huey P. Newton escape the U.S. title: Black Panthers Meet New Hollywood in Thrilling 'Big Cigar' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b374a4f8d48d1ac/698a56d3e6e84a78052b2f2a/The_Big_Cigar_Photo_010201.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Television](/tag/television/) ## Television Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Black Panthers Meet New Hollywood in the Bold, Thrilling Series _The Big Cigar_  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic Updated: Jan 19, 2026 1:27 PM CUTPublished: May 16, 2024 1:00 PM CUT  André Holland and Alessandro Nivola in The Big Cigar André Holland and Alessandro Nivola in The Big CigarApple TV+  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic Updated: Jan 19, 2026 1:27 PM CUTPublished: May 16, 2024 1:00 PM CUT Huey P. Newton would have been skeptical of _The Big Cigar_, a miniseries that dramatizes his flight from the U.S. to Cuba in 1974—and the show is the first to admit it. “The story I’m about to tell you is true,” says the [Black Panther Party](https://time.com/5938058/black-panthers-activism/ "undefined") co-founder (played by [_Moonlight_](https://time.com/collection/100-best-movies/6296120/moonlight-2016/ "undefined")and [_The Knick_](https://time.com/3079900/review-the-knick/ "undefined")star André Holland) in a voiceover that prefaces the electrifying, six-part series, which premieres May 17 on Apple TV+. “But it _is_ coming through the lens of Hollywood, so let’s see how much of _my story_ they’re really willing to show.” That Newton’s wariness of mass culture frames the story from the very beginning is a sign that viewers are in for something much smarter, bolder, and more challenging than the entertainment industry’s typical, sanitized take on radical politics. The history that informs executive producer and writer Jim Hecht ([_Winning Time_](https://time.com/6154947/winning-time-lakers-hbo-true-story/ "undefined")) and showrunner and writer Janine Sherman Barrois’ ([_Claws_](https://time.com/4819564/tnt-soap-claws-review/ "undefined")) action-packed drama is astonishing in itself. As _The Big Cigar_ executive producer Joshuah Bearman recounted in the 2012 _Playboy_ feature that the series adapts, Newton—who had already served time on charges that he’d killed a police officer, a conviction that was later overturned—became a fugitive when he was charged with the murder of a 17-year-old sex worker. (Newton insisted he was innocent of both crimes.) With limited options, amid a movement antagonized by law enforcement and riven by internal strife, he turned to his friend Bert Schneider (_Amsterdam_’s Alessandro Nivola), the counterculture-minded producer behind _Easy Rider_. Bert’s solution? Plot Huey’s escape as though it’s a blockbuster movie.  Tiffany Boone and André Holland in The Big Cigar Apple TV+ Dubbed, yes, _The Big Cigar_, the faux film project allows Bert—who is white, Jewish, and the son of a Columbia Pictures studio head—to mobilize resources (for example, a corporate jet) that Huey, as the leader of a financially precarious grassroots organization of Black radicals, could never have accessed on his own. Even with a well-heeled ally, Huey’s getaway is a logistical nightmare. The FBI, most vividly personified here by Sydney Clark (Marc Menchaca), an unhinged agent who hates having to wear his hair long for an undercover post as a hippie, is relentless in interrogating Panthers, family members, and anyone else connected to Huey. Bert, his childhood friend turned producing partner Steve Blauner (P.J. Byrne), and their creative cohorts collaborate with Huey on a series of wild schemes. Shot in the kinetic, often split-screen style of New Hollywood, the show’s action sequences are imaginative as well as thrilling. A shootout at Canter’s deli has all the style and wit of a Scorsese or Coppola joint. Immaculate as they can be, these set pieces are only the most outwardly impressive facet of a largely introspective story. Interspersed with Huey and Bert’s scramble are flashbacks to crucial moments from Huey’s life: his [founding of the Black Panther Party](https://time.com/4489428/stephen-shames-blank-panther-photos/ "undefined") with [Bobby Seale](https://time.com/5446342/black-panthers-stacey-abrams-bobby-seale/ "undefined") (Jordane Christie) in 1966, the [iconic photo](https://www.loc.gov/item/2016649083/ "undefined") of him in a rattan chair brandishing a spear and a rifle, his release from prison in 1970, his [schism with fellow Panthers leader Eldridge Cleaver](https://time.com/5527603/don-cox-black-panther-party/ "undefined") (Brenton Allen) over Cleaver’s preference of gun-toting militance to [service of the Black community](https://time.com/5937647/black-panther-medical-clinics-history-school-covid-19/ "undefined").  André Holland in The Big Cigar Apple TV+ These aren’t bullet points in a dry, Wikipedia-style biography. They function as portals into Huey’s state of mind in 1974\. Eldridge, now living as an exile in Algeria, is in his head calling the Panthers’ [breakfast program](https://time.com/6282004/afeni-shakur-black-women-liberation-legacy/ "undefined") soft. On the other end of the radical spectrum, Bobby has turned to electoral politics and blames Huey and his outlaw associates for ruining his chances of winning Oakland’s 1973 mayoral race. Huey is thinking about his beloved father (Glynn Turman), a preacher, who cautions him against messianic delusions: “Most of the world’s problems come when the messenger thinks he’s the message.” Government surveillance and infiltration, via programs like [COINTELPRO](https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/news/fbi "undefined"), have left him paranoid. Confusion reigns over whether dissent within the ranks of the Panthers is organic or orchestrated by undercover agent provocateurs. A portrait emerges of a brave, thoughtful man whose vision of, as he puts it, “a world beyond conflict and violence” is under attack from all sides. Huey is driven by revolutionary ideas; _The Big Cigar_ touches on the work of leftist thinkers like [Guy Debord](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/14/guy-debord-society-spectacle-will-self "undefined") and [Frantz Fanon](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/06/frantz-fanons-enduring-legacy "undefined"). (It also, thankfully, trusts viewers to do their own research, instead of spoon-feeding us baby-food simplifications of 20th century political philosophy.) But, contrary to both the idolatry and the vilification that afflict so many depictions of radical leaders, he’s also only human. Hecht and Barrois wisely—if sometimes too conspicuously—draw parallels between Huey and Bert; both men are idealists with drug problems and a tendency to use the revolution as an excuse to neglect the people who love them. While the series does a bit of a disservice to the female characters on the periphery of this story, it succeeds in conveying the many risks Huey’s loyal girlfriend, Gwen Fontaine (Tiffany Boone), takes and sacrifices she makes on his behalf.  Glynn Turman in The Big Cigar Apple TV+ _The Big Cigar_ works on multiple levels. It’s a retro action thriller. It’s a fictional representation of American history and the biography of a countercultural giant. It’s a showcase for Nivola, Boone, and especially Holland, who balances Huey’s intelligence, courage, and post-traumatic paranoia. There’s humor in the culture clash between revolutionaries and Hollywood types; a screenwriter piloting a rescue boat gets so distracted, typing a script about what he’s doing at precisely that moment, that he crashes into an underwater sculpture of Jesus. While the events it fictionalizes couldn’t be more quintessentially ’70s, the show has relevance to a present-day reality in which the [government’s treatment of dissident Americans](https://time.com/6973969/joe-biden-condemns-campus-protests-palestine-israel-hamas/ "undefined") is once again drawing ire, in connection with a conflict that has [tested bonds](https://www.npr.org/2024/03/28/1239289512/black-jewish-grand-alliance-civil-rights-history "undefined") between the [Black and Jewish communities](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/27/black-jewish-alliance-myth-history "undefined") that [date back to the civil rights era](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/magazine/black-jewish-activists-palestine.html "undefined"). _The Big Cigar_ doesn’t deify its activist characters, but neither does it hide its sympathies. As a final line of on-screen text, printed over footage of [Black Lives Matter protests](https://time.com/magazine/us/5851840/june-22nd-2020-vol-195-no-23-u-s/ "undefined"), makes explicit: “The need for a revolution continues.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6978370/the-big-cigar-review-apple/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6978370/the-big-cigar-review-apple/"},"headline":"Black Panthers Meet New Hollywood in the Bold, Thrilling Series The Big Cigar","datePublished":"2024-05-16T13:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T13:27:02.000Z","description":"Apple TV+'s bold, thrilling miniseries tells the stranger-than-fiction story of how a Hollywood radical helped Black Panthers leader Huey P. 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