This piece contains slight spoilers for The Underground Railroad.

I took a deep breath before starting The Underground Railroad, Barry Jenkins TV adaptation of Colson Whiteheads Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

The limited series, which premiered Friday on Amazon Prime Video, is a harrowing yet stunning 10-hour saga starring captivating newcomer Thuso Mbedu as Cora, an enslaved woman on a journey to freedom across the antebellum South by way of a literal subterranean train with conductors and secret passageways. Cora escapes the Randall Plantation in Georgia and makes it to the Carolinas, Tennessee and Indiana, with slave catcher Arnold Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) on her heels at every turn. Ridgeway, who failed to capture Coras mother when she escaped the plantation, is hellbent on catching Cora.

By the end of Episode 1, titled Georgia, I didnt think Id ever finish the series.

Audiences meet Cora at a turning point, as a man named Caesar (Aaron Pierre) wants to escape and is urging Cora to come with him. She denies him until she bears witness to the series most horrifying scene: Audiences see escapee Anthony (Elijah Everett) tortured and burned alive for spectacle after attempting to run away. The scene is enough to make you give up on the show. Perhaps you, dear reader, started The Underground Railroad over the weekend and have already pressed pause.

For series director Barry Jenkins, known for Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, that is perfectly OK.