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Topic subjectI drudged my way through it. I have some thoughts...
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13379235&mesg_id=13380781
13380781, I drudged my way through it. I have some thoughts...
Posted by Boogie Stimuli, Sat Apr-25-20 03:55 PM
Upfront, lemme say that I have no problem with black ppl in satirical comedy or even with them being rich and in the top 5% of black people financially. I like seeing black people in different kinds of film (one of the reasons I love "Sorry To Bother You"), and I don't mind us being depicted as rich. I understand that people often watch tv as sort of an escape FROM their reality (it's why I enjoy sci-fi), and that's cool as long we understand that that's what it is.

Just wanted to get that outta the way.

I'll start with the cons so at least I'll be ending on a slightly more positive note.

Cons... (verbose but there are only 2 major ones)
Let's start with what everyone said about staying until episode 5. The show doesn't change after episode 5. Tyler Perry's speech is the only great thing about it, and Tyler Perry said the exact same thing on Sway In The Morning just 3 months ago. He even said more and added alot more depth to it on Sway. If you're watching this and pushing yourself to make it to episode 5, just watch that Sway interview and save yourself a LOT of time. If you don't like the show before then, you won't like it after. Also, even IF the show got better after episode 5, that's over 60% of the show that sucks lol. There are only 8 episodes. Moving on...

He's the only person from his old neighborhood depicted as responsible with any decency and social awareness. His friend Broadway is a proud deadbeat dad, and his whole family has immediately visible issues. Ionno man... that was really weird to me. It looked like he was telling us how he views the bottom 95% of black people, b/c the only other normal black people in the show were somewhere around his tax bracket. Moving on...

Before I say this next part, please read this:
KIDADA: I was kicked out of Buckley in second grade for behavior problems. I didn’t want my mother to come to my new school. If kids saw her, it would be: “your mom’s white!” I told Mom she couldn’t pick me up; she had to wait down the street in her car. Did Rashida have that problem? No! She passed for white.

RASHIDA: “Passed”?! I had no control over how I looked. … Today I feel guilty, knowing that because of the way our genes tumbled out, Kidada had to go through pain I didn’t have to endure. Loving her so much, I’m sad that I’ll never share that experience with her.

^^That's Rashida and her sister talking about growing up. In the same article, Rashida talks about how she felt comfortable with her white grandparents while her sister didn't (solely due to their skin color). Please notice that she's talking about NEVER HAVING TO ENDURE the pain of being black, being rejected by white people, etc. That was her sister's pain... and her pain was that she couldn't feel her sister's pain.
And that's why I think her black mannerisms in this show looked so off to me. Even when she was giving the speech about black women's struggle during the interview, it just didn't look authentic at all to me. She moved and sounded like a white woman who still says "flava." I feel like Mary Elizabeth Winstead would've looked exactly like that, delivering the same lines. Maybe that's supposed to be part of the authenticity, but I can't take it seriously coming from someone who has literally said she never experienced the pain of being black. This is the worst kind of trolling.



Pros...
I thought some of the humor was good. It legit got some laughs outta me. Enjoyed the way he highlighted how under-appreciated (black) fathers are. The private jet scene right after he says he's gonna be a hero for his family, I thought was the pinnacle of that here. The way family issues are handled here is well done imo. The fight with no resolution, the sibling jealousy over the intimate partner, worrying about their daughter being a potential ho, etc.
I can appreciate his effort to tie everything back to slavery. There's some attempt at consciousness here that I can dig, even if I think it's half done... at least it's there.



Overall this was hard for me to sit through, but I paid attention just to see what the hoopla was about. I just feel relieved that it's over. I'm also not a comedy sitcom type of person either tho. For people who are a fan of this kind of show, I'd probably recommend it just based on my list of pros.