It's a very Boots Riley show.

It's unpolished with rough edges. But in a good way. Boots leans in to a lot of fantastical elements, and never attempts to explain why they've happened/are happening, which is good. It's also got big ideas that it often tackles in a complex way.

As others have said, it's fucking amazing that a show this anti-capitalist and straight up communist made it out there, much less on Amazon. It's also amazing that it never seems like they made Boots modulate his message to make it more palatable (Word to the final episode).

It also helps that the acting is very good and it's often very funny with a lot of heart. Jharrel Jerome is very good, as is Olivia Washington, and Carmen Ejogo and Michael Epps. Epps is particularly hilarious. Boots continues his obsession with cheaply drawn, existential cartoons, which continues to be entertaining.

There's a lot of great Bay Area references: PG&E (the electric company) not being shit. Clowning people from Marin County. A few of the Raiders' references are dated, but the Marshawn Lynch shout-out was cool.

Just a couple of issues:

1. I wish there was more of Walton Goggins. He's awesome in everything he's in, and pretty much owns whenever he's on the screen here. He's a fascinating villain, and the episode where they spotlight him is probably the best of the series. They only really scratch the surface with a lot of the interesting stuff about him. His "moving" headquarters is great, and the best running gag on the show is his AI talking and sounding like Bill Cosby.

2. They really should have shot this in Oakland. They obviously shot some of the interiors in Oakland restaurants or bars, and they used establishing and overhead shots of Oakland and San Francisco landmarks, but it was mostly shot in New Orleans. The show is very much drenched in Bay Area lore, so it feels strange that they didn't film there, presumably to cut costs. Which underlies the other minor issues in that some of the show look like it was shot on the cheap. But that's more of an Amazon problem, as they should have given Boots the money to shoot on location in the Bay and use actual crowds of extras.

But overall, very good offering. I don't know if this is a one and done, or they're setting up for another season, but it works both ways.

Boy-yoy-yoy-yoy-yoyng.

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