Considering how reinventing the
black sitcom was at the core of the justifiably Emmy nominated black-ish, it is amazing how good this series is at being
hysterical funny and emotionally powerful, often at the same time. One of the
most powerful moments of last season came in an episode titled simply 'Hope',
essentially a play as the Johnson's dealt with the all-too familiar scene of an
African-American shooting, and the ramifications within their family. Watching
Anthony Anderson deliver a heartfelt monologue of the fear that probably was in
far too many of our hearts after Obama was elected was one of the more
emotional moments in a season on TV that has dealt effectively with race.
Now that Season 3 has begun, it
would seem the only place black-ish could
go is down. And it certainly didn't get off to a great start when the season
premiere was basically a corporate salute to Disney, the parent corporation of
ABC. It was the kind of phoniness that this series has gone out of its way to
avoid, and it may have been the weakest episode the series aired so far.
Fortunately, it recovered very quickly. Last week's episode dealt very
effectively with the issue of God in the black community, when older sister Zoe
announced to her family she was becoming an atheist, something that very
quickly drover Dre up the wall, something made even more infuriating by the
arrival of Bow's brother (Tony winner Daveed Diggs) making mincemeat of the
argument of God. The series had a fairly strong episode about the reality of
religion in any community, and ended with a surprisingly poignant moment
involving Bow's pregnancy..
This week's episode also involved
the fairly solid subject of how Dre - and by extension, the black community -
is dealing with Obama about to leave office, how blacks feel about voting, and
of course, the current election. It would be easy enough to see the satire as
Dre tried rather frantically to get his underachieving son to be elected
high-school president, with some of the more obvious tricks in how black people
feel about winning election. But the episode took a fairly long view when it
came to everything that was going on in how the African-American community
views voting to begin with. Dre's mother, for example, took the perspective
that she didn't need to know who the candidates were, she was voting for the
Democrat. Then the youngest child went through an app which checked a persons
position, and saw who they'd vote for, and given Mrs. Johnson's positions on
'celebrating the death penalty', her shock that there isn't a wall keeping
Mexicans out, and racial profiling, she learned that not only was she a Trump
supporter, she might actually 'be Trump.' Equally funny was a debate between
Pops (Laurence Fishburne) Bow's brother, and Miles about how the system is
rigged to keep African-Americans from voting, and that there is no point in
government. Then they saw Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC, and were
galvanized into action, Add to this, the hysterically funny way the eldest
daughter is trying to worry about getting into college, and it's fair to say
that the series is back on track.
Admittedly, the series still isn't
perfect. They still haven't managed to make Dre's job nearly as interesting as
what's going on at home, but the sequences with Charlie are totally worth it.
However, its beginning to look like this may be one of the more brilliant
comedy series the network has developed. Whether it will still be as good when
co-creator Kenya Barris exits at the end of Season 3 is hard to say, but its
funny and thought provoking simultaneously, and a refreshing antidote to some
of the programming running against it.
My score: 4 stars.
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