No Reason To Be Insecure

One of the more undervalued players to come out of HBO last year was Insecure, a really edgy comedy based on an Internet series by series star/showrunner Issa Rae. Rae plays Issa Dee, an African-American substitute teacher in Los Angeles, trying to build a life for herself along with her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji)  and her lazy boyfriend Lawrence  (Jay Ellis) A season of frustration eventually built to quitting her job, cheating on Lawrence who broke up with her in the first season finale.

Issa is trying to start from scratch in Season 2, working at an educational-based company trying to help underprivileged children, and trying to go out on dates. But nothing is going particularly well for her either professionally or personally. Students don't exactly seem to be jumping at the opportunities she's offering, and the teachers seem to be dealing with a more overt brand of racism than we usually get even on cable. Her dates just seem to be one bad experience after another, and its pretty clear she's still trying to get back together with Lawrence, to the point of throwing a party for that sole purpose. When Lawrence ends up showing up the next night, they end up having a bizarre sexual encounter than neither is able to read that well, and which seems to end with Lawrence getting ready to move forward. Sort of.

Things are not going that well for Molly. Though she seems to be trying to press forward on the partnership track at her job, she is very irked to learn that one of her white colleagues is making more money. In an attempt to try and build her social standing, she ends up going to a luxury box at a hockey game, which goes about as well as you'd expect. She's recently started therapy as well, but doesn't seem quite able to admit even to herself the issues that she has to deal with.

One could certainly read this is as one of the more traditional HBO series - the African-American equivalent of Girls, for example. But there's a lot less navel gazing, and its a lot funnier. Issa has the habit of going into bizarre rap fantasies that actually give her a much clearer picture into her psyche than you'd think. She's a much more solid personality than Lena Dunham every was, and in my opinion, far more talented.

It's not as riotously funny as some of the shows on HBO can be, but its definitely a lot more daring, and has a much clearer grasp of the social world. Of all the comic actresses that they could've nominated, its very clear that Issa Rae would've been a much better choice than Julia-Louis Dreyfus. One can only hope that next year, the Emmys - which certainly didn't have a problem with diversity this year - won't make the same mistake.

My score: 4 stars.