I watched "Black-ish" last night along with a whole host of other people it seems:
TV Ratings: 'Black-ish' Opens Strong, Nearly Matches 'Modern Family'
I have been looking forward to the show since I first heard about it because hey...it was going to be on ABC and they have been known, recently, to have good family sitcoms on lock. I love me some Tracee Ellis Ross, although, she's mostly always Joan Clayton to me. (Because I am dumb. I know, I know but Joan was AWESOME.SAUCE!) I understood the need for a television show with the premise and I just KNEW it would be done smartly. I was banking on the "Modern Family" audience to watch the show and hoped that smart writing would start bridging some of the divisiveness we still, amazingly, find so prominently in the world we live in.
Take me for instance. I'm probably not going to be your best "first Black friend." I can be rude with it and will often remind you how ridiculous it is that you never had a Black friend before you met me. I mean hey...I'm FABULOUS but I don't have the lock on being a FABULOUS Black woman. We're all over. Now...once I break that down to you we are probably going to be amazing friends and you'll probably be enlightened to just how similar we are even though we have different skin colors.
Take "The Cosby Show." See...that show worked so well because well...they were simply a family doing regularly family living that just happened to be a Black family. Things our families found important made their way into the show without there being a big azz sign pointing out things we, as Black people deal with and consider important that non-Blacks don't deal with.
It just worked, you know? I remember when Dr. Huxtable was talking about charities once and he said that he had 4 kids in college making them have their own Negro College Fund. LOL! That cracked me up. I remember the episode when it was shared that they had to work twice as hard and we all understood where it went. It was subtle but I think everyone got it and when Mrs. Huxtable went ANGRY BLACK MAMA on Vanessa that time when she had BIG FUN...oh yeah...we identified with that across the board.
But I digress.
I had some pretty strong feelings about the show last night while watching it and I've been thinking about it ever since. I understand the job of a pilot and hope to make one myself one day. It is to grab the attention of the audience and not let it go. Because of this, pilots tend to be chock full of shocker one-liners, etc. This pilot was no different so maybe, hopefully, the pilot was just that and the continuing series will be what we all hoped it would be. I long for a family who looks like me on primetime television, (SIP: Um...you know half our household is White right? Me: Say bruh...you know what I mean hell.) and I had high hopes for this one which was positioned just right for success. I grew weary of watching Black people stereotype being Black. I was perplexed as to how that child didn't know President Obama was the first Black president. I rolled my eyes clean up out my head at that severance worthy presentation and when Tracee said "If I'm not Black then someone needs to tell my hair and my azz..." lawd...I poured another half glass of wine cuz it was too late to pour another whole glass.
And this scene?
KILL.ME.NOW.
(But that skirt Tracee has on though? YES.PLEASE! GIMME!)
All that said, I am looking forward to the next episode in hopes that I won't be disappointed. I refuse to watch it just because they are Black. I'm too old for that. It has to be good too.
I'm not the audience for reality shows and it seems that's the only place we see Black people these days on television and they are something special I'm told. I was at a framily's house the other night and "Love and Hip Hop" was on in the background. I heard someone say something about "I know he ain't my man but..." and I asked them not-so-kindly to turn that shit off until I left please and thank you. I mean REALLY.
So...what did YOU think? Be honest. Did you enjoy it? Will you watch again?