Black-ish

Like some other reviewers here, when I watched the first episode, I turned it off after about ten minutes. It's an unfortunate pilot that leads viewers to think that the entire show will be a narrow diatribe on "blackness". But the show is titled "Black-ish" and it is appropriately titled.

I don't remember what made me give it another chance, but I decided to watch the second episode and I was pleasantly surprised. But one episode does not a series make, so I watched the third. And I found "Black-ish" to be a very enjoyable comedy that had me laughing out loud numerous times.

Like the Cosby family, this family speaks the Queen's English, and they prove to be rather genteel, despite the father's attempts to reconnect with "the struggle". He says, "They (the younger generation) have nothing left to struggle for." The mother replies, "Can't that be a good thing?" And he answers, "No!" This show reveals some truths without spelling them out, like "All in the Family" did so well.

"Black-ish" reveals that the father's discontent is a generational thing--something all of us feel who realize that young people cannot identify with the values and events of earlier generations. And it eventually shows that humanity trumps "blackness".

I hope this show pursues the path it is on. There are lessons here for everyone. And the writers are mining laughs far outside the topic of race.

The cast is excellent. I especially love the two youngest kids. The youngest daughter, Diane, is hilarious; she possesses a comic timing that far surpasses her age.

Update 10/30/14: The show has proved that it is consistently funny. I am upgrading my vote to "9".

Update 11/10/16: I am sorry to say that the show's focus and its comedic balance shifted in season 3. So my grading of the show applies only to the first two seasons. Enjoy them.

Normally I don't go to the trouble of writing a review but in this case I had to. Reading the other reviews you'd think this was directed by Malcolm X. It's amazing how offended people can get by a black character (yes he's a character and one of the few) on TV. Do these reviewers who were so utterly offended by this character ever stop to wonder what the black community thinks of white TV? Which is to say almost all TV.

They mentioned being too militant, too black black black (even though that's literally in the title) and so forth. If you watched the entirety of the show, you'd realize that was the point. It was way over top, it was a classic caricature of a man who realized, and so too did his family, how ridiculous he was being and let it all go at the end.

At the end of the day it was funny and entertaining, my wife and I laughed out loud at a few spots which rarely happens. As for the not-believable comment, well I'll leave it at the fact that it's a comedy on TV. That's like saying I don't watch The Colbert Report because it misrepresents the news. By this standard you'll scrap about 95% of the stuff out there, although Transformers could happen if you think about it.

My gauge of a show is whether I was entertained or not, and in this case I was. I second the 7.3 round to a 7.

The first episode took me completely by surprise! It was so funny. Yes, the white people in it are a bit of a caricature (Seriously, one advertiser asks Dre how (whispered) "black" people would say good morning) but maybe they're the same type of off from a black perspective that black people often are when portrayed from a white perspective.

Maybe it's just because I'm a sociology major but I totally get Dre's frustration, along with his wife and kid's disbelief and disinterest. He has it all. He's well-to-do at a job he loves, he lives in a great house/neighborhood and has an all-American family, and yet he feels his culture/history slipping away. I can see that relating to anyone whose grown-up life is significantly different than their childhood, for good or bad. I grew up in a rural area, on a farm, and I often regret the lifestyle my very suburban kids have grown up in. I want to yank them back to the farm. He is glad to be in better circumstances and neighborhood than where he grew up, but he also doesn't want his kids to lose their history, their background. The great things in his life are erasing other things that may not have been as great, but were still part of making him who he is.

His wife is multicultural, whatever that means, bi-racial, however you want to put it. She thinks he's a little nuts to miss the "hood" and to try and suddenly get his kids to be more "black". His kids are the same as most kids these days (thank goodness), they have dropped color as a major factor, often even as a minor factor. Unfortunately for minorities, that also means losing culture as they homogenize into the dominant culture, white. However, it also means seeing people as people, not as colors or ethnicity.

His dad (the grandpa) is a little of both. Maybe used to be the strong black man, go Malcolm X and black power, but he also enjoys the cushy life he's living now. His comments and his lifestyle clash, but in a way that's okay, it's just part of who he is. At one point when Dre wants to come up with a "black" coming of age ceremony for his son, his dad nails it with a comment about how they're not African. They don't have that history, suddenly trying to adopt cultural customs from Africa, which is not even just Africa, it is multiple countries, peoples, and customs and traditions, just doesn't work. You can't invent a history and culture for yourself that never existed. He's multi-generational American, just black American, not African American. But still, I can feel for his desire for some sort of cultural background that feels solid. I'm multi-multi-generational white. My ancestors come from at least 10 different northern European countries. I often look at Hispanic cultures and some of their traditions and wish I had a little more something in my background other than just plain white vanilla. But that doesn't mean if I suddenly adopt Irish or Norwegian customs it will really be me.

Yeah, sorry, too long and too much philosophizing. I got it, I loved it. And besides that, it was really really funny. I laughed all the way through. Even my husband laughed out loud and he's more of a quiet chuckle sort of guy, seldom laughs out loud. I really hope this show stays the same, sharp observances of evolving social gray areas, loving and close knit family, people being people, and funny. And at least so far it was clean. Most "family" sitcoms are not something I would let my kids watch, I don't watch them. I would love to see something like this that stays clean so I can invite the kids in for a family show.

Let me just get this out of the way; I'm a black dude in my late 40's. Grew up during the 80's watching shows like the Cosby show, family ties, etc. With that being said, Scrubs is probably my all time favorite sitcom, by a large margin. The writing, cast, everything was spot on. And it ended right before shows started going in a different direction imo. No show has been able to balance comedy & drama as good as Scrubs, & I see black-ish as another effort to do so. An almost blatant copy of its humor if you ask me. I don't remember any other show doing the whole "flashback" thing before Scrubs, at least not as often. Black-ish pulls it off slightly different, but really similar nonetheless. It's cartoonish in a way that isn't well balanced, where again, Scrubs knew how to make that somehow work and not come off so...silly?? I feel kinda weird saying that considering how ridiculous some of the stuff on Scrubs was, but anyone that watched it can relate to what I'm saying. Scrubs had a few episodes that have made me actually sad, like REALLY struck a nerve and resonated with me, Black-ish has never come close. It just doesn't know how to make you get emotionally invested most of the time, even when visiting important topics like race, equality, etc. One of the writers (Deon Cole) is one of my favorite comedians, & his humor usually hits its mark. But as a show, it's just more of todays snark without the feeling. The Goldbergs is another example of this.

I am writing this review because I find it utterly unbelievable that people take Black-ish literally. The show is obviously satirical. It's making fun of the idea that society believes that there is a certain connotation to blackness or, put simply, certain behaviors and beliefs are considered "black". As an upper class black individual who lives in a white neighborhood, I get it. Because of the color of my skin, I'm supposed to "act black" and black friends find it weird that I "talk white". The show is basically Dre making fun of the fact that being black is more than having a skin color; it comes with expectations and stereotypes that many black people feel the need to embody because if they don't, they won't be authentically black. It is not being racist. It is raising stereotypes, but in a comical way that is supposed to make watchers really question the validity of them. It's a comedy and you're supposed to laugh at Dre's nonsensical obsession about not being black enough. I think the problem is people fail to recognize satire, not just in Black-ish but in any context, such as articles online, commentators always take it literal.

But it's a joke. It's making fun of the idea of "acting black".