Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas

Uncancel this show.



No? Okay then I'll continue. Wyatt's two season HBO docuseries is like the holy grail of formats for me - being a semi-sarcastic, searingly investigative and wholly constructive look at pragmatic solutions to societal problems. The first season is dedicated to policing (which turned out to be quite prescient and is hardly going to get less relevant as time goes by) and the second education. There's a notable attempt to be more overtly comedic in the second season as well, which is welcome but didn't help it much. The overall vibe is all wood-pannelling, gentle flute musical interludes and the perpetually laconic Cenac who seems to have an easy rapport with everyone he talks to.

I can see why the thing didn't necessarily take off - but it felt so specifically crafted for me that frankly I can't quite believe it exists in the first place. I learned a huge amount from this - it can be easy to see the US from the outside mainly negatively but in going and talking to the empathetic passionate people on the ground, educators, activists, craftspeople - and doing it in a warm and slightly silly way the show opened a whole other side of that country up for me. It's sad that the show has gone, but that the humans it highlighted persevere somewhere is a lovely thought.

This show reminds me a lot of Joe Rogan's podcast. The primary differences being that the humor is flat, no one's smoking weed on the show, the interviewer actually goes out into the field and the interviewer just happens to be Black. The show gets your attention during the opening, with graphics straight out of the seventies that take you back to PBS circa 1971 and great jazz music, which just sticks with me now whether I'm watching the show or not. Even the set looks like your great grandfather's set.

But what feels like a nice sunny afternoon watching a community access program back in the day quickly transitions into serious conversation about hard hitting issues, dispersed with jokes so dry even the British might miss out on them. Which is completely different from what we expect from shows like "Last Week Tonight" or the Vice programs we have come to expect from HBO. It is a shame that I have to pay $15.99 a month to watch this show. But that is the magic of HBO in an age where Netflix has shows for everyone young and old, and aliens on Mars and network TV is trying to figure things out without insulting anyone's sensibilities, occasionally taking risks like ABC does with Black-ish and Young-ish or "Fresh Off Of The Boat" but for the most part keeping things mundane.

A nice, subtle, laid back show that isn't turned up, lit, or amplified like so many other news shows feel the need to be in this day and age. Like the news shows from the seventies. I guess that is the point.

So informative on literally all aspects of policing, providing potential solutions from a panel of experts and activists. He's also very clever and likable. So bummed to see how uncomfortable this made people.

This show is delightful and heartbreaking. I dare say that these reviews declaring this show boring must be written by some boring-ass people (or, I don't know-by a bunch of sore-sport cops?). Wyatt Cenac is a joy to behold, to laugh with, to cry with, all of it. Problem Areas is nuanced & informative without being preachy or oversimplified; it's stylistically engaging & original; it deftly balances feeling comfortably conversational & endearingly nostalgic while digging in on critically important & most-often maddening issues, keeping it just breezy enough to entertain us along the way to ever more righteous rage. Policing in America c. 2018 cannot EVER be questioned too much-because it's a multilayered convoluted freaking atrocity, people-but taking a dose of our bitter pill with a side of Wyatt Cenac is pretty delicious.

I thought the first episode was somewhat underwhelming. It was a nicely researched documentary with a couple of touches of humor and irony. But coming from a Daily Show alumni, with the support of John Oliver, I expected so much more. The show lacked the goofiness of the Daily Show's correspondents' segments on the road (no absurd interviewing) or the devastating irony of John Oliver's long segments (no one is likely to register a church in this show). It was watchable, but any serious documentary maker or journalist could have delivered Wyatt's piece, which was low key, and flat. Making 'serious' comedy about societal issues is difficult, you have to find an angle, be thought provoking, at times provocative or ironic, or downright outrageous, in order to make the audience think and laugh. Wyatt Cenac's problem area is that he has not yet found the original/distinctive voice that will make this program compelling viewing.