Why Is Blachish Not Funny Anymore
It Has Won Me Over
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.
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Do people honestly take this satirical show literally?
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".
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Had me but lost me... quickly
Ok, so the commercials weren't enough to make me tune in, but it's been on in reruns after another show I watch. At first, it was funny, so I decided to start watching it regularly, and that's when a few things started bothering me...
1) It REALLY feels like 2000's Cosby reboot - all the way to having the eldest daughter leave for college and turning it into a spin-off. The only difference is this time the wife is the dr and the husband is an ad exec instead of a lawyer (and hopefully not ruffying unexpecting women). Ironically, I'm watching an episode right now and they JUST mentioned the Cosby Show...
2) It's really pretty racist. Given the title of "Black-ish", of course I knew it was going to be dealing with a black family and black issues, but it goes the extra mile to paint all of the white characters in a negative light. That really pisses me of because it's such a double standard. You can't say it's wrong for one group to make jokes about one group, but it's ok for that group to make fun of the other. Racism is racism, it doesn't matter who's making the comments to which group.
The wife, Rainbow, is bi-racial (1/2 black, 1/2 white), which could really open up the series to some interesting (and much needed) story lines and talking points, but instead not only do her black husband and in-laws make fun of her for being mixed, but she only identifies as black to the point of open hostility to most white people she encounters - NEVER saying anything when confronted with a sensitive situation like, "My dad is white, and I love him," or "I'm bi-racial, and..." It's always, "as a black person in this world..." It almost feels like they included it to try to give them a pass on making white jokes, but they show ZERO sympathetic white characters, just villains.
They show Dre at work, and all the white co-workers are absolutely idicotic, racist, and clueless. Yet somehow, it's a huge win for Dre to work there because it's such a big, prestigious firm. Which is it, a prestigious firm or nothing but useless idiots?
It's just really disappointing. Instead of making it a funny show that's about a family that happens to be black, it's all racial issues all the time. It could have done for the black community what Will & Grace or Modern Family did for the gay community, instead it's just a reason to perpetuate stereotypes.
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Chris Brown?!?
Loved the show up until season 3, when they decided to feature Chris Brown. They love to talk about black role models but then decide to put a woman beater and homophobe on the show. Bye, Black-Ish.
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Unfunny
This is a sitcom about an upper-middle-class African-American family who live in a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles.
The main fault with this show is that it's rarely funny.
Three seasons - each consisting of 24 episodes - have been broadcast. A fourth season is due to be broadcast in late 2017.
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Never was great
This show started off as being okay with a few funny lines. Now it's more irritating than anything else with no funny lines at all. It's time to cancel this show and bring in something else.
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Nothing new, nothing amusing. nothing funny
OK, back up, back up now. Is Black-ish trying to be the new Cosby Show or something along those lines? Whether it is or it isn't, I still don't see the appeal of this show and I'm already in episode 5. One, Blackish isn't funny. Two, Blackish recycles humour but delivers it badly, therefore, making it not funny. Three, the show is borderline racist, not just to black people, to people in general. Anthony Anderson is a great actor, he's a funny guy, great chemistry in front of the camera and clearly the only reason this show is tolerable. Along with Laurence Fishburne, these two are the only two people I enjoy watching. As for Tracee Ellis Ross, in all honesty, her role is pretty damn annoying. It's My Wife and Kids all over again, where mom tries very hard to connect with her teenage daughter and tries to look cool so her younger daughter looks up to her. While we're on the subjects of daughters, when did it become funny to see young kids be sarcastic, rude, back-talk and too big for their own shoes? Plus this little girl carries it out with terrible acting skills. And again, when was it funny to see teenage girls with constant mood swings hating on their parents? No parent finds that funny. This whole scene, has been done over and over again. The difference with Blackish is that it's delivered extremely poorly, thus making it unbearable to watch. It's a terrible sitcom honestly. I'm amazed it's been given a full season's run.
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Should Change the Title to "Hate-ish"...
I used to really enjoy watching "Black-ish" - the writing was innovative and the cast was (and still is) stellar. I empathized with story lines highlighting major social occurrences and issues, and, as they mirrored my own thoughts and feelings, it made the series more relevant to me and that much more enjoyable to watch. I laughed wholeheartedly at the satire and looked forward to the next, new, episode each week. However, the series has evolved, and where it's gone is just plain mean. The show is supposed to be a comedy but it's turned into a scripted, serial bully. I pass, now, and think they should change the title to "Hate-ish" - it's a much more apt descriptor.
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Intelligent fare for more than just African Americans
First of all those who are offended by the title of the show should just pipe down and realize that the creators where just being satirical. As a black man I find the over abundance of buffoonish television shows that are typically geared towards African Americans to be passe and very stereotypical. Tyler perry based shows like Meet the Browns and House of Pain, though well meaning in their portrayal of the Black experience, often suffer from poor writing ( a habitual issue with Tyler Perry productions) and out of date tropes and production values. These shows are typically successful due to Mr. Perry's built in audience and,quiet simply ,a scarcity of programming geared towards black viewers. What makes Blackish stand out is its strong writing, perfectly cast lead actors( Anthony Anderson and Lawrence Fishburn's chemistry is particularly impressive), and irreverent look at the issues facing an upper class black family. Obviously some may not "get" some of the humor if you are unfamiliar with the nuances of black culture, just as an African American might not get every funny referrence from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". The vast majority of the show, however, deals with issues that anyone can relate too. I'm 3 episodes in, and like most good shows, Blackish gets funnier the longer the writers have time to flesh out the characters and progress with the story lines. One more note. In no way is this show racist like some misguided and ignorant reviewers ( with some admitting to having only watched 15 minutes of the pilot...talk about ADHD) suggest. To those individuals I would say give it an actual chance. Check out the first 3 episodes on ONdemand before you pass a hasty judgement on such a small sample size
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It's Funny - Let it Go & Enjoy
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.
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Season 4 is truly terrible.
I was really enjoying this show until season 4, all drama, no comedy. Hope they get back to the way they were.
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Disappointing
I changed my rating of this show from 6 to 2. Went from being fun and showed black culture, etc. A good amount of the show is satire, but from season 4 it just begins to slam white people and tell false information. Would recommend the first three seasons.
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One of the best casts on television.
Warning: Spoilers
Full disclosure: I'm a middle aged Irish-Swedish-American so I'm probably not the target demographic. However, I love this show. I never feel like I'm being preached to, I feel like I'm visiting friends. I understand some people feel like the show has become too political but I don't see that. I see a show about a family that different than mine but very similar as well. And honestly, if this show didn't tackle some tough issues, it would be just another sitcom. I've loved this show from day one but I've gotta say, I actually sat in my home and squealed like a fangirl because Miss Jill Scott Herself just popped up and did a musical number (season 6, episode 11). If this is is an example of how Network television is really stepping up to compete then let's see more.
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Most shows explore diversity through different colored faces or by who is kissing who, but Black-Ish is all about what it means to be Black in modern times.
Warning: Spoilers
I'm not going to lie to you, when I heard Anthony Anderson was in this I thought it was going to be trash. If just because I see him as the cheaper Wayne Brady. Though it is mostly because I don't know what his shtick is as a comedian and never found him funny. However, with the inclusion of Laurence Fishburne, who has yet to do me wrong as an actor, and Tracee Ellis Ross, who I haven't seen in a series since Girlfriends, since I ignored the other show she had, I figured they could balance out Anderson, if not make all my worries go away. Read below to see if they did.
Characters & Story
Andre Sr. (Anthony Anderson) works in marketing and his wife Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross) is a surgeon and they both live in a suburban area of Los Angeles. But, from what it seems, neither one came from an affluent life. Well, at least we know Andre didn't. Either way, with Andre and Rainbow living the American dream of going from poverty to affluence, they are quite proud of themselves. However, with this pride comes a bit of worry for Andre, and his Pops (Laurence Fishburne), notice that Andre's kids aren't Black, but simply Black-ish.
To explain, Andre's kids: Andre Jr. (Marcus Scribner); Zoey (Yara Shahidi); and, what I assume are twins, Jack (Miles Brown) and Diane (Marsai Martin) aren't strongly tied to being Black. Partly due to Rainbow trying to raise them to be color blind. However, between Pops and Andre Sr., this is seen as a problem. For with Andre Sr. getting a promotion to be a SVP of his company's Urban Division, then him learning how his kids lack knowledge of, and perhaps perspective, of being Black in America, it sends him into a crisis. One which we only get a taste of in the pilot, but likely will be a repeated issue as Andre seems to deal with culture shock in the form of Blackness, except when it comes to negative stereotypes, becoming mainstream and no longer owned by Black culture.
Praise
Since UPN and The WB merged, finding a show with a Black family on network TV has been rare. Especially with them as the stars and not supporting roles. So with this being one of the first in a long time, at least to me, for the show to so directly touch on Black culture was very odd, though interesting. For with topics including racial profiling; appropriation; lack of Black people, or people of color in general, in high rank positions at work; the sense of community people of color make at their jobs; and then with Pops commentary, which makes it seem Fishburne is reprising his role of Furious from Boyz in the Hood, the pilot seems far past being Black- ish. If anything, it shows what being Black means across multiple generations. How with Pops' generation, it was your forced identity and something you learned to take pride in; then with Andre Sr., being Black, like with his dad, was still a forced identity, but one of which while the history was filled with tragedy, as the culture began to really be closely linked with entertainment, and without it being whitewashed, you can see he got his pride like his dad, but through a different avenue; and then there are the kids.
Now, admittedly I myself had the perspective when I was 12 or so thinking race didn't matter and I surely didn't think the first way to identify someone was by whether they were Black and White. Since, while older than Andre Sr.'s kids, the idea of everything not being a racial thing isn't new. Especially if you grow up in a suburban area and are shielded from more urban zones. So with seeing Andre's kids not know Obama is the first Black president, get into field hockey, and just want to fit in, I feel torn between understanding them and Andre Sr.'s point of view. Which, all things considered, was a surprising feeling since I didn't expect this show to have any depth at all. I was honestly expecting a Cosby Show knock off since that show keeps getting referred to in Black-ish's advertising.
Criticism
The main thing worth critiquing with this show is that it may feel a bit too much when it comes to cultural issues. For while Rainbow speaks for the "Let's be colorblind" or "New Black" community, her voice of opposition is limited and with Anderson being a bit too over the top, like showing the LA Riots during a LA tourism presentation, I can see Anderson's character getting annoying. For he isn't like Pops who just smoothly talks about not understanding the up and coming generation, much less Andre Sr. when it comes to race and culture, Andre Sr. makes his points glaringly obvious to the point you wanna say: "I get it, move on already!"
Overall: Stick Around
I won't say this is undoubtedly worth seeing, if just because this show does not feel like it is made for everyone. If anything, I think of this show as an experiment. One which seeks to investigate, as will Fresh Off the Boat and Cristela, whether a network station can showcase an all non-white family, and have a hit on their hands. For with diversity doing well for ABC when it comes to Shonda Rhimes' various productions, and Modern Family, I think they are trying to see if going a step further could make them money for really, as mentioned earlier, finding all Black, never mind all Asian or Latin, family being featured on network TV hasn't happened in years. Never mind all on one station since UPN and The WB merged.
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the stereotype of stereotypes
This show can easily be summed up: A dad hates being stereotyped by everyone in society and comes home at the end of the day and complains to his entire family that they don't act black enough.... but then he doesn't like people judging him for his skin color.... but wants his family to act black and that just goes in circles and circles and circles. Yes, that is the entire show.
It's sad really, gone are the days we can't have regular sitcoms featuring black families such as Family Matters, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The Bill Cosby Show, unless it is on BET. It almost seems as the civil rights movement has taken a step back within the last 20 years when it comes to television. Cause this isn't a sitcom, it's.... well, exactly what I described above. I understand what this show is trying to prove, and quite honestly the concept is very witty. It's just really horribly executed.
I personally think Anthony Anderson and his terrible character completely ruin what could've been a great show. I think the wife, grandpa and oldest son are really funny and bring a lot to the show but no doubt this will be canned and ABC will further continue to search to fill the fourth spot on their iconic Wednesday night sitcom lineup.
Update: I bothered watching the second episode of the show.... well I started the second episode at least. I'm not a prude and hate when TV shows talk about sex but this episode made it unbearably awkward and is an absolutely TERRIBLE choice for the second episode of any show. Again I have to say some of the other characters are likable but Anthony Andersons character really just ruins it for me. Plus he is the last person I want to see shirtless for an entire episode. Advertisements are saying that this is the #1 new comedy for the season, but I think it's just getting views because people are leaving on their tvs after Modern Family. This show is clearly getting horrible reviews.
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Good Enough
****This review is for the first four seasons**** Blackish is actually a funny show, with the main star being the dad of the family. The family's adventures are actually interesting to watch and sometimes, light enough to be easily entertaining. However, at times, it got too dramatic, or even strayed away from the comedy genre, like the first episode of the fourth season, which it was a musical. Also, even though the episodes where they were dealing with the current issues of society were strong and had an impact, some other episodes were just repeating the same thing and it felt like they were guilt cornering the audiance. Finally, the last episodes of the fourth season were out of the blue and boring.
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Terrible
I was able to successfully make it through one segment of this show and had to shut it off due to the passive aggressive lecturing and hate speech of what is and is not acceptable in today's "culture." It seemed almost as if it were a handbook on how to walk through eggshells without upsetting the egos of the uber-sensitive. For those saying "just let it go..." I can do that with stupid humor. Examples of this are Airplane!, Naked Gun, Monty Python, Top Secret!, etc... The Jeffersons, Archie Bunker and Good Times have everything already covered with brilliant story lines and writing that still hold up in today's times. Who is the writing pool for this show? Volunteers from the street? Non-paid interns? All the offspring from the old UPN failed shows?
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A Few Misses But Generally Pretty Good
Warning: Spoilers
A few weeks ago I wrote this review. In it I was critical of racial plot lines that could be offensive or at least annoying to some viewers. I stated that I was one of the viewers that was occasionally put-off by these racial plot lines but that overall I liked the series.
Well, unlike a movie, a TV series can change over time. It can even be a relatively brief time. For me, this change occurred in the past few weeks and regretfully, I am now going to give the show a thumbs down. I also took one rating point away from it. I think the problem is that a lot of people, and I am generally thinking of white people, do not want to watch a comedy that bombards them with racial stuff placed in front of them in a serious manner. Most white adult individuals have been lectured their whole lives about race and the hatefulness of racism. I considered Black-ish to be a comedy and not thinly veiled half hour of preaching on racial issues. The most recent episode was a little too much. I am not saying that I will no longer tune in Black-ish, but I am putting it on a short leash. The remote will be in my hand, ready to watch TCM.
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Great family show, not about race.
Despite what many people are saying about Blackish, it is not a racist show and it is not even a show about race. It is in fact a family show and it is a family show about culture. In the first episode it does come off as too, but by the end it comes off in a good way, many people must not have watched or didn't finish. Despite that, it delivers great laughs all through the way. The 2nd episode was more of a representation of what the show really is, which is a family show. The second episode again delivers the laughs, but it does it in a very creative and fresh way, and it also did not use anything racial at all. For obvious reasons people will not give this show a chance and they really should. Blackish is a funny and creative show, about family and culture. This successful family is living in the suburbs and adopting that culture, to the dismay of the father. Its laughs all the way through, as these parents, try to be great parents, not so much on culture, but family.
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Fingers crossed that it stays this good
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.
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Abandon preconceptions, give it a chance, and you won't be disappointed
This series might not start off great, but it has certainly won me over. Despite its title, it doesn't make everything about race (in fact deals little with race at all), but instead skillfully and hilariously considers how self-identification and values change trans-generationally. I did not give the show a 10 star rating since it still needs a little work. It's already one of my favorites and I believe it has the potential to be a great family sitcom. I believe the lower rating it has received here has little to do with the quality of the show and more to do with human tendency to categorize and then refuse to see beyond preconceptions.
To tell the truth, I had also dismissed 'Black-ish' when I first heard about it, basing this rejection simply on the title and a very cursory glance at reactionary reviews. The racist in me had immediately lumped this show together with the likes of UPN classics 'Moesha' and 'Girlfriends', shows which I never cared much for. I was therefore pleasantly surprised after I watched the first episode on Hulu...and then the second, and then subsequently caught up with all the currently available episodes (seven at the time of this review) within a day.
First off, the cast grows on you quickly. Initially, the family seemed a little oddball in how it was put together. But that went away within an episode or two, when the family dynamic was a bit more apparent. The children are adorable and I finally appreciate how beautiful Tracee Ross is (I guess I was previously blinded by my profound crush on Persia White in 'Girlfriends'). Ross' portrayal of her character is refreshingly playful; I wouldn't have known she had it in her. The writers should probably have a consulting doctor, though. It annoys me, how unrealistic the portrayal of her profession is.
Anthony Anderson's lead character is not perfect, but is on its way up. The character had started off a little unrefined but I am fully confident the writers will make full use of Anderson's talent as the show progresses. But Laurence Fishburne as "Pops" has to be my favorite casting decision. Hopefully he won't be too busy to stop by every once in a while. Another notable side character that I must mention is Deon Cole's "Charlie". I'll just abbreviate by calling him hilarious.
Now, the controversy/hoopla surrounding the show. There are, of course, those who think that the show perpetuates stereotypes about black people, that it demeans them or tries to declare what attributes define "black culture". It doesn't help that even the title of the show brings those thoughts to the forefront of the mind. I'm not black, and therefore cannot say definitively that this show isn't offensive to any specific category of people. But I honestly feel that the writers are trying to do a good thing here. They do more to try to break stereotypes than disseminate them; and they manage to do this, for the most part, in clever ways that don't look too forced. I don't feel like I'm being asked to laugh at caricatures like with other sitcoms.
But critics might say, "Why do they even have to broach the subject of race? Why can't they be a successful family which happens to be black?" If the show didn't mention race at all, but instead chronicled the comedic hijinks of an affluent family (which happens to be black), and had a completely innocuous title, there would be critics up in arms about the show being ashamed/afraid of celebrating black culture. I don't think 'The Cosby Show' or 'Family Matters' work as rebuttals to that argument – those were products of a different era, one before the fracturing of network television and before relegation of "black interest" shows to pigeonholed networks.
Anyway, you can't please everybody. I'm happy to say that this show pleases me. The show makes me reflect on how my cultural and racial identity has shaped how I perceive myself and others. It definitely makes me think about how my upbringing and self-identity differs from that of my parents, and how my children's upbringing and self-identity will certainly differ from my own. So please don't put this show into a tiny box. It's not just for black people, or just for racist people, or just for poor people. If you give it a chance, I'm certain you will see its appeal.
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Started off strong and funny...
...but right from the start of Season 3, there was lots of white-shaming. We watched it off and on over the years, but we never LOL-ed like we did the first 2 seasons.
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Kind of funny, but at the end of the day it's nothing but racial stereotypes
*Keep in mind, I am a black, liberal female.*
Based on my self-description, you might think well okay, you love this show, right? Wrong! For one thing, the title looks more like it came from the 1970s than the 21st century. It's outdated and lacks creativity. As for the episodes - this show just doesn't do it for me. It tries too hard to be woke. The audience is thrown one stereotype after another and quite frankly it gets boring. All of the white people are portrayed as idiotic and clueless, while all of the black people are constantly annoyed by their ignorance. If you want an African American TV show that's really worth watching, check out Different World. All of the characters are black (the setting of the story is an HBCU), but they don't go around emphasizing how black they are. Every episode had unique situations, and it's really interesting to watch the characters grow as they navigate social and dating relationships in college. What does Blackish offer? Nothing but watching a black man, who is married to a black woman and therefore has black children, struggle with his identity, because his family lives in a white neighborhood. How that makes for a fascinating storyline is beyond me. It sounds more like he's too worried about what other people think, regardless of their race. I did chuckle/kind of laugh at this a few times, but after whatever episode that was, I haven't watched it since. I'll take Different World over this any day.
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It was funny and then it wasn't
I really liked this show in the beginning. Good writing. It was genuinely funny and engaging. What happened? It got way to political. It also became to racist to start then tried to take on serious current events. I watch dramas if I want that. Really the double standard became too much. Half way through a season I stoped recording and deleted the remaining eps.
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Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3487356/reviews
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