'Black-ish' ABC TV Series Previews & Reviews
ABC's new series "black-ish" premieres Wednesday evening and aims to address issues that underlie a "colorblind" society, or attempts at such a culture. Kenya Barris' show does not try to be politically correct-in fact, the show tries to poke holes at modern Americans' avoiding race altogether.
The series focuses on a three-generational black, upper-middle class family in Los Angeles, led by father Andre "Dre" Johnson (Anthony Anderson) and his wife, Rainbow (Tracee Ellis-Ross), along with their children and his Pops (Lawrence Fishburne). This familial structure in a sitcom has drawn several comparisons NBC's iconic "Cosby Show," which began 30 years ago.
"That should tell you everything you need to know about the state of what is now called "diversity" on American television," LA Times critic Mary McNamara said. "Bill Cosby's NBC sitcom debuted 30 years ago, for heaven's sake, and subsequent hit comedies about people whose ancestors do not hail from Western Europe can still be counted on two hands."
While television as an industry may be flawed, "black-ish" plot lines deal with the difficulties that come from being a part of a world trying to be "colorblind." As McNamara writes, this is a problem since it is not only a cultural impossibility but a limitation, as an individual should be able to tell red from green, blue from brown or black from white. This type of "extremely odd goal" has become the new term for "not racist," when ignoring differences between people is completely racist.
The patriarch of the Johnson household is fearful that his family is not in touch with its roots, but also is trying to provide the American dream to his family. As he even says in the pilot episode, "whatever American had this dream, probably wasn't from where I'm from."
The juxtaposition of dilemmas of being black or being acclimated to their neighborhood bring in the topic of what race successful people are in America.
"Those are heavy subjects," USA Today critic Robert Bianco writes. "What helps the show carry them is the good humor Anderson adds to his bluster and the chemistry he shares with Ross, who is able to convey love and exasperation in the same sentence. Together with Fishburne, they head up a family unit you can imagine following, whether every episode is socially charged or not."
"Black-ish" airs Wednesday at 9:30/8:30c on ABC.
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