It sometimes can be frustrating to review a series based solely on the pilot. That’s what I found while watching Black-ish. The first episode tries a little too hard to set up the basic premise for the series, which revolves around the frustration of an African-American father who is raising his children in a predominantly white community while trying to instill the cultural values with which he was raised.
Anthony Anderson is the dad, Andre Johnson (though he goes by ‘Dre’, except at work, where he stresses that his name is Andre). Tracee Ellis Ross is the mom (described by her husband’s narration as ‘mixed race’ within seconds of the opening scene). Her name is Rainbow. They have four kids, one of whom is Andre Jr (Marcus Scribner). His dad calls him Junior. His friends call him Andy. Andy? That doesn’t sit well with Dre, nor does the revelation that his son isn’t going out for ‘hoops’ at school, but field hockey. Field hockey???
Sighing that bit of humiliation away, Dre heads to work at his ‘white’ advertising firm (despite a fairly large number of black employees in lower levels at the firm), where he is anticipating a promotion. What he isn’t anticipating is that the promotion puts him in charge of the newly-created Urban Division. He’s in charge of black stuff? All righty then.
Back at home, the family celebrates Dre’s promotion to Senior Vice President, although he is the only one who still has a problem with the ‘Urban Division’ part of his new title…well, other than his old-school dad (Laurence Fishburne), who calls him the ‘Head Puppet of the White Man’. Dre explains that he wanted to be the first SVP of his firm who happens to be black, not the first black SVP. His wife and kids don’t see the difference. (His kids don’t even realize that Barack Obama is the first black President in America.) When Junior (who made the field hockey team) decides that he wants a bar mitzvah (the party and the presents are tough to resist, after all), Dre calls a family meeting and orders his family to be BLACK…not black-ish!
The pilot really does beat us over the head with the premise. The frustration is that this could be a good show without the constant haranguing of the whole black thing, but since the title sets up the premise, there’s no reason to think that will ever change. The family is fresh and funny, but the premise promises to be a heavy albatross around their necks.
Even though Dre seems to learn the many errors of his ways by the end of the episode, he can’t be totally redeemed, because the name of the show is…well, you know.
A generation ago, The Cosby Show faced criticism for avoiding the whole black issue, and I kind of agreed with that at the time. After watching this pilot, though, I long for the days of Cliff and Claire and their colour-blind world. Yes, there are certainly merits to exploring the culture clash between white and black America, but I’m hard-pressed to find anyone who wants to sit down for a half-hour sitcom to be clobbered over the head with it the way this pilot does it. Hopefully, this promising cast will engage viewers enough to stick around while the writers find their footing…but TV history doesn’t lean toward audiences having that kind of patience.
TV Gord’s verdict: Enjoy it while you can (cancelled early on).
