#Index of series black ish season 2 series#

Series like вЂњblack-ishвЂќ and вЂњEmpireвЂќ can pass a sort of racial version of the Bechdel Test, the feminist-criticism measure of whether a story has two female characters who talk to each other about something besides a man: having minority characters talk about race in a way thatвЂ™s not always in relation to white people.

#Index of series black ish season 2 tv#

And if the TV industry is a little prematurely self-congratulatory (вЂњRacism is over!вЂќ joked the host Andy Samberg), itвЂ™s good that networks are conscious of casting more diversely across the schedule.Д«ut itвЂ™s also valuable to have deep minority representation within individual shows, as necessarily happens on family comedies and dramas. That approach from last TV season paid off at this yearвЂ™s Emmy Awards, as Viola Davis of вЂњHow to Get Away With MurderвЂќ became the first African-American to win the best actress award. IвЂ™m guessing the subject will not come up on, say, вЂњModern Family.вЂќ) (In a curious coincidence, both this and the вЂњblack-ishвЂќ premiere commented on the CNN anchor Don LemonвЂ™s having held up a sign bearing the n-word on the air, which he did in June after President Obama used it on Marc MaronвЂ™s podcast. (Larger issues aside, Lucious is guilty of the murder heвЂ™s imprisoned for.) But above all, it was simply an astonishing statement to open the yearвЂ™s biggest new mainstream-TV hit the first words of the episode were statistics on the rate of black male incarceration in the United States.ДЄnd it happened only because a network realized it was good business to have a prime-time schedule that looked more like America. Like everything in вЂњEmpire,вЂќ the messages and implications of this cry for justice were messy and challenging to untangle. Taking the stage, Cookie sounds less like a soap-opera queen than an uprisingвЂ™s leader, crying вЂњIt is a system that must be dismantled, piece by pieceвЂќ as the camera flits across New York Police Department emblems on uniforms in the crowd. HensonвЂ™s Cookie was lowered to the stage in the costume of a caged gorilla), and unapologetically political, building to a cry - вЂњHow much longer?вЂќ - that resonated far beyond LuciousвЂ™s case, on a show that had already acknowledged the #BlackLivesMatter protests. It was fiery, audaciously theatrical and symbolic ( Taraji P. As with last seasonвЂ™s вЂњCrime and Punishment,вЂќ a timely, post-Adrian Peterson episode about spanking, it was both broadly hilarious and impressively nuanced for a broadcast comedy.Д®very bit as impressive, if very different in tone, was the opening scene of WednesdayвЂ™s Season 2 premiere of FoxвЂ™s вЂњEmpire,вЂќ involving a protest concert for a jailed Lucious Lyon. вЂњThe WordвЂќ included nearly every racial angle, culminating in a hilarious workplace seminar on the various Hispanic subgroups that do and do not get a pass on using the slur.

Gen-X Andre is a believer in вЂњreclaimingвЂќ the word вЂњas a term of colloquialism and power.вЂќ That put him at odds with his parents, who do use it, but only, in his motherвЂ™s inimitable words, as вЂњa judgment said with disdainful indictment.вЂќ Likewise with his daughter Zoey, who doesnвЂ™t see why her white friends shouldnвЂ™t use it. Andre, the familyвЂ™s patriarch - well, it turns out he shared the song (his favorite) with Jack. The familyвЂ™s mother, Rainbow, the liberal child of a racially mixed marriage, is zero-tolerance on the epithet. Here, the divide cut across cultural and generational lines. The вЂњblack-ishвЂќ episode bleeped it as well.) (Yes, I am avoiding using the epithet, which risks investing it with that much more power. Which means that in front of a horrified crowd of parents and teachers, a smiling, innocent Jack used the racial epithet for an African-American, the broke variety of which the songвЂ™s subject ainвЂ™t messing with. At a school talent show, Jack, the youngest son of the Johnsons, performed a dance and rap of Kanye WestвЂ™s вЂњGold DiggerвЂќ - and not, as his twin sister, Diane, begged him, the radio edit.

вЂњThe Word,вЂќ Wednesday nightвЂ™s second-season premiere of вЂњblack-ish,вЂќ demonstrated both what a terrific show that ABC family comedy has become and how lucky we are to have it.

With racial controversies, especially those involving African-Americans, increasingly making headlines over the past year, it would have been that much more glaring if there were only lily-white TV families to answer back. Last fallвЂ™s TV diversity revolution, in which several of the broadcast networksвЂ™ best new shows featured minority lead characters, was long overdue.