I was going to watch Black-ish and Fresh off the Boat regardless of quality because historically there are few to zero shows on network tv about Black or Asian families. It would have to be epically wretched for me not to watch it, which neither was.
I am not an Anthony Anderson fan. He is a needy actor: he goes bigger than necessary and likes to suck the oxygen out of the room. You would think that his brief stint in dramas such as Law & Order would have smoothed out his rough edges, but he has not changed a bit. There is a lot of Anthony Anderson in his portrayal of Dre in Black-ish. Dre is a barely mature enough manchild, and it is amazing that he rose to success considering how easy he gets thrown by daily life.
Fortunately the rest of the cast is amazing. I am now a huge fan of Tracee Ellis Ross, who strikes a perfect balance of wide-eyed wackiness and responsibility. Apparently I’ve been under a rock not to know about her professional excellence sooner. The kids are perfect. The extended family is perfect. The coworkers are perfect. The guest supporting actors are perfect EXCEPT Michael Rappaport. While I don’t hate Michael Rappaport, I was incredibly annoyed that all his dreams came true because he could finally pretend that he was blacker than a black person in Switch Hitting. Please never bring him back.
The stories are generally solid sitcom hilarity. Some episodes were so funny that Mom and I could not stop laughing. Unfortunately the rare crap episodes are so bad that it makes you wonder if the funniness was in your imagination: Martin Luther sKiing Day and Pops’ Pops’ Pops, which were both so self-conscious and awkward that I wondered why no one else noticed and stopped the travesty unfolding before them.
Black-ish does display problematic elements that didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the show, but I noted: economic privilege with conspicuous consumption, which was explicitly addressed in The Gift of Hunger, women constantly in conflict/competition and rarely shown as friends, particularly Bow’s friends in The Real World, joking about the paternity of Zoey and introducing the constant judging of whether or not Bow is a worthy spouse for Dre, also particularly in The Real World, and Ruby’s character which is a bit of a stereotype, but if I get Jennifer Lewis, I kind of don’t care, but I do. There is also an implicit judgment that there is a standard black way of being and by being biracial, Bow is implicitly viewed as a bit of a joke who can never fully achieve that standard.
Mom and I have very different tastes, but Black-ish appeals to both of us, which is what a good sitcom is supposed to do: appeal to diverse demographics. Black-ish can count on us to remain viewers.