Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas only lasted two seasons before HBO cancelled it. This series set itself apart from other shows that had hosts who started on The Daily Show, including Larry Wilmore, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Hassan Minaj and Jordan Klepper. Cenac’s persona, the series aesthetic and subject matter bore a closer resemblance to a series than the customary news program that changes topics every episode. In the interest of full disclosure, I never saw Bee or Klepper’s shows because I do not have cable.
Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas’ titular host never acts as if he is an actual news correspondent or a late night talk show host. He is completely laid back, kooky with a surreal, every man style more expected from a series like Candid Camera than a journalist. His show may cover serious subjects, but the documentary series has a seventies adult PBS aesthetic like Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact though it is definitely not suitable for young children.
Each season of Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas has ten episodes that run roughly half hour long so it is possible and preferable to watch a single season in one sitting. Each season has an overarching theme. The first season, which originally aired in 2018, addressed policing. The second season, which originally aired in 2019, focused on education. Maybe they cancelled the series because it was a little too prophetic, and the third season was supposed to focus on global pandemics. When the 2018 season ended, it was not “defund the police,” but “abolish the police.”
Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas’ episode format, though uniform, was felt unpredictable and counterintuitive, which is probably why the series could not get a loyal, sizeable viewership. Each episode has three segments punctuated with comedic interludes involving Cenac interacting with his décor as if he regularly hangs out in his studio like a hipster, profane yet chill Mister Rogers meets Salvador Dali. My favorite one has a rare guest appearance with Jason Sudeikis as the Hang in There poster cat. There are robots and pigeon regulars.
Each episode’s first segment is the second longest segment and addresses a topic that is not necessarily related to the season’s theme, but delves into a societal problem. Cenac gets an opportunity to comedically riff about an issue and probably bears the closest resemblance to Minaj’s show in substance. It is as close as Cenac gets to giving a TED talk, but with none of the stylistic expectations of one. The second segment is the shortest and titled “A Modest Proposal.” It is a comedic palette cleanser to prepare us for the most important segment. The final segment is the longest and is the thematic portion. Cenac travels around the country and interviews people. The segments are punctuated with talking head experts who appear confessional style on a television screen in the studio. It is definitely the strongest part of Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, but I felt that these segments should have also worked if only the thematic segments were viewed sequentially.
The episode format is probably a way to dilute the heaviness of the season’s heavy themes, which has more in common with an investigative journalist news magazine like 60 Minutes, but it also probably contributed to making the overall message of the thematic potion less memorable. I would have preferred if the entire episode was devoted to the theme. Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas prefers to have more options-a set topic and freedom to improvise. Each segment felt thoughtful, well researched and full of understated hilarity.
My favorite part of Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas is how unexpectedly comprehensive the thematic portions are when viewed in one sitting. He will give each position time to talk so it is not always obvious that the juxtaposition is actually debunking the prior point. Where most news programs would be satisfied with the end of a story, Cenac’s approach is to delve a little deeper than most segments would go. Fr instance, in the neighborhood policing segment, it feels as if everyone gets to say their opinion, but then he waits a beat and ends on a note that would be the beginning of another segment—what happens when those neighborhood cops shot a woman with a knife and outrage the neighborhood. In the school thematic segment, he shows how a school succeeded in fighting against getting closed, but ends on a low note suggesting that in spite of their efforts, it will not be sustainable.
Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas never leaves a viewer thinking that a systemic issue is simple or has a pat solution. He tries to go into socioeconomic issues that may not necessarily be seen as intrinsic to the problem. The police theme delved into training, lack of apologies, accountability strategies, community policing, overpolicing in certain communities, especially the homeless, mentally ill and minority communities, the media glorification of guns and alternative, police misconduct such as sexual crimes and harassment, war on drugs, restorative justice and civilians keeping police accountable. In contrast, most news segments only focus on the most sensational, extreme aspect of policing, extrajudicial executions. Cenac shows a sensitivity and provides equal air time to the community and police, but even he is shocked when the police most concerned with their public persona still defaulted to shooting and killing.
Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas education theme felt as if he was really hitting his stride. He initially focused on the widespread success of a recent West Virginia teacher strike, but also showed how historically even a victory only has a short-term effect before teachers have to fight the same battle. Then he touched on the school to prison pipeline and how kids are trained to feel like prisoners. The thematic segment also touched on mental health programs, sex education, inequitable funding of schools because of the tax structure and treating kids as a source of profit in food distribution. He also asks if school, including higher education, is actually training people in a way that will make them eligible to be gainfully employed in a world with automation with a hard look at for profit schools. He saves the most difficult issues immigration and segregation for the last two episodes. Even though so many people are working to improve the educational environment, it feels as if it is so easy to go back to default settings. It is a little dispiriting.
If Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas could not sustain viewers’ attention, it is because he never ends on a happy note even when the story seems to oblige. Cenac has a sense of historicity regarding the thematic problems that he examines, which is easy to lose when a person only has a limited amount of time to convey information to an audience.
I secretly hope that HBO or another platform considers bringing Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas back. It works better as a binge viewing because the surreal notes are more jarring if you watch it weekly. I began to internally scream with joy when I saw when and how a particular graphic would appear each episode. Having another person to riff with in a ridiculous fashion also helped, but was he authorized to have Batman make a guest appearance?
