And it finds those by juxtaposing the generations and races against each other. There is a time for humor, of course, and when “The Word” isn’t checking in on lame Junior or a thoroughly disinterested Zoey, it’s an episode that offers plenty of hilarity with its poignant observations, heightening the reality the show lives in, without cheapening the points it wants to make about racial inequality. Rules defined by white culture, I might add, and as Dre considers that important distinction, he delivers arguably the most effective cultural examination Black-ish has ever offered, one that comes without the normal complications or nonsensical “hilarity” Season 1 tried to temper scenes with. The debate Dre finds himself in with his parents, colleagues, and school board members is really a gateway to a much larger observation about society, and how hard it can be to find simple truth when hundreds of years of ugly history and complicated non-written rules cloud an issue. That scene speaks to something beyond just the “n-word” debate: it speaks to the inadequacies of judgment faced everyday by those in this country who find themselves in the minority of any given situation. When Dre tells the board that it makes no sense how Quentin Tarantino can win Oscars for writing that word over and over, yet Dre’s eight-year-old son could get expelled for a mishap during a musical performance, Anthony Anderson’s performance turns it into one of the best scenes of the show.
Humor flows from the debates he has with co-workers and family members, and it leads to a monologue that on many other family shows would feel preachy and reductive. “The Word” takes a vastly different approach: instead of Dre the instigator, “The Word” offers us Dre the inquisitive, and it makes all the difference. Last season, this would’ve led to an angry Dre rampage, with all the immature regression and slapstick that went along with it.
#Black ish season 2 episode 14 review how to#
And of course, then there’s Dre’s white colleagues, who have no idea how to even approach the topic. Immediately, “The Word” begins to engage with the many dichotomies in everyone’s individual philosophies surrounding the word: Bow thinks it has no place in the world, while Dre thinks it is important to say it as part of redefining the word’s nature, and his parents refuse to admit how often it’s featured in their own vocabularies. When Jack gets suspended for performing the explicit version of Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” at a school talent show, he faces expulsion under the “no tolerance” policy Bow hilariously fought for years earlier. “The Word” is a much more balanced approach to storytelling and cultural observation, and it makes all the difference in the episode’s success.įor a season premiere, “The Word” is remarkably bold, both in its subject matter, and the ideologies it presents as it explores the use of the “n-word” in 2015 culture. Too often in its first season, it isolated those generations (or in the case of the eldest, didn’t feature them at all) in different stories, ignoring anything but the most obvious cross-examinations of parent and children.
At its heart, Black-ish wants to be a show that explores the generational differences in our approach to racial identity within American culture. However, it’s the tweaks between seasons to the show’s formula that’s even more encouraging. Given Black-ish‘s general disinterest in engaging with its cultural examinations on a deep, engaging level in its first season, how “The Word” plays out is an extremely promising sign for the show.
0 kommentar(er)
