Black-ish: A Modern Family With Issues

Digital Bucket says,

ABC’s been on a roll the past few years.  Scandal is an unmitigated smash.  How To Get Away With Murder is off to a great start.  Modern Family is arguably one of the best shows on TV creating mega stars out of the previously unknown Sofia Vergara (in the U.S. any way) and Ty Burrell.  And then there’s Black-ish, the Anthony Anderson helmed comedy with a nearly all black cast that’s proving it too has a lot of heart.  Black-ish is rapidly turning out to be another pleasant ABC surprise.

by Jenna Wortham, The NY Times:

“I am rooting for “Black-ish.” I want it to succeed because the show arrives when black characters on mainstream broadcast networks who directly deal with issues like race are incredibly rare.”

Heady Stakes For ‘Black-ish’ on ABC

The first time I heard about “Black-ish,” ABC’s new sitcom about an affluent black family in Los Angeles, I was skeptical about its premise. Early commercials and previews played up tired stereotypes about “acting white,” made jokes about curvy behinds and took shots at the heritage of the show’s biracial matriarch, played by the effervescent Tracee Ellis Ross. The coup de grâce was the title, which seemed to suggest that the family’s status was not in line with it means to be authentically black in America.

But a few episodes in, the show has taken a much more nuanced and complicated dive into racial identity than initially advertised, particularly in the way it weaves plotlines around assimilation and appropriation, and how they impact black culture. In one episode, Anthony Anderson, who plays the father, frets over his son’s decision to go by Andy, instead of Andre, at his predominantly white school. In another, he lectures his son on the importance of acknowledging other black people he encounters, saying, “No matter who you are, or where you’re at, it’s your duty to give ‘the nod.’ ”

Read More @ NY Times.com