It took me forever and a day to get up a Black Panther review but it is finally, FINALLY here. And yes I am talking a mile a minute cause my brain is going 5 ways to the wind with everything whirling, so turn on the captions and grab you a drink. I talked through the review on four points. Was Eric Killmonger wrong or right? He was definitely a hotep. The power of Wakanda, much like the real world, was Black women. Could Wakanda exist in real day Africa? What does Wakanda mean for the African diaspora? The boldest
TV/Film Reviews
The Netflix documentary is the latest viral documentary tackling the American food complex and every one of us has had a bevy of Facebook friends announcing they were going cold turkey vegan...or is it cold tofu vegan? Produced by Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn, who are also the minds behind Cowspiracy, What the Healthy (WTH) has definitely made a splash. In turn, I find it to be an excellent lesson on the downfalls of propaganda highlighting how much we as society love to be lied to as long as the lie speaks to our emotional sensibility. People love to be
Insecure's soundtrack is craftily selected and perfectly place songs. It looks like we're going to be bodyrolling to season two the whole damn time. On the "nebulous fuck" as Issa describes the 10 second pelvic banging she did with Lawrence to Molly. hazy does some to be an accurate description. Issa ain’t so much as drop it low, more of laid it back and spread it wide on that couch for Lawrence. The whole Lawrence Hive movement is going to show how dense, dumb and annoying Black men in their ain’t shit ways can be. Because who really thought Lawrence
There is something truly miraculous about a show created by Black women, largely produced by Black women, managing to create a character that Black men can rally behind. Hilarious because the #LawrenceHive entirely exists as a means for Black men to build a wall that protects their own insecurities and ain’t shit ways. The truth of the matter is there isn’t any character at that stage of the storyline on Insecure that is worth capping for. They all have major hubris that needs a good sit down with a (Black) therapist. Kudos to Molly for taking the first leap. Issa
This should have been up yesterday but retrograde gonna retrograde and here we is. I can still feel accomplished I didn't skip a week and combine reviews, that this is for one whole episode that was really good. Cato is forced to enter into a deal with Patsy that has him kidnapping free Black man into slavery so she can sell them for $3 a pop. Unbelievable. He does this in the name of protecting his British lover Devi and it's so many holes in how we got here that I'm just flummoxed. But for all the critiques I have,
Retrograde is in full effect and I recorded this review with my mic off so the audio will be different. But let us get into it. Last week, I didn't do a traditional review instead I talked about the importance of Ernestine's storyline because it's important very important to the narrative casted over Black women and the crackhead trope. For all intents and purposes, Ernestine is a crackhead, but the way her story is developed and how we connect to her humanity gives us a different perspective on how we have been shaped to view the "crack epidemic" and the
Ernestine in season two is in the midst of major torment as she has been sold to a South Carolina plantation, fallen into a physically abusive relationship with another field slave and is sniffing ether to pass through the days of doing hard labor in the swampy fields. Her past sins and guilts are haunting her as the spirit of Pearly Mae, her son Sam and first husband, appear to her remind her of what she thought she could overcome but it's all really overcame her. In Season two of WGN's Underground, Ernestine is a crackhead. Her storyline addresses several layers
My birthday was last weekend, March 25th, so I apologize for the supreme tardiness of this reviews. I'm putting together a whole video on Ernestine because her storyline these season is highlighting so many struggles of Black women's narratives throughout history and it's important, very important. Similar to what I discussed in Beyonce's Grammy performance and the image of Black motherhood. That Ernestine video will be up on my YouTube channel top of next week, along with a blog post because there is so much context to discuss. Click play for the latest review and help me out with some of
I heard you, I heard you, so here we is. I have figured out a way to give you what you want and show my gratitude for my awesome audience of #SmartBrownGirl. I will be reviewing Underground on my blog. It took me a minute to get on board and this week is my birthday, hence the late post and I don't know if I will be able to get a review up for episode 3 tomorrow. But let's get on with the show and have a ki with episode 1 and 2 of WGN's Underground. Play the video and comment below
Surprise, surprise, I’ll be doing reviews of the second season of OWN Tv’s Greenleaf. Thank god for the marketing push that had me spend my whole weekend obsesses, absorbed with watching the first season of Greenleaf on Netflix. It is that good. And since Being Mary Jane was so damn wacktastic this season (you can still catch my reviews of that on TheRoot.com), I decided Greenleaf would be a great time to review and pick my skills up in time for the second season of Insecure which comes back to HBO on June 23rd. So much good TV. I am
Originally published on TheRoot.com Being Mary Jane is back for a fourth season, and Mary Jane Paul is still pompously lacking in self-awareness. While we open to M.J.'s 6-inch heels sauntering down the hallway to a sexy song, it doesn’t take long for M.J. to almost completely unravel in her most vulnerable space: her sexuality and pursuit of love. The show picks up by fast-forwarding a year from where the finale left off. The cliffhangers of Niecy’s assault by the police during an erroneous traffic stop and Patrick’s pill-popping straining his relationship with his father, Paul Sr., who is grappling
Ava Duvernay’s talent is unmistakable. 13th (released on Netflix) is a beautifully depressing historical look at the criminalization of Black people in America, which holds 1/4th of the incarcerated population in the world. 13th is absolutely heavy, almost a reverse catharsis. Part of me is deeply relieved that a Black woman came through and did what Tariq could never do with the ahistorical poisonous kool aid that is Hidden Colors. The other part is deeply pained that even though I knew this history, the weight of it all still sits like a boulder in the pathway of my community’s ability to become
Folks are tiring of the conversation around Nate Parker’s Birth of a Nation, a film that started out this year with much hype and has since been marred in controversy. Previously I published a video analyzing the Penn State rape case that involved Parker and his BOAN co-writer Jean Celestin in the late nineties. Since this conversation has become so polarizing, with scathing criticisms of the historical inaccuracy and people I know and respect saying that the film was a must watch, I decided to check it out. It’s become increasingly difficult to counter some of the anti-Black woman rhetoric that has
Where to begin with season 4 of Orange is the New Black. I marathoned through this season on a Monday, having passively watched the first half to the season that Saturday without really paying attention. Then I got to episode 8 and realized it was getting real, so I rewinded back to the beginning to give it my full attention. After a melodramatic Season 3, I was not expecting this season to come back with such a bang. But consider the time, consider the year, consider yesterday….everyday this year feels like too damn much. And OITNB rolled up that feeling packing
Do we call this a redux, reboot, redo? The new Roots miniseries that aired in four parts about two weeks ago. I've been getting a ton of requests, so I finally conceded. I just ask that you support, share it, like it, comment, watch an ad and/or become a Patron. Cause yes, doing the Underground reviews killed my analytics for the month with the low views, so when I go to pitch other opportunities and they point out last months numbers (it's happened a few a times hence why it's a point for me) I'm like ohhh yeah 'bout that,