This is a preview of our pop culture newsletter The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, written by senior entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox each week, sign up for it here.
There are many tools at our disposal to activate, demand change, inform, and amplify right now, including your television. There is no equating it to the work being done on the streets, in protests, at the ballot box, through petitions and grassroots campaigns, and with donations. But there is action and amplification—and therefore change you can advocate for—through the content choices you make.
Now, especially, is a time to celebrate black lives and the work of black creators, whose output is so often marginalized and dismissed, and whose barriers to success are systemically higher. Make the choice to engage through empathy with these characters, learn through their experiences, and, most importantly, signal through your viewership that these creators and these stories matter.
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HBO’s new series, I May Destroy You, which premieres Sunday, is a great start.
The series, from Ghanaian-British creator-actress Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum), makes masterful use of her intense screen presence, keen eye for comedy, and sharp pulse on both the extremism and the extreme nuances of modern social issues.
It’s a provocative, invigorating, and remarkably shaded look at consent and sexual assault, covering a huge swath of the conversation but rooting it in one specific story: Coel’s character, Arabella, piecing together the details of the night she was raped. It consistently goes places you don’t expect and tackles the issue from angles you don’t see coming, all centered around a performance from Coel that is thrillingly unpredictable.
It premieres Sunday night after Insecure on HBO, which is our next recommendation. Insecure’s creators posted this message to fans last weekend: “We hope this celebration of Black life, love, and community can provide some solace to anyone hurting or needs a laugh.” It’s been a standout season of the series, with some of its bravest writing and best performances—easily one of the best shows airing on television right now.
If you’re looking for something activating to watch on Netflix, there’s Ava DuVernay’s documentary about the incarceration crisis, The 13th. Her limited series about the Exonerated Five, When They See Us, is also on the streaming platform, as is American Son, starring Kerry Washington, the searing dramedy series Dear White People, and the genre-bending teen drama See You Yesterday. You can also stream Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight on the service.
Jenkins’ sensational If Beale Street Could Talk is on Hulu, as is the underappreciated Sorry to Bother You from Boots Riley and Regina Hall’s award-worthy performance in Support the Girls. The Lakeith Stanfield-Issa Rae romantic drama The Photograph is on demand. The Hate U Give is on Cinemax. Native Son is available to watch on HBO and its streaming services.
Watch these things. Discover more—there’s so much more. Yes, it’s just a gesture, but it is one that’s worth something.
People are processing what is happening right now in their own individual ways. That became horrifyingly clear this week when the Black Eyed Peas song “Where Is the Love?” re-entered the iTunes single chart and The Help began trending on Netflix. Truly the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad of entertainment choices for this moment.
A lot of brands posted a lot of dumbass statements this week, hamfistedly attempting to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests and/or prove they are not racist. Ben & Jerry’s was not one of them.
It is not an exaggeration when I say that I would vote Ben and his buddy Jerry into office—or, more realistically, whoever from their communications team drafted their protest response. Pepsi did not solve racism, but Chunky Monkey is sure as hell doing its part.
Read their post in full here, complete with a four-pillar set of demands for action.
There are so many more important things to talk about right now, but if anyone else has more gossip about Lea Michele to dish, I’ll just say it might be your civic duty to share it and give people who are weathering so much the juicy drama they crave.
I May Destroy You: It’s prickly and uncomfortable, which is why you should watch.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars: Everyone’s favorite fracking boomer brings back her girls.
Momma, I Made It!: Insecure star Yvonne Orji’s first stand-up special is a delight.
Queer Eye: Watch it, cry, do the Queer Eye thing.
13 Reasons Why: This show has been so dangerous and problematic, and finally it’s ending.
