It's crazy to pretend not to see a link between Lena Dunham and Issa Rae. Both started out as college students; they released short clips. Dunham exposed herself, in various ways, and generally showed fine aspiring-clown instincts. Rae did music videos and plays--and then eventually "Awkward Black Girl." Both women have written shows that embrace the idea of raunch; "Girls" gave us Hannah, exposing her vagina, in public, to the restorative rays of the sun, while "Insecure" has this great line: "He has a boner for you. It is so hard you could hang your coat on it. You could hang, like, a thick, winter coat on it." Also, both women derive humor from the idea of twenty-somethings attempting to lead a classroom. In "Girls," Hannah was woefully inappropriate ("I just want my seventh graders to understand, via Philip Roth, that some Jewish men in their twenties are both narcissistic and deeply insecure, and really secretly interested in fucking their mothers.") In "Insecure," Issa actually seems like a responsible teacher, but the jokes come from the tiny, tiny students seeing right through her. As she tries to speak about the idea of broadening one's horizons, a kid asks, "Girl, why aren't you married yet?" Issa smiles broadly, and it's a homicidal smile. "That's just not something I'm doing right now." (Later, the little kids play with the word "beach," on the way to a beach trip. "Beach better have my money!" "Beaches ain't shit!" It's a delight of this show that the kids attend a school called "Thomas Jefferson"--with all the troubling racial implications attached to those two words. And Issa works for a super-paternalistic organization called, "We Got Y'all," whose logo is a large white hand supporting three small, faceless black children. In the super-PC environment where I spend a good deal of time, I was actually encouraged, by a white, non-southern associate, to use "y'all" as a non-offensive form of address. As if that word would trip right off my New York tongue.)
-When you watched "Girls," you thought, This is stuff I've never seen before. There's a similar feeling with "Insecure." Issa's white boss (correctly) tells Issa that her heart is not in her work, then presumes to lecture her on a Kenyan proverb (!). The white twenty-somethings of We Got Y'all grow frustrated with the beach-trip idea; "can't we just take these kids to the Tolerance Museum?" They encourage Issa to include a "community-service component" in her kids' programming, and we see Issa silently thinking, Yes, thanks, I'll just line those black kids up like they're on a chain gang! She then capitulates--yes! community service!--as a way of covering up her non-preparation at a board meeting. (I love this scathing moment in the writing; it makes me think of all the ways Amy Jellicoe is also a non-savory protagonist.) "I really hope there's enough trash on the beach for the pick-up time!" says one white colleague. "If not, I brought more--in a bag--just to scatter around." "Why don't they go in the water?" asks a white colleague, as if there's an answer--one answer--to explain why each of several black children on the beach is not entering the water. Issa rolls her eyes and says, "Slavery." "Do they need sunscreen?" asks a white colleague, and Issa allows the question to go unanswered, allows the discomfort to sit there, on the sand. Later, she reveals that she actually has some sunscreen, and she says quietly, to her unprotected white colleague, Gosh, your face is looking burned! There's a discussion of Molly, a lawyer, having grown up in LA and having never gone to the beach--and you can't help but think of RuPaul, describing how her neighbors would never go off and look at the water. But RuPaul would. She was drawn to beauty. She would frequently go to the beach.
-The opening episode of "Insecure" has an iconic moment--when Issa enters a kind of spoken-word poetry competition and finds herself talking about a "broken pussy." She's describing her friend, who hasn't had sex in a long while. "Maybe it's really rough," she says, of the friend's pussy. "Maybe it's had enough. Broken pussy! Oh! Oh! Broken pussy!" This delirious and infectious song goes on and on; the crowd loves it. You understand that Issa--the character--may have a future that she can't even begin to envision. And you sense a bit of autobiography: an artist, such as Issa Rae, is a space alien, who can look at a mundane object, such as a neglected vagina, and see something no one else sees. There's much I haven't discussed yet. The scenes with Molly, where she views the new law intern as her little black-girl pet. She encourages the intern to "tone it down"; "you know how these white people are." To everyone's surprise, the intern says, "No, I won't tone it down. I didn't need to tone it down when I was editor of my law review. So thanks." And she walks away slowly and confidently. Looks can deceive. I'm fascinated by the discussion of what's best for the We Got Y'all kids: "Stop treating them like an aggregate!" says Issa. "Each one is a person!" When several write about an interest in sports, Issa says, "Ugh, black kids are always pinned to sports! Can't we expose them to the arts?" ("Which arts?" "All arts! Every single one!") Later, Issa must confront the fact that--really--a lot of her students do have a genuine interest in sports. "Well," says a colleague, "sports make you feel part of a team, and it's nice to feel part of a team." What is the right answer here? Is there a clear way forward? There isn't, and "Insecure" is bold to make this suggestion.
-I have so much more to say about this show. And I need to acknowledge "Enlightened." The start of a new series is always more fun than the ending; you're discovering the boundaries of a brand new world. An ending--by definition--needs to "close off." It's shutting down possibilities. Endings are hard. That said, "Enlightened" has one of the most celebrated series finales in recent history, and it wasn't even designed to be a series finale. I'll just spotlight a few moments I loved. The final encounter with Janice is classic Mike White. Janice and Amy seem to want to talk about Krista's pregnancy, but really they're dueling. "You know she's inducing tomorrow?" "No, Monday." "No, she changed it. She must not have called you." "Oh, well, I'll call." "I really wouldn't; she just wants to be with family." I also loved Dermot M's Wilco poster, his "People's History of the US" ("Tyranny is over!"), and the fact that, despite his social-justice interests, he's sort of a douchebag. (Amy, in a devastating tone: "You knew this was just a fling? OK. Well, I didn't.") And I loved Helen's righteous screed against Amy--followed by Helen's broad smile when she sees Amy's news coverage. Life is so complicated. "Enlightened" did a very fine job--over and over again--of pointing this out.
-When you watched "Girls," you thought, This is stuff I've never seen before. There's a similar feeling with "Insecure." Issa's white boss (correctly) tells Issa that her heart is not in her work, then presumes to lecture her on a Kenyan proverb (!). The white twenty-somethings of We Got Y'all grow frustrated with the beach-trip idea; "can't we just take these kids to the Tolerance Museum?" They encourage Issa to include a "community-service component" in her kids' programming, and we see Issa silently thinking, Yes, thanks, I'll just line those black kids up like they're on a chain gang! She then capitulates--yes! community service!--as a way of covering up her non-preparation at a board meeting. (I love this scathing moment in the writing; it makes me think of all the ways Amy Jellicoe is also a non-savory protagonist.) "I really hope there's enough trash on the beach for the pick-up time!" says one white colleague. "If not, I brought more--in a bag--just to scatter around." "Why don't they go in the water?" asks a white colleague, as if there's an answer--one answer--to explain why each of several black children on the beach is not entering the water. Issa rolls her eyes and says, "Slavery." "Do they need sunscreen?" asks a white colleague, and Issa allows the question to go unanswered, allows the discomfort to sit there, on the sand. Later, she reveals that she actually has some sunscreen, and she says quietly, to her unprotected white colleague, Gosh, your face is looking burned! There's a discussion of Molly, a lawyer, having grown up in LA and having never gone to the beach--and you can't help but think of RuPaul, describing how her neighbors would never go off and look at the water. But RuPaul would. She was drawn to beauty. She would frequently go to the beach.
-The opening episode of "Insecure" has an iconic moment--when Issa enters a kind of spoken-word poetry competition and finds herself talking about a "broken pussy." She's describing her friend, who hasn't had sex in a long while. "Maybe it's really rough," she says, of the friend's pussy. "Maybe it's had enough. Broken pussy! Oh! Oh! Broken pussy!" This delirious and infectious song goes on and on; the crowd loves it. You understand that Issa--the character--may have a future that she can't even begin to envision. And you sense a bit of autobiography: an artist, such as Issa Rae, is a space alien, who can look at a mundane object, such as a neglected vagina, and see something no one else sees. There's much I haven't discussed yet. The scenes with Molly, where she views the new law intern as her little black-girl pet. She encourages the intern to "tone it down"; "you know how these white people are." To everyone's surprise, the intern says, "No, I won't tone it down. I didn't need to tone it down when I was editor of my law review. So thanks." And she walks away slowly and confidently. Looks can deceive. I'm fascinated by the discussion of what's best for the We Got Y'all kids: "Stop treating them like an aggregate!" says Issa. "Each one is a person!" When several write about an interest in sports, Issa says, "Ugh, black kids are always pinned to sports! Can't we expose them to the arts?" ("Which arts?" "All arts! Every single one!") Later, Issa must confront the fact that--really--a lot of her students do have a genuine interest in sports. "Well," says a colleague, "sports make you feel part of a team, and it's nice to feel part of a team." What is the right answer here? Is there a clear way forward? There isn't, and "Insecure" is bold to make this suggestion.
-I have so much more to say about this show. And I need to acknowledge "Enlightened." The start of a new series is always more fun than the ending; you're discovering the boundaries of a brand new world. An ending--by definition--needs to "close off." It's shutting down possibilities. Endings are hard. That said, "Enlightened" has one of the most celebrated series finales in recent history, and it wasn't even designed to be a series finale. I'll just spotlight a few moments I loved. The final encounter with Janice is classic Mike White. Janice and Amy seem to want to talk about Krista's pregnancy, but really they're dueling. "You know she's inducing tomorrow?" "No, Monday." "No, she changed it. She must not have called you." "Oh, well, I'll call." "I really wouldn't; she just wants to be with family." I also loved Dermot M's Wilco poster, his "People's History of the US" ("Tyranny is over!"), and the fact that, despite his social-justice interests, he's sort of a douchebag. (Amy, in a devastating tone: "You knew this was just a fling? OK. Well, I didn't.") And I loved Helen's righteous screed against Amy--followed by Helen's broad smile when she sees Amy's news coverage. Life is so complicated. "Enlightened" did a very fine job--over and over again--of pointing this out.
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