W. Kamau Bell makes a compelling case for why We Need To Talk About Cosby
Plus, a look back at one of TV's most ruefully optimistic fairy-tale endings
TV Lists Cosby
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Sunday, January 30. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
We Need To Talk About Cosby (Showtime, 10 p.m.): In the premiere of this four-part documentary series about disgraced (and currently on the loose) comedy icon and convicted sexual predator Bill Cosby, Emmy-winning comedian W. Kamau Bell grapples with a lifetime of Cosby-worship. So do we all. “America’s Dad,” as you’ll recall, not only turned into a grumpy old man scolding Black kids to pull their pants up, but was finally revealed to have been a serial rapist all while The Cosby Show was appointment viewing for a nation.
Bell, in addition to being a formidable stand-up in his own right, is no stranger to humorously yet pointedly forcing audiences to confront some very inconvenient truths. In this case, that means coming to terms with how the juggernaut that was Cosby’s effortless charisma and towering talent (and his position as a powerful Black man in Hollywood) enabled decades of credible allegations of sexual assault to be hand-waved away, all so that we could invite Cosby into our living rooms each week.
In his review of Bell’s thoughtful and deeply uncomfortable examination of cultural battle lines and the sordid reality of a cultural icon, Stephen Robinson calls We Need To Talk About Cosby, “an insightful yet sobering examination of how a monster fully infiltrated our cultural DNA.”
Regular coverage
Euphoria (HBO, 9 p.m.)
The Righteous Gemstones (HBO, 10 p.m.)
Wild card
Sports Night (For rent on Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube): Sure, you have to pay to rent this early Aaron Sorkin effort, but it’s worthwhile, particularly for the series’ final episode, “La Forza Del Destino.” (Reviewed by the estimable Donna Bowman back in the days when T.V. Club Classic was still a wonderful and unremunerative thing.)
For those in the know, this sort-of sitcom kicked off Sorkin’s examination of the private lives of people with very public jobs, here in the form of a struggling, ESPN-like sports network filled with the requisite neurotic, verbose, yet dedicated and principled types.
Before Sorkin-isms became a cliché in their own right, and long before the self-seriousness of The Newsroom or [shudder] Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip showed Sorkin’s penchant for occasionally tone-deaf speechifying, Sports Night was a bracing workplace comedy about hard-working people who gave a damn about integrity, quality work in the face of corporate pressure to compromise, and persnickety grammar jokes.
In the series finale, it looks like the suits have won, with Sports Night’s parent network of uncaring bean-counters and soulless suits seemingly having scuttled the staff’s dreams of putting on a great, idiosyncratically insightful daily enterprise.
And then, because Sorkin is Sorkin and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington taught him the dramatic potential of one grand gesture, Sports Night introduces its most fanciful element—a principled billionaire in the form of Agent Coulson himself, Clark Gregg’s wealthy entrepreneur Calvin Trager. Sports Night (the show, and the show within the show) becomes the beneficiary of the sort of happy ending Sorkin has assured us we’ll all find, as long as we care enough about doing our jobs well, and with honor.
In the same way that The West Wing assured us that American politics will always rise above mere partisan hackery, bigotry, and greed thanks to some ineffable, innate goodness in the spirit of America, Sports Night offers us another deus ex machina fairytale ending. That being, when it comes right down to it, a rich benefactor will eventually recognize that a ragtag team dedicated to putting out a damn good product deserve to be rewarded with something other than scorn, disrespect, and unemployment. Take from that what you will.
14 Comments
The british people have some experience with this. The massively popular showmaster Jimmy Saville turned out to be a total ghoul and child rapist, who was hiding behind the mask of charity. Sadly none of the accusations where taken seriously til after he was dead.
…not only turned into a grumpy old man scolding Black kids to pull their pants up…Oh he was saying stuff like that about/to Black people even in the Cosby Show days. What a sanctimonious piece of shit.Looking forward to watching Bell’s new series.
Tell The Herb About Your Pop Culture Weekend!The Nancy Drew finale was pretty satisfying (I was firmly in the “Nancy & Ace don’t need to get together” camp), and yet . . . I can’t shake the feeling that it’s not going to get renewed, which would be a real bummer!I’ve picked up a couple of the newest “women making life changes” genre shows. First, Single Drunk Female is really wonderful. If you watched The Mick, then you know that Sofia Black-D’Elia is more than capable of carrying comedy given how well she held her own playing opposite Kaitlin Olson. The thing she pulls off so well in this is the feeling of knowing what the right thing to do is, constantly struggling to do it anyway, and not feeling really happy when she does. In this week’s episode, when Sam receives her 30 day sobriety chip, it really feels like a hard fought win, but her muted reaction is a combination of feeling proud of it and knowing that rough 30 days is the start of a rough rest of her life fighting alcoholism. It’s just a really measured, lovely performance of a character you’re rooting for while simultaneously always tensely waiting for things to go sideways.The other one is Pivoting. I only even started this because I think Eliza Coupe is one of the funniest TV stars of the last 20 years and because it also has Tommy Dewey from Casual (which Eliza Coupe was also in) and that show was a shining gem which most people missed and for which Michaela Watkins was robbed of an Emmy nomination for season 3 because Hulu originals didn’t have a ton of traction 5 years ago, dammit. *deep breath* Anyway, Pivoting is really fun. I had no idea Maggie Q could do comedy, but she’s super funny to me in this. Ginnifer Goodwin is super charming, and Eliza Coupe is solidly funny as always. I think it’s also hitting me at the right time as I also contemplate career/life changes at an age when it’s probably a bad idea.
The worst time to change jobs is when you’re already dead.I don’t know about you, but in the last twenty years life expectancy for my demographic and rising retirement age suggests I will be working until I die. Doing something I loathe is not in the picture.
Yeah, I’m with you. Trying to acquire the skills needed for the change and defeat the very real ageism in what’s usually a young person’s field is a struggle though. But I am trying.
I was kinda hoping that Ryan was really dead. He is annoying as hell.
I was 100% convinced it was all real. Killing Ryan, getting rid of Nick by moving him to Miami, all very bold moves. When they “won” within the first 15 minutes I immediately started speculating about how it would all go terribly wrong.Ryan used to annoy me but I found him pretty likeable this season. It seems like he’s going to be a pretty big part of whatever plot is happening if season 4 happens.
It feels weird that Temperence got even less screentime after they recast her with a more famous actress.
I knew she was in The Magicians but I never actually saw that show. The only thing I knew her from (sadly) was Paranormal Activity 6.
The Magic Ians show is better than the books in some regards.I still don’t understand why they recast Bo Martynowska if they weren’t going to give Olivia Taylor Dudley anything meaty to do.
I remember watching that Sports Night finale with my girlfriend during law school, and it hit differently when the concept of billionaires was a fanciful ridiculous joke, and movies like The Green Hornet discuss how unlikely it was for a millionaire heir to be the sole result of a news empire rather than purchasing the news empire as a vanity plate.
TUAYPCWi caught the first episode of Vix Machina on prime. It was much faster than the podcast, and I really appreciate that. I haven’t decided if it’s good, yet.I’m finished with my watch of Children’s Hospital. It makes me want to rewatch Medical Police, but, uh, the season arc of MP hits differently than it did in January of 2020.Two of my Wheel of Time podcasts finally came back from Covid break and reviewed the final episode of season 1. I haven’t rewatched the show, yet, but I’m more interested in a rewatch as a result, so that’s fine.
“Somebody Somewhere” is for some unfathomable reason not on this list. Please start covering this gem of a show.
Seconded! It’s so good!