We have a nice line-up of film and television for you to check out!! The weather is changing, a little more crisp in the air, so why not bundle up and watch something new!! Check out this week’s new trailers, see below:
Season 2-Invincible (Streaming on Prime Video November 3rd)
The Curse (Streaming on Showtime/Paramount+ November 10th)
Squid Game: The Challenge (Streaming on Netflix November 22nd)
Faraway Downs (Streaming on Hulu November 26th)
Candy Cane Lane (Streaming on Prime Video December 1st)
Got another list of goodies waiting for you to push play!! A good mix of film and television to make you laugh, have you on the edge of your seat, and even make you go hmmmm. And as an extra bonus I dropped a few potential summer hits for you too!! Check them out below:
Season 3-A Black Lady Sketch Show (Streaming on HBO Max April 8th)
2021 is just about over, but not before I share a few of my pop culture faves!! I wanted to compile a list of few of favorite shows, movies, comic books, documentaries, short films, podcasts, and soundtracks that made an impact on me in a major way this year!!
These are a few of my favorite things from 2021…Check them out below*:
Comic Books/Graphic Novels
Eve (Victor LaValle, Boom! Studios)
Far Sector (N.K. Jemisin/Jamal Campbell, DC Comics)
Nubia and the Amazons (Stephanie Williams/Ayala Vita, DC Comics)
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts (Rebecca Hall/Penguin Books)
Run: Book One (John Lewis/Andrew Aydin/Nate Powell/L. Fury, Abrams Books)
Podcasts: True-crime reigned supreme in this category!! Gotta love a good mystery.
Jemele Hill is Unbothered
Suspect
Over My Dead Body
Dr. Death
Movies
The Harder They Fall (Netflix): An ode to Westerns done in style!!
No Time To Die: Ahhh where will the Bond legacy go next
Candyman: Thank you Nia Dacosta for this beautiful piece of horror!!
Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings: 10/10
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Zola: A movie that offers A LOT of different perspectives regarding one weekend!
The Unforgivable (Netflix)
Army of the Dead/Army of Thieves (Netflix)
Gunpowder Milkshake (Netflix): More action films with women leads especially those of color is definitely needed!!
Raya and the Last Dragon
Judas and the Black Messiah
King Richard
Concrete Cowboy (Netflix): I’m a sucker for a good western and some Black history!
Cruella: Who says you can’t like villains!
Dune
The Tomorrow War (Prime Video)
Red Notice (Netflix): Ryan Reynolds…That’s all I gotta say!
Outside the Wire (Netflix)
Short Films
Us Again (Disney+)
Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma
Twenty Something (Disney+)
Bao (Disney+)
For the Birds (Disney+)
Loop (Disney+)
How to Raise a Black Boy
Documentary
My Name is Pauli Murray
Summer of Soul (Hulu)
Pride (Hulu)
This is Pop (Netflix)
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (Netflix)
Mary J. Blige’s My Life (Prime Video)
Television Shows
Insecure (HBO Max): That last episode… (chef’s kiss)….The end of an era…Sunday nights will never be the same… (le sigh) #DayOne
The Wonder Years (ABC): Nostalgia, Comedy and the Black Experience
The Underground (Prime Video): Powerful, Visual American History Lesson
Invincible (Prime Video)
Wheel of Time (Prime Video): Definitely up there with Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings
The White Lotus (HBO Max): I have never been so drawn into a show that made me laugh, cringe, drop my jaw, and so much more…Everything is not always what it seems…
Nine Perfect Strangers (Hulu): I do believe what happened actually took place in real life, which is pretty scary if it did…
Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
Love Life (Season 2) (HBO Max): I LOVE #BLACKLOVE and ALL its many layers!
Queen Sugar (OWN Network): Another show that when it comes to a close, I will truly miss this show!! #DayOne
Arcane (Netflix): Definitely looking forward to the next season! Fun to watch!
The Falcon and Winter Soldier (Disney+): My fave of the Marvel series on Disney+ so far…They pulled out all kinds of surprises!!
What If…? (Disney+): Still missing Chadwick Boseman
Run the World (Starz): Love seeing Black female friendships and when cities become actors (I see you Harlem!)
Succession (HBO Max): All I can say is just watch it!!
Reservation Dogs (Hulu): Please more of this!!
Evil (Paramount+): Catholicism is a whole different beast (pun intended)
Blood and Water (Netflix): Had to represent SA!!
Cruel Summer (Hulu): Shout out to my sista-friend Lesley Bonner for this one!! Talk about being drawn in!! It’s all about the little details!
Soundtracks (Television and Film) (I did this instead to avoid having to narrow it down to one artist/group or album)
The Harder They Fall
Insecure (I owe a great deal to this soundtrack, I became aware and a fan of so many new artists because of each seasons soundtrack!!)
Judas and the Black Messiah
Coming 2 America
Cruella
BMF
Queen Sugar
Tom & Jerry (Now this one surprised me!! But trust me on this one!)
The new season of Insecure has started and we are 2 episodes!! Let me tell you as someone who has been watching the show since DAY ONE, Issa rae and the show never ceases to amaze me!! So much so that I had to write down a few notes in the form of a ‘thank you’ note post expressing my appreciation!! I remember actually hearing about the show in 2016 while vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard and attending the annual MVAAFF. If nothing else I had planned to watched the series off the strength of Issa Rae’s previous web series “Awkward Black Girl” and the fact that it was a series about young Black professionals. With little to no expectations, like many others we just dived in. In the words of R&B singer Vivian Green, we were always riding an “emotional rollercoaster” 30 mins at a time when it came to this show.
It is not often that you find a show that tells so many stories and is so relatable that you have to step back and say “damn that’s really close to my life” or “I totally know that feeling!” Every season has created an on-going dialogue, surrounding everything from entrepreneurship to family planning (birth and death) to complex relationships/dating to self-preservation to job security to simply just believing in one’s self, all topics that will surely continue linger in the atmosphere even after the last and final episode. For me, Insecure is the Living Single of its time! As a professional, awkward, funny, driven Black woman seeing the various experiences of Black womanhood play out on-screen via the vision of a Black woman always gave me a sense of hope and promise.
And so I have to thank you for showing the many complex layers of relationships and friendship and that they are not perfect nor should we strive for them to be. To be honest in each of the four main Black female characters (Issa, Molly, Kelli, and Tiffany) I found a piece of myself in each character. That’s what makes being a Black woman so great!! Life truly is a learning process. You provided us another outlet that permits us to stumble, fail, get back up, find joy, be angry, and persevere!!
Black women friendships as personified in HBO’s Insecure
Thank you for normalizing therapy, particularly for Black women…The familiarity of each session was so very refreshing….this is so needed and necessary. The way therapy is showcased on this show is a great example of how it can be utilized in fiction but translate into reality.
Molly in a therapy session on ‘Insecure’ Season 2-Episode 2 “Hella Questions”
The fashion and hair…So versatile..Daring…Forward-thinking…Inspiring…I definitely picked up a few things and added them to my closet.
How about all the cameos….Syd, Sterling K. Brown, Lil Rel Howery, Kyla Pratt, Luke James, Kofi Siriboe, Jidenna, Hayley Kiyoko, Dawn Richard, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and many more…
I will always look at couches, Best Buy shirts, and Coachella very differently and I’m good with that!
New and improved vocabulary…words/concepts/phrases like ‘zaddy’, ‘ho-tation’, ‘Go for it, go for it, go! Ho for it, ho for it, ho!’, ‘work in progress’, ‘thug yoda’, and ‘we got y’all’ will always have a special place in the Black community.
Thank you for the location…location…location!!
Oh and I cannot forget the amazing soundtracks, my music game continues to level up thanks to this show!!
Official ‘Insecure’ Playlist from Spotify
Watching this show this show for me personally allowed me to have those moments of thinking about how to evaluate my life and actions. Lots of growth and self-reflection!! I definitely increased my intake of daily affirmations and learned to truly be honest with myself and others. About five years ago, Issa Rae made a statement to NPR that definitely resonated then and even more so now, “We don’t get to just have a show about regular Black people being basic.” Who would have thought basic, regular, and awkwardness were just the things we needed in life.
Once again my Sunday nights will never be the same after Insecure comes to a final close. Insecure will join such shows as Lovecraft Country, Power, and The Wire, as premium channels shows that were well worth the extra purchasing cost.
So when it is all said and done…Issa you switched up the tv landscape around how we CAN center Black people and culture in a variety of ways….And I thank you Issa Rae for making this contribution to the pop culture landscape!!
Black Future Feminist 