Pilot Review: "Black-ish" on ABC

Black-ish

ABC, Wednesdays at 9:30 PM E.T. 

Who's involved? Black-ish has the impressive pedigree of both Anthony Anderson (Andre Johnson) and Laurence Fishbourne (Pops, who's credited as recurring). Tracee Ellis Ross has a handful of TV credits, from Girlfriends to CSI, but everyone else is relatively unknown. Creator Kenya Barris has previously been a staff writer on shows such as The Game, Girlfriends and I Hate My Teenage Daughter. This is his first gig as showrunner. 

What's it about? "Black-ish" is a family comedy that centers about what it's like to be black in an upper middle class setting. Judging by the pilot, it seems to be an attempt to mix some standard family sitcom fare (overbearing dad! kooky old grandpa! level-headed wife that constantly has to talk down her husband!) with some more pointed social commentary about race and wealth. 

Is it any good? Black-ish is the strongest comedy pilot I've seen so far this season by a comfortable mile. That isn't saying a whole lot, but there is a lot to genuinely like here. The cast is immensely talented and already has pretty incredible chemistry - and even the kids, a difficult thing for family sitcoms to get right, are interesting and well-drawn character played by very capable actors. The show does fall into some of the typical ABC family sitcom pratfalls - the narration, which seems to be an unfortunate staple for this kind of show on ABC, is full of unnecessary exposition, and there are definitely more old sitcom chestnuts being brought out to play than I would typically prefer. But Black-ish seems at least vaguely self-aware of all of this, often spinning seemingly rote plots on their heads (a scene that builds to the typical "character thinks they're getting an honor but doesn't" reveal twists into said character getting that honor after all, albeit with a "but") and allowing things like Andre's overprotection of his son to spin into such absurdist territory that you sort of forget that it's a little bit hacky. And it's easy to forgive a few generic sitcom plots when so much of the material here covers topics that we haven't seen properly explored in television comedy in quite some time. Black-ish has an interesting and unique story to tell,  and it seems capable of doing it in ways that are equally as interesting - the humor interestingly feels a lot like the humor of more "edgy" ABC fare such as Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23, which lends itself well to the show's refreshing voice. The success of Black-ish will ultimately depend on whether it can set aside its role as an ABC family comedy and explore the more nuanced material it's obviously interested in. It should still manage to be a good show either way, but the latter show is something that is much more needed on television, so let's hope it trends more towards that one.

Will I be watching again? Definitely. This is probably the only new comedy this fall that I feel a strong need to stick with right now.