Post-Modern Family

The hot new sitcom this season, if for no other reason than it follows Modern Family, is Black-ish.  It's about a successful, trailblazing black family living in Beverly Hills.  A sitcom featuring a rich, intact black family has raised comparisons to The Cosby Show--comparisons the cast actually hopes for. The father, Andre Johnson, is played by Anthony Anderson, an actor I've always liked. Andre's father, who doesn't let him get away with anything, is played by Laurence Fishburne, better known for drama but letting his hair down a bit here. Then there's Johnson's mixed-race wife Rainbow, an M.D. (played by Tracee Ellis Ross--daughter of Diana), and their kids.

When the oldest son, who goes to a mostly white school, joins the field hockey team and then even wants a bar mitzvah, Andre worries his children are losing their roots.  Meanwhile, he gets promoted at his advertising firm, but it turns out he's senior vice president for the "urban" division, suggesting they still see color as his salient feature.

So there are racial problems going in both directions.  While I don't doubt many successful African-Americans do worry about these sort of things (I've read the producers have taken stories from their own life--not unlike Modern Family), it's interesting The Cosby Show was, in some way, more forward-looking, concentrating on that family's common humanity, and dealing with black issues only in passing.

But forget that. Is it funny?  Well, it goes down easy.  The gags are basic, and the characters (unlike in The Cosby Show) often descend into caricature, but the actors are charming and the plot keeps moving.  I could have done without Andre's narration, even if it helps with the exposition, but the show is worth checking out again.  And in the slot following Modern Family, I'm sure many will be.