Matthew Noszka “Brody” & Nelson Bonilla “Detective” -BET.com
Sooooo. Just finished watching Tales, Season 1, Episode 1 and wooooow.
First, let me say: this material isn’t new to the Black community. We’ve all done the “what if” role reversal argument. This film gave us visuals much like T.I.’s “Warzone” video. But, it does remind us of how blatant it all is…in a format that is palatable across multiple generations (those born late 60s – 2000, specifically). Like an extended music video with visuals and scripting…like, Belly. But, this is also a #message piece — relating lyrics to long-standing social issues.
They bottled up the experience. Police intimidation. Jury selection. Use of coded language by media. Ethnic names. Living conditions. Interracial taboo. The aftermath of police brutality. The misinformed All the points we normally make
It flips the script like Matthew McConaughey did in his closing argument in A Time to Kill…but with a twist. Like, this is the movie we would have made with our Indiegogo fund based on the conversation we had at Q’s barbecue last week. In a good way. Like, how we felt when Master P’s “I’m Bout It” came out. A win.
Now, do films in this format ever have long-term impact? Perhaps. Follow up question: will this series strike a chord (should it?) or is it solely entertainment? Is there harm in one or the other, exclusively?
AND
Don’t think it’s gone past us that BET is not owned by us and is dishing out programming for us.
Background: Robert Johnson sold it to Viacom and their Board is pretty lily, but so is every network with the exception of like, TVOne and OWN. At least this one has us on the day-to-day.
With our boy Stephen Hill gone and a new department in place (overseers?), we will have to wait and see if this direction is permanent or gets shut down. In the meantime, I’m here for it while they marinate on having found their programming sweetspot with black 16-50 year olds…like how we felt with A Different World, but with a dope soundtrack.
But back to the show:
This was a two hour premiere and we were here for it all. From Clifton and Caine to Tom Hank’s son, Chet. And of course, there’s the music – the well-appointed music placement – including, of course “F&*K the Police” by N.W.A., “Pain” by Sir Preme, and “We Need” by Boogiie Byrd.
There are critics of the technical aspects of the film but I didn’t focus much on that this first view. I’ll go back and do that on the 2nd one.
I thought it was dope. 👍🏾 👏🏾 ✊🏾
