Season Review: Good Times: Black Again Season One

Over the years, black-produced adult animated sitcoms have been few and far between, but when they happen, they leave a lasting impact. The PJs, for my money, was the first black-produced adult animated series that did it the right way and The Boondocks further exemplified this in astronomical ways which helped put Good Times: Back Again producer Carl Jones on the map. And while Carl left production of this show early in its infancy, at the very least someone, be it Seth MacFarlane, co-creator Ranada Shepard, Steph Curry, or Norman Lear, KNEW that this show was going to make a statement and they wanted the right people behind the production to get this thing going.

It’s been four years since this series was announced and Netflix’s adult animation division went through a lot of ups and downs through the years and even with announced series getting canceled left and right, the mere fact that this series got through and got made is nothing short of a miracle so let’s give it up to Ranada, and both Six Point Harness and Studio Moshi Animation for sticking with it and, coming with it, a fantastic series.

With little press help from Netflix, Good Times: Back Again is here and we are all better for it. The cast is STACKED, and I mean STACKED like not just in the main cast but in the guest cast as well. Like, believe me when I tell you that Michael McDonald as “Elon Musk” is going to change your life and he’s just the tip of the iceberg when you consider that the late Norman Lear also has a guest appearance in the series. But, the cast means nothing unless if you have all of the other ingredients necessary to make this one a winner and, let me tell you, Ranada has a sure-fire winner here.

Right away the aesthetic of the series is unlike anything on Netflix right now which is great because for the last two years I would say 90% of all of the adult animated comedies produced on the biggest streamer in the world have looked very cookie-cutter and I hope Good Times: Back Again help changes all of the that. Fans of Carl Jones’ Legends of Chamberlain Heights will see similarities here and as the series progresses you’ll hardly notice the rough-around-the-edges presentation, even more so when the show starts to do cutaways that have a stark contrast or when you get a lot of a stellar anime-esque battle half-way through the season. One drawback, I noticed, and I don’t know who fostered this idea because they should fix this, blurred effects over nudity. In a world that is un-friggin’-holy, if I find out that this is a Netflix thing where they are now abiding by advertiser standards for an adult animated comedy geared towards adult audiences, I’m going to kick a fucking wall.

I mentioned the voice cast J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Yvette Nicole Brown (Community) voice the roles of Reggie and Beverly Evans, the heads of the household, and they were made for each other. Much in the same way Marge and Homer developed their flow over 30+ seasons of The Simpsons, JB and Yvette seemed to have found their’s, though it takes a few episodes before they really get a groove going (more on this later). Jay Pharoah (Saturday Night Live, The Blackening) plays their teenage artist son, Junior, and I don’t know what God I have to fucking pray to to get Jay his own animated sitcom but tell me which and I’ll do it right now. Jay gives us, an EMMY-DEFINING performance as Junior that comes to a crescendo by the finale. This…motherfucker…is…SO…GOOD. GIVE THE MAN HIS STATUE!

Marsai Martin (Black-ish, Little) plays their activist daughter, Grey, and her character type is a rather typical SJW that you see a lot of nowadays, but Marsai gives her good depth and as the show progresses you’re going to get an appreciation in her growth as a character that even steps away from the likes of Lisa Simpson. Grey is the little girl statue standing up the bull on Wall Street and Marsai nails the role. Slink Johnson (Black Jesus) voices the part of their drug-dealing infant son, Dalvin, who really kind of helped save the show for me early on until the overall arc starting to really get it’s hooks in me. While there are definitely some similarities to Stewie from Family Guy and Rallo from The Cleveland Show, the fact that the baby is a drug dealer of whom doesn’t even live in the same house as the rest of his family kind of sheds a lot of that weight as the series progresses. Lastly, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola (Jury Duty), also a writer on the show, voices the role of Beverly’s enterprising best friend, Lashes by Lisa. Sheedz, while featured in scant appearances earlier in the show, becomes a bedrock later in her portrayal as Lisa and becomes a catalyst for the show’s arc that sticks to the landing. The one caveat for the strong (especially when the series hits it’s dramatic stride) dialogue I didn’t appreciate, selective censorship. At times the series wants the characters to drop “N” bombs, and I don’t know who made the decision to censor but, personally, I think it was the wrong move and takes away the authenticity of the Chicago-urban setting that the series is portraying here.

That last part is really important. Because the series broaches issues like elections, first periods, poverty, women’s empowerment, coded bias, and technology and does so similarly to Disney’s The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder but while THAT show falls under the guise of a big fucking mouse, Good Times and it’s older-skewing rating should have been respected more so as to truly make sure that the message that’s trying to be portrayed here is loud and clear and not subjected to dogmatic viewpoints.

Netflix likes to use an odd metric when judging its series for renewals and that’s “second-screen viewing”. In other words, if you’re on your phone while this show is on in the background, is the series compelling enough to make you put your phone down and focus on this series? For the first few episodes I do think Good Times: Back Again fumbles a bit in trying to build it’s foundation, but when it finds itself in and around episode six and seven, hold onto your butts, because this thing takes you places you didn’t think you were going to go and the result is the best animated comedy of the year for Netflix by a mile. Good Times: Back Again is a definite hearkening back to the Mike Moon-era of Netflix where incredible series like BoJack Horseman were big swings that were given time to breathe and find itself before it became a multi-Emmy-nominated effort. Good Times: Back Again may have been given some grief a tad concerning some stereotypical jokes back when the trailer was released, and yes those are here at the behest of not just Black America, but White America as well, however when the series starts leaning into more dramedy it really becomes its own thing and deserving of your attention. Ranada Shepard is the real deal here and you should add this to your watch list.