Grateful for 'Black Lightining,' But Sometimes ...
While it's a let down to see a Black-led superhero show get cancelled, there were a number of things about "Black Lightning" that put the writing on the wall almost from the start for me. Meaning the Akils' heavy handed creative choices.
1) An exhausting hyper self-awareness. Yes, the titular hero is Black and so are most of the people in his world. A lot can be communicated visually, musically, directorally and with skillful, subtle acting. But the writers apparently didn't trust in the other parts of the ecosystem to portray Blackness. The dialogue just had to make constant and sneering references to Black skin, lips, hair, slavery, Jim Crown or Black Jesus, and on and on. Here's my far out theory: This is Peak TV, supposedly, and we have different attitudes about casting. Did the writers double down on affirming the characters darker tones to preempt extreme colorism if there is ever a movie or reboot? (The mom from Raising Dion, anyone? Aunt Viv? The history of television, except the Bow's mom from Black-ish.) It leads me to point #2:
2) THE VITRIOL around Blackness!! OMG I hated Tobias Whale for his villainy, but his incessant invectives about Black skin, Black lips, Black hair and Black life in general?? And how was he like that when his sister was a dark-skinned Black woman? He wasn't the only one, but he was THE WORST. How does this show go out of its way to highlight dark-skinned Blackness and then constantly insult that?
3) Constant name dropping as a way to set up context around a character. I'm no siddity, so I got tired of Googling high-end name brands every time the writers wanted to tell us that Tobias is a criminal with 'refined taste'. We know he got money, he's a gangster and his place is sick!! Unless those brands paid for content sponsorship, I was over it.
4) Some of these plots were so convoluted and GRITTY! Yes, the Akils brought their own spin to a superhero show to the CW. But sometimes the stories and the violence were so raw, and the stories moved at a hyper speed, that it weighed the show down. Tobias Whale literally ripping out Khalil's spine, and it twitching and crawling on the floor next to him?? Beyond way too much. So much unnecessary explicitness, and my finger was on the remote trigger to flip away when that weird guard was strip searching Lynn and told her to open her legs. Nah son! Were the comics like this?
5) The episode names. I guess it was based on the graphic novel concept? Cool. But was there a way to condense the episodes into fewer books? At some point, I just wanted to know the episode number and title to refer to it on streaming in an instant. Dassit!
But here's my biggest: Why Jefferson and Lynn had to squabble for practically the entire run of the show? It was plain annoying. And what does it say about the portrayal of marriage on TV? That if you're not separated and arguing you're boring?
It's a shame because I liked the show for a number of reasons. The music slapped. The fight scenes were superb. The Jefferson home was elegant and Annessa's loft looked good. I loved a world-class scientist named Lynn!!! And the show was woke.
But a lot of those other issues did weigh down the show. This is also the second show from the Akils that I got into and they botched the ending. They just didn't stick the landing and there was ultimately no good reason for the writing and the mouthful dialogue to go this way.