CNN —
Mel is a bit of a mess.
There are rats in her apartment. She hates her job and still misses her ex-boyfriend, who is also her boss. To make matters worse, she is broke and turns to identity theft to make ends meet.
Still, Natasha Rothwell’s character in the new show “How to Die Alone,” which finished its first season on Hulu this week, is relatable. She is a plus size black woman trying her best to find love and fulfillment. We’ve all been there.
“How to Die Alone” is the brainchild of Rothwell, who also serves as co-showrunner and executive producer. Rothwell, an alum of HBO’s hit comedy “Insecure,” stood out with scene-stealing one-liners. When you search for “growth” in a GIF search, her face appears saying, “Do you know what that is?” (HBO, Max and CNN share parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)
“How to Die Alone” is new, but it’s part of a slew of Black-led drama-comedies that have been hitting the small screen lately. Along with Netflix’s “Survival of the Sixth” and “The Vince Staples Show,” Hulu’s adaptation of “Queenie,” and other shows from the past few years, this television era has been called a renaissance of black television. I am. It reminds me of the heyday of the 1980s and 1990s.
But while many voices like Rothwell’s are finally coming into the spotlight, the industry is still largely playing it safe.
“In a way, we’re still asking the question, ‘Will white people like it?'” said Aisha Durham, who studies black popular culture at the University of South Florida.
Streaming and broadcasting have different business models and therefore different types of programming.
Naima Clark, a film and television arts professor at Elon University in North Carolina, said black-led programming is becoming more common on digital platforms, especially as streaming companies work to fill dedicated content buckets on their services. He said it is true that there are.
Unlike broadcast television, which makes money by reaching as many eyes as possible, streaming services aim to have content that fills a specific niche, Clark said. So if a user is really interested in, say, a story about a down-on-her-luck Black woman trying to make ends meet, the platform will have a variety of shows and movies to scratch that itch. (See: the aforementioned “Insecure,” “Queenie,” “Survival of the Thickest,” and of course “How to Die Alone,” all unique in their approach to similar tropes).
This moment is fueled by the previous successes of other Black creators and Black-led shows. Writers and showrunners like Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae, and even Oprah Winfrey have paved the way for more Black voices, especially on television. So this moment may not be just a moment. It may simply be the status quo, Clark said.
“I think we’re probably living in a new reality,” she said. “Black people are getting TV deals because other Black people are having success with TV deals. Black people are also making decisions. They’re now becoming the decision-makers who greenlight things. ”
Networks and streamers still have issues when it comes to Black-led stories
This is not to say that modern television is a utopia, where everyone can now make a living. Look at the gap in Asian, Middle Eastern, and African narratives in American popular culture. Durham said black-led shows on broadcast television still need to place black characters within the context of white characters.
The CBS sitcom “The Neighborhood,” scheduled to begin its seventh season next month, pits white and black families next to each other. This dynamic seems interested in explaining rather than simply showcasing blackness.
“We are still trying to understand this aspect of the Black experience,” Durham said. “You wouldn’t ask the same thing for a show with a predominantly white cast.”
And these are the shows that tend to last the longest. CBS’ “Bob Hearts Abishola,” which aired its fifth and final season this year, is a comedy about a white man who falls in love with and marries a Nigerian woman. ABC’s eight-season blockbuster, “Black-ish,” which spawned numerous spin-offs, was essentially the story of a man raising children in a white neighborhood.
Meanwhile, NBC’s short-lived “Grand Crew,” about a group of black friends in Los Angeles, was canceled after two seasons.
Streaming services, on the other hand, tend to support more “niche” stories, such as the story of a black female airport worker trying to find love (though the cast primarily features people of color). But they don’t necessarily take big risks.
Michelle Buteau, creator and star of Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest, spent the better part of a decade stealing scenes from various Netflix productions before finally getting her own show . Max’s “Rap Sh!t” was created by Issa Rae following the success of the previous show. Netflix’s “The Vince Staples Show” stars rapper Vince Staples. These are not new names. These are tried-and-true voices that in some cases have built-in fanbases.
The same idea can be applied to the show itself. For example, Netflix picked up both “First Wives Club” and “Average Joe,” and the company is producing second seasons, but only after both found success on BET+.
“We’re still in the trial phase,” Durham said.
Even if the show makes it past that trial stage, it could still become a fixture. Durham said that if a show doesn’t appeal to white viewers in at least some way, it will be consigned to a very narrow space, a niche on BET+ or Netflix.
Still, the realities of the cruel television industry mean that some shows, whether predominantly black or not, don’t get aired. The streaming service’s tendency to cancel (in some cases even canceling a single show before it even airs) is well-documented. This isn’t just a streaming trend. From 2009 to 2012, two-thirds of new network shows were canceled within their first season.
Some might argue that black-led shows are no exception and are more likely to be dropped. Max’s “Southside”. STARZ’s “Run the World”. “Everything’s Trash” by Freeform. All were canceled within three seasons.
There are also advantages. With more niche stories taking hold on streaming and the breadth of broadcasts slowly expanding, stories about the Black experience, whatever that means, are more diverse than ever. The aforementioned CBS “Bob Hearts Abishola” is one of the only sitcoms to focus on the experiences of African immigrants. STARZ’s “P-Valley” tells the strange stories of the South. “How to Die Alone” also finds new ways to explore black femininity when it comes to body size and desirability.
“Black people don’t identify with straight African Americans,” Durham said. “This new television environment is also opening up ways to understand Black people.”
Television still has a long way to go in telling the stories of non-white people. But in the meantime, shows like Rothwell are coming along.