The Other Black Girl
During the final season of Riverdale Ashleigh Murray returned for one episode as Josie McCoy. She hadn't been a regular since season three when she fled to the short-lived Katy Keene. Her channeling of Eartha Kitt on Rivderdale was phenomenal. It was wonderful to see an actor who had been so overlooked on the show to come back and do a defining episode. So I looked up what else she's been up to and that's when I first heard about The Other Black Girl. A show that quickly was added to my calendar when I watched the first trailer. A show that after I watched a single episode I knew I'd be binging. If you took Severance, You, and The White Lotus, put them in a blender and came out with the smoothest most wonderfully unique concoction ever, that would be The Other Black Girl. This show isn't just horror, it's about identity and connection and community and, above all, books and what they mean to us. Our heroine for all time, Nella, got a job at Wagner Books, because back in the eighties they published Burning Heart by Diana Gordon. Burning Heart was the first book to make Nella feel seen and that's what she wants to do for other little black girls like herself. The book's editor, Kendra Rae Phillips, is who Nella wants to be, as she walks past her photograph everyday in the halls of Wagner Books. And yes, she took a selfie with the picture. But something strange happened to Kendra Rae, as we see in gloriously retro eighties publishing flashbacks, seriously, look at that spot-on retro publishing logo. Something strange that is starting to happen to Nella. But Nella thinks she finally has an ally. Someone on her side. There is finally another black girl in the office, Hazel. Though, of course, Hazel has ulterior motives, and as each revelation comes to Nella we see it on her expressive face. Sinclair Daniel is an actress to watch. She's going to be big if there's any justice in this world. As for those revelations? Well, she shouldn't have put so much faith in Diana Gordon, because Diana has been up to no good. She's basically created a pod people cult of young black women. I mean, the goal of her "organization" is noble, the raising up of black women, it's just the execution that makes it go all cultish. And the thing I love about that is she falls prey to what aliens always misunderstand about humans time and time again in science fiction. They don't understand that out pain and our trauma are what make us human. So to have a human create a "shortcut" to acceptance by removing rage and emotion to make a more pliable and therefore socially acceptable and upwardly mobile black woman is horrendous. An author is to mine the very depth of the human experience, and Diana wrote a seminal book, which I kind of wish was real, and yet, she is completely and totally out of touch. And I want to see her face her own ignorance. I don't know what I'll do if we don't get a second season. Because now that Nella is "undercover" at Wagner Books, I need to see how that mobile and flexible face pulls off pod person. Also I need more of her BFF Malaika played by Brittany Adebumola. I just need more of all of this. Now. Saldy The Other Black Girl was cancelled on May 10th. A day that will live in infamy.
If, like many people, you discovered the marvel that is Anya Taylor-Joy during quarantine through either The Queen's Gambit or Emma. and are looking for something equally marvelous that she stars in, unlike say Thoroughbreds, may I bring The Miniatruist to your attention? An adaptation of the Jessie Burton book, this is a rare adaptation that is, in my mind, better than the book. And it's not just the delight in the dueling Emmas, Romala Garai portrayed Miss Woodhouse in the 2009 miniseries which still happens to be my favorite adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, though the Emmas was vastly entertaining to me. Everything about this miniseries that was distilled down from the book makes it a perfect story that doesn't overstay it's welcome, yes, I am looking at the book with a bit of side-eye. One of the reasons this is so wonderful is that sometimes an image does work better than words to convey a time period, and each and every single shot of this miniseries is lush with color and looks like it could be a painting by Vermeer! The clothes, the house, the cabinet, the miniatures, everything is just so perfect. Also, the way the camera frames the actors with long shots while they are in doorways almost makes them look like dolls themselves. Shivers for the parallels of the cabinet and the miniaturist making puppets of the household! If I have one complaint, and of course I always have one complaint, it's that Nella's confrontation of the miniaturist felt rushed and ill-defined. I'd almost prefer no explanation to the explanation we got. How she does what she does in a quickly whispered confession to being an observant person with a possible sixth sense. Seriously, more or nothing! Also, this really tamed the miniaturist in my opinion, in the book she is distinctly malevolent, especially towards Nella's sister-in-law Marin. But one complaint for the miniseries versus my unending list that I complied while reading the book once again proves that adaptation leads to flouishing. Darwin was right! Though I'm sure he didn't think it would be applied to a form of entertainment... 
