Queenie's eponymous heroine goes by many names in the TV show based on the best-selling 2019 novel. She's labeled "angry," "quirky," and just "too much," but unfortunately it's all about telling and not showing, because in We are actually asked to invest in a dull protagonist overcoming pedestrian obstacles that make you long for the show to be directed by the OTT girl she alludes to.
We meet Queenie at the hospital for a gynecology appointment, where she learns that she has had a miscarriage. Things get progressively worse after she argues with her aunt (she inexplicably keeps the pre-work date with her), shows up late for her job as a social media assistant, and has a relationship-ending fight at the family reunion. her white boyfriend Tom.
Creator: Candice Carty-Williams
Stars: Dionne Brown, Bellah, Llewella Gideon
We spend the series watching Queenie try to rebuild her life, mend her broken heart, write articles and not just post them on social media, and adapt to the housemates who won't take off their shoes inside her.
Aside from the countless microaggressions she faces (from being called “chocolate” on dating apps to her ex's grandmother speculating about what it would be like to have “mixed-race” relatives), Queenie feels like a dramedy dreamed up by the half. -AI with an ass.
Her breakup, her queer friend encouraging her to date again, even dreams of making it as a writer in the big city are painfully routine clichés. Because Queenie feels so vague, it's hard to invest in any of these plots.
When it comes to her professional development, the show suggests that she is being underestimated and that her brilliant ideas for her articles are being overlooked. In reality, she seems pretty bad at her job, perpetually nervous, ill-prepared, and delivering speeches that are just puns.
His relationship with her ex is a dusty void of chemistry, and the only bond that feels like it's not between two actors who weren't given enough rehearsal time is Queenie and her grandfather Wilfred, played by the charming Prince. of Bella. -Air star Joseph Marcell.
Actress Dionne Brown has her moments: she's excellent at selling Queenie's angst, even if she and Tom (played by Jon Pointing) are by no means a convincing couple. Other than that, she feels like a character designed by committee.
Queenie, whose first incarnation was in showrunner Candice Carty-Williams' novel, has been described and marketed as a "black Bridget Jones." However, the show isn't all that funny or entertaining. Setups for potentially silly cringe comedy (parties where people get down and dirty on the dance floor, awkward family dinners) fall flat without morphing into something genuinely funny. It's like an overzealous editor came in and decided to cut out all the gags to make the drama skew dramatic, but the dramatic stakes aren't high enough to pull it off.
Queenie's wildest antics would make for a decent dinner party chat, but she can't hold up a decent television.
It's also becoming increasingly confusing who this show is trying to appeal to. Her representations of black femininity are so basic that it's hard to imagine black female audiences being impressed by her ideas. Instead, it seems as if she is trying to attract viewers who don't know salt fish from ackee. In a television landscape where I May Destroy You, Insecure, Abbott Elementary, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Pose, Mood, Black Cake, Domino Day and more explore black womanhood with such specificity, this broad approach feels like a great Step back.
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