Didn't see a thread on this...mods please delete if this is a duplicate. Is anyone watching Insecure on HBO? I'm loving it so far. I've been a fan of Issa's since her YouTube days and am really happy for all her success. She had some other YouTubers sprinkled in the show as well 
. Anyone else watching?
slate.com
Issa Rae’s Insecure Is the Most Honest, Matter-of-Fact Take on Dating That We’ve Seen in a While
By Willa Paskin
In the first episode of Insecure, Issa, played by Issa Rae, the co-creator and the star of the new HBO show, imagines a white colleague lecturing her about romance. “Educated black woman are highly unlikely to get married the more education they have,” this poltergeist tells Issa, in the middle of a staff meeting. “On the bright side, many black woman are work-focused and find happiness in their careers. But then there are a small percentage of pathetic women who have neither. They are purposeless.” Issa, a college-educated Los Angelina who works for the nearly all-white educational nonprofit “We Got Y’all,” is considering ending her long-term relationship and so particularly susceptible to this anxiety. Insecure looks it right in the face, a prestige comedy that takes wanting to be in a relationship as seriously as relationships themselves.
Rae is the creator of the beloved web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and has been trying to translate that to television for some years now, before co-creating Insecure with Larry Wilmore. As the title of her web series suggested, there is something of the superhero about Issa: not a superpower so much as a secret identity, a jokey, friendly exterior that belies a churning mind. Rae brings this quality to Insecure, where a running conceit has her rapping fiery pep talks to herself in the mirror, which she mostly ignores. Readying herself for a night out, she tries on multiple lipsticks, each inspiring a different personality, before selecting exactly none. She describes herself as “aggressively passive” and avoids conflict even when it would simplify things. She ignores uncomfortable situations and text messages. She nearly breaks up with her boyfriend but refuses to have a clarifying conversation with him when he spots her in a Rite Aid.
Co-starring in Insecure is Issa’s college best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji), a high-powered lawyer who grew up as a self-described “hood rat.” Molly, Issa tells us in voice-over, is beloved by both black and white people, as the camera shows her code-switching with the dexterity of a World War II morse-code operator. Insecure stars black characters who deal with white people largely as a professional necessity—just one of the things it shares this with Atlanta, Donald Glover’s new auteurist series on FX. Both shows feature a protagonist that white people nonetheless feel comfortable with: In the first episode of Atlanta, a white man nonchalantly uses the N-word with Glover’s character. Issa’s colleagues ask her what on fleek means, and in the show’s opening scene, a classroom full of kids wonders why Issa sounds so white and makes fun of her natural hair.
Insecure takes on racism directly, largely in a professional context. Issa’s white colleagues take to emailing behind her back about a project she is in charge of; Molly’s boss asks her to speak with a summer associate who refuses to code-switch. But just by being about black people living their lives, Insecure shows us, for example, a much more expansive Los Angeles than the claustrophobic one seen in white comedies set in Silver Lake (Casual, Togetherness, You’re the Worst, parts of Transparent). Issa and Molly brunch at hipster spots too, but Molly grew up around Florence and Crenshaw; Issa’s apartment is in Inglewood, near the old Forum. Theirs is a much bigger, more diverse L.A.
Read more on slate: Issa Rae's Insecure
. Anyone else watching? slate.com
Issa Rae’s Insecure Is the Most Honest, Matter-of-Fact Take on Dating That We’ve Seen in a While
By Willa Paskin
In the first episode of Insecure, Issa, played by Issa Rae, the co-creator and the star of the new HBO show, imagines a white colleague lecturing her about romance. “Educated black woman are highly unlikely to get married the more education they have,” this poltergeist tells Issa, in the middle of a staff meeting. “On the bright side, many black woman are work-focused and find happiness in their careers. But then there are a small percentage of pathetic women who have neither. They are purposeless.” Issa, a college-educated Los Angelina who works for the nearly all-white educational nonprofit “We Got Y’all,” is considering ending her long-term relationship and so particularly susceptible to this anxiety. Insecure looks it right in the face, a prestige comedy that takes wanting to be in a relationship as seriously as relationships themselves.
Rae is the creator of the beloved web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and has been trying to translate that to television for some years now, before co-creating Insecure with Larry Wilmore. As the title of her web series suggested, there is something of the superhero about Issa: not a superpower so much as a secret identity, a jokey, friendly exterior that belies a churning mind. Rae brings this quality to Insecure, where a running conceit has her rapping fiery pep talks to herself in the mirror, which she mostly ignores. Readying herself for a night out, she tries on multiple lipsticks, each inspiring a different personality, before selecting exactly none. She describes herself as “aggressively passive” and avoids conflict even when it would simplify things. She ignores uncomfortable situations and text messages. She nearly breaks up with her boyfriend but refuses to have a clarifying conversation with him when he spots her in a Rite Aid.
Co-starring in Insecure is Issa’s college best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji), a high-powered lawyer who grew up as a self-described “hood rat.” Molly, Issa tells us in voice-over, is beloved by both black and white people, as the camera shows her code-switching with the dexterity of a World War II morse-code operator. Insecure stars black characters who deal with white people largely as a professional necessity—just one of the things it shares this with Atlanta, Donald Glover’s new auteurist series on FX. Both shows feature a protagonist that white people nonetheless feel comfortable with: In the first episode of Atlanta, a white man nonchalantly uses the N-word with Glover’s character. Issa’s colleagues ask her what on fleek means, and in the show’s opening scene, a classroom full of kids wonders why Issa sounds so white and makes fun of her natural hair.
Insecure takes on racism directly, largely in a professional context. Issa’s white colleagues take to emailing behind her back about a project she is in charge of; Molly’s boss asks her to speak with a summer associate who refuses to code-switch. But just by being about black people living their lives, Insecure shows us, for example, a much more expansive Los Angeles than the claustrophobic one seen in white comedies set in Silver Lake (Casual, Togetherness, You’re the Worst, parts of Transparent). Issa and Molly brunch at hipster spots too, but Molly grew up around Florence and Crenshaw; Issa’s apartment is in Inglewood, near the old Forum. Theirs is a much bigger, more diverse L.A.
Read more on slate: Issa Rae's Insecure
