The televised family drama, free of a truly high concept seem to be dying. The party line would be that watching the inner workings of a family unit—the relational politics and generational issues therein—devoid of something else for the show to be “about” don’t’ capture audiences as easily as those same stories with the overlaid veneer of meth production, mafia ties or a shady family-owned record company. Over the past decade or so we’ve had several shows that have nakedly been about the dynamics of adult siblings in a family unit and very little else, “Brothers and Sisters” and “Parenthood” being two notable examples. Going back even further, even a show like “Six Feet Under” which had the high-concept premise of a family-owned funeral parlor wasn’t explicitly about that as much as it was the lives of the three siblings and the matriarch. We’ve certainly never seen a show of this nature about a non-white family, as it would seem that “black” shows especially need a hook. The shows with black or any non-white characters that get greenlit and see success tend to suggest the perpetuation of the false myth that audiences need to be given a reason for non-white characters in human drama.
Dawn-Lyen Gardener and Rutina Wesley
This long preface serves to highlight how truly rare—both in concept and in beautiful, artful execution—Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar” feels...
The series follows the Bordelon family, consisting of two sisters and a brother, the children of a sugarcane farmer in Louisiana who (spoiler alert) isn’t long for this world. Each sibling is dealing with their own various issues. Eldest sister Nova (“True Blood’s” Rutina Wesley) is a journalist living in New Orleans. Middle child Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardener) is the upwardly mobile sibling who “escaped” the South to a plushy life in Los Angeles with her professional athlete husband and teenage son—a life that’s about to be yanked out from under her due to rape allegations against her husband. Youngest son Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) is a young single father, trying to raise and shelter his young son from the reality of his on poverty and his son’s estranged, drug addicted mother. These archetypes—the reliable sibling who stayed behind, the sibling who thinks they have evolved beyond her familial limitations and the ne’er do well youngest child are never played broadly nor obviously. Each of the three actors gifts their characters with stark humanity and realness. Gone are also the soap operatic theatrics that one might expect given these storylines, instead giving the audience a true, honest window into the life of this family.
The craft on display in “Queen Sugar” is a sight to behold. Whether it’s the rolling sugar plantation vistas of Louisiana, the stark claustrophobic world of the Hollywood hills or even the inside of a packed arena at a professional basketball game, the photography perfectly serves and elevates the already top-notch storytelling. It’s a level of craft rarely invested into contemporary television drama and will surely allow “Queen Sugar” to stand out.
Wesley and Newcomer Kofi Siriboe
Knowing DuVernay’s previous work, none of what’s on display here should feel too surprising, accomplished as it is. Her first two features, especially her sophomore effort Middle of Nowhere examines the lives and interpersonal relationships of black characters in a way that feels truly unmatched. Even Selma, a biopic in its barest terms, manages to avoid many of its genre’s clichés and is about the interpersonal, on-the-ground politics in a way we’ve never seen the Civil Rights movement depicted. Her writing and direction is refreshingly free of the asterisk that is often placed on stories featuring non-white characters, especially those stories told by white writers. There’s no ceiling to how complicated, how flawed, how unique and nuanced the members of the Bordelon family can be—a privilege too rarely afforded to non-white characters on television and in film. It’s beauty exists in so many elements, but possibly no more so than in this one.
"Queen Sugar" airs Tuesday nights on OWN