Hit or Miss: Blindspotting

The talented duo of Daveed Diggs, the former Hamilton star and also Hugo nominated rapper, along with his childhood best friend and actor, producer, and showrunner Rafael Casal they co-created the series named as a follow up to their 2018 hit film. Blindspotting is a look deep into the harsh realities faced by young Black Americans and their struggle with the broken prison system and its effects on families based in Oakland, California. Framed as a dramedy and with the original film having a comedic tone despite its poignant social commentary. The show which takes place six months after the events of the film expound upon those same themes as Ashley’s boyfriend is now in jail and she must deal with the effects of that on her young family as she is forced to move in with her boyfriend’s mother Rainey (Helen Hunt) and his half sister Trish (Jaylen Barron). Jasmine Cephas Jones reprises her role as Ashley after picking up an emmy for her starring role in the Quibi show #freerayshawn. Diggs, while being the main star of the film and reprising his role of writer/producer, is not seen in the cast list and it is unclear if he will make an appearance within this show’s run. 

Diggs has been a renaissance man since his breakout role in the one of the most popular plays of the past 20 years playing Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, a Tony Award winning hip hop musical created by Lin Manuel Miranda, a play that has also spawned a film on Disney+ just last year. He also has led a Hugo nominated group of musicians with several independent albums with the group called Clipping. With its latest release Visions of Bodies Being Burned the second part of their horror-core album received acclaim for its release during the pandemic. With so many projects on his plate this one was especially personal for Diggs as he and co-creator and Casal said in press before the release of the film that it was a love letter to Oakland and the desire for the portrayal of the city to match what it truly is rather than a glossy Hollywood version of it commonly portrayed in cinema. Portraying the lifestyles and the personality of the communities in the Bay Area as well as their struggles is something that was near and dear to the hearts of these two creators. He would go on to say the premise of the theme, “about how a broken prison system affects all of us and, like the film, we’re using comedy to talk about very real systemic effects in the country with the largest prison population in the world.” This was an important message for the creators to portray as the film was firstly from the perspective of themselves as men living in Oakland. Despite this, the show is distinctly different as it frames the story narrative from the perspective of the girlfriend of Miles, Ashley, and her struggles as she is raising a son in this environment. The trailer illustrates the bizarre style of this particular film as it is not a drama that we typically see as it contains dance numbers and a comedic feel to add levity and tell a serious story framed in a lighter tone.

Having great amounts of respect and love for the art that Diggs and his collaborators have been producing combined with the sheer talent behind this production I cannot in any way see this not being a hit, it might not perform extremely well on a streaming platform, but I can see this as a critical darling that shines enough in time for award season to earn the actors and writers recognition for another piece of fantastic filmmaking as they did with the success of the film just a few years ago. Though the challenge of writing a television show versus a feature film, album, or a play is something that neither creator has done before, I will not be the first one to doubt their ability to deliver something of quality. Blindspotting has a full season order for 8 episodes at Starz and will premiere on June 13th, 2021.