Available since June 13 on StarzPlay, the series Blindspotting takes again the continuation of the movie of the same name directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada (“Raya and the last dragon”) and written by Daveed Diggs (“Hamilton”) and Rafael Casal and enriches its new characters.
Co-created and scripted by Diggs and Casal, with the latter’s character (Miles) serving as the trigger for the premise, this is the story of Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) whose partner ends up in prison and who finds herself taking all her things to temporarily move in with Miles’ mother (Helen Hunt) and sister (Jaylen Barron).
The first thing that stands out is the rhythmic nature of fiction in the sense that hip hop, not as a style of music but as a culture, permeates the footage. Some soliloquies lend a certain theatricality as well as other types of dance and musical performances that give an electrifying and festive touch to the comedy.
But, just as we have to praise this commitment to mixing the languages of different media/arts, these are the technical aspects where the series limps the most. In his “conventional” moments (to sort them out), there are sequences that are not too planned, hiccups here and there, and even a few dialogues that do not quite work on screen.
Blindspotting doesn’t ignore issues like systemic racism, drugs, crime, and the debates about it, but when approached it is very superficial as if they are being verbalized more out of obligation than because that they had (or wanted, which is another question) something to say. Diggs and Casal, in this sense, are more interested in setting up visual (obvious) metaphors than talking about them.
But this lack of depth is forgiven to some extent because the world we’re immersed in is so much fun: Ashley’s counterpart is her “sister-in-law” Trish, a stripper who wants to start an innovative entertainment business. sexual; an unexpected Helen Hunt that wonderfully complements the fiction; the neighbor who walks with an extension cord plugged into his ankle monitor to be able to move wherever we leave him.
Blindspotting gets around quite well another pitfall that TV comedies tend to encounter, which is that the lack of filming is fatal to them. While almost all of the characters are new, it can be said that everything comes from something previous, so the adjustments are made a lot better than if we were from the beginning. It also means that you quickly familiarize yourself with the gang and their situations.
Although it is sometimes noticed that the particular mix of styles and languages does not quite fit together, this heterogeneity is a good asset for this new series of Starzplay. If one ignores these flaws in the cohesion of the final product, the Blindspotting series is vibrant, electric, and thankfully fresh fiction.
