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Harlem begins with a brief monologue from lead chracter – and University lecturer – Camille (Meagan Good) who rambles about how in the Himalayan mountains, there’s the ‘Kingdom of women’, where Women make all the choices, and can even ditch a husband if they like, and the man has no say. Given that how in this series, Camille has the same ‘tribe of unbreakable sisters’ as they did, this becomes her mantra about how her reality isn’t living to the expectations of the entitled.
Camille’s dating life is a mess because she’s trying to find ‘the one’, and basically looking for a husband with the right job and the right amount of cash in the bank. Jeez, I’d steer clear of the gold-diggers. She has a job offer in Kansas, but debates over whether it’s the right thing. Well, if she did, it would make for a short end to a 10-part series.
Of her friends, Tye (Jerrie Johnson) has short hair and in casting her character as the sole lesbian of the four, it feels like they’re ticking diversity boxes for the script, while aspiring actress Angie (Shoniqua Shandai) has a big afro and moans about vegan ice cream.
All four are all self-absorbed and obsessed with looking for the ideal man. It’s like the black ‘Sex And The City‘, as there’s four women who act like they need a man to validate their lives.
Oh, but there are additional intricate plots such as the time they get upset about having to wait a long time for a table in a restaurant, when other people can just walk straight in and get theirs; and one has a ‘date’ at 11pm, when another claims it’s really just “Fuck o’clock”.
I only saw clips of SATC, at the time (and it’s making a resurgence again from next week), but based on what I saw, this does feel like someone just took that, added words like an accentuated “Girl-friennnnnd!” and “Bitch, please(!)” etc into the script.
So, Harlem is not for me, but judging by the comments on the trailer on Youtube, plenty of women are looking forward to this, so in addition to the return of the Sarah Jessica Parker sitcom from December 9th, it’ll be a banner month for them.
Thanks to our friends at Amazon Prime Video for the screener prior to release.
Harlem streams from Friday December 3rd on Amazon Prime. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Episodes 1 and 2 Score: 1/10
Directors: Malcolm D Lee, Stacey Muhammad, Neema Barnette
Producers: David Bausch, Britt Matt, Shani Saxon
Writers: Britt Matt, Tracy Oliver
Cast:
Camille: Meagan Good
Quinn: Grace Byers
Angie: Shoniqua Shandai
Tye: Jerrie Johnson
Jameson Royce: Sullivan Jones
Dr. Elise Pruitt: Whoopi Goldberg
Shawn: Robert Ri’chard
Anna: Kate Rockwell
Isabela: Juani Feliz
Patricia: Jasmine Guy
Nora: Christine Jones
Eric: Jonathan Burke
Ian: Tyler Lepley
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.