Fall TV is always exciting because new shows premiere that you fall in love with and never want to leave your TV screen. Then you find out that new favorite show of yours only had like one viewer — you — so it is canceled. Now that the hype of fall TV has returned to a normal level, we can start to survey what new shows will or won't return for their second season. Will ABC's black-ish be renewed because of its successful ratings following Modern Family? It's definitely a good sign this far into the season.
black-ish, a television show about a modern family that finds themselves identifying as "black-ish" despite Anthony Anderson's character — the father — wanting the "ish" to be dropped, has proven to be a strong force in primetime television this season, as it moves into its third episode Wednesday night. And while at first I was curious to see where the show that, before premiering, felt like it could flirt with being offensive, black-ish has proven to be a leading comedy this TV season, retaining about 89 percent of Modern Family's audience during it's premiere. As Bustle's Paige Tutt mentioned in her review of the show, " black-ish appeals to really anyone who enjoys comedy thanks to its key asset — humor, of course — Blacks aren’t the only target demographic. And that’s why black-ish is so necessary in the television landscape."
Here are three reasons why black-ish should stick around for a second season:
It's believable
In the second episode, Tracee Ellis Ross' character and Anthony Anderson's character were both put in situations with two of their children that were 100 percent believable. I love Modern Family, but some of the story lines feel so fabricated and "made for TV" that it isn't as funny because I know that would never happen in real life. In episode two of black-ish, Anderson's Dre Johnson gets into a weird situation when he gives his son the sex talk, something that happens across America every single day.
Laurence Fishburne
So far in the show, Fishburne's character Pops (Dre's dad) has been the hilarious Greek chorus for the crazy family around him. He is just removed from the happenings of the family that his one-liners make his scenes worth the wait.
It is more than "black-ish"
At first I thought this show was going to have one plot line, because from the first episode it seemed like it was going to rely heavily on if Dre's family was "black enough" (especially when he said his wife was "not even Black"). It has happened to many shows before, where they rely too heavily on one punchline for an entire season, but the second episode proved that that the show wasn't just a one-hit wonder as it explored familial relationships between the parents and their children.
Images: Adam Taylor/ABC; yugottabesonice, oldfilmsflicker, 2009wasagoodyear/Tumblr
