I still watch broadcast television with favorite weekly shows, just like the old days before streaming. I want to talk about three I’ve been enjoying. All have minority women in lead roles. They are The Endgame, The Cleaning Lady, and Naomi.
The Endgame
The Endgame, on NBC, stars Morena Baccarin as a crime genius and Ryan Michelle Bathe as the FBI agent who is after her. Both characters are super smart and tough. The mysteries and twists in this series are excellently written and it promises to be fascinating all season.
This series is just beginning, with only two episodes out so far.
But the show makes me nostalgic for Anna Silk. The sexy and brilliant character Morena Baccarin plays is the kind of part I wish we could see Anna Silk in again. I really miss Anna Silk. I’m not saying I wish she was in this particular show, I just want her in something again.
The Cleaning Lady
The Cleaning Lady, on Fox, stars Elodie Yung as a doctor from the Philippines She’s in the U.S. (with an expired visa) to save her son’s life. She lives in Las Vegas. She can’t practice medicine, so she takes a job as a cleaning lady for a criminal. She gets involved with his criminal organization because he promises help with her son. There’s a creepy FBI guy who gives the law a bad name. She lives with her sister-in-law who is also in the US illegally.
The first season is almost over and I haven’t heard any news about renewal yet.
This isn’t a great series. Just average, really. But I keep watching it because I support the idea that Elodie Yung can be the lead character in a major primetime drama.
Naomi
Naomi, on the CW, is about a young woman who discovers that she is an alien with superpowers. She’s still in high school when she starts learning about herself. Instead of keeping it secret she shares it with all her friends. She questions her adoptive parents about what they know and meets other people in her town who are not earthlings either. The casting in this series is outstanding, particularly Kaci Walfall as Naomi.
This superhero origin story is about midway through the season. Again, no word yet on renewal.
Are you watching any of these shows? What do you think of them?
I couldn’t get into the Cleaning Lady yet once I heard it was a drama as it’s basically ripped off of a German comedy called “The Cleaner” from like the mid-2000’s and I loved it! Then the Brits have done their version of it now streaming on Britbox called “The Cleaner” but it’s very good and they kept it a comedy at least. This is the Americanized version where I usually find they ruin things so I’m very hesitant. hahahahahahaha
I didn’t know it was such a popular story. Thanks for the info.
As a comedy – it’s sheer hilarity and done so well. If you can find it anywhere to watch, the German edition is just priceless.
This version of The Cleaning Lady isn’t a comedy. It’s more about immigrants, illegal organ transplants, gun runners, and FBI agents with no ethics.
yeah I saw the trailer and it’s kinda why I hesitated watching it – because I could tell they were taking the fun out of it. ha!
i am enjoying “the Cleaning Lady” for what it is, a nighttime soap. i love that the main characters are all PoC. i cant recall a show with an Asian female lead before. sure its cheesy, but its meant to be mindless (i watched the Brit “The Cleaner” and i find it hard to imagine that the two shows are in any way related – the English version is about someone who cleans up after a messy death but that is his job from the start, something like the movie “Sunshine Cleaning.”).
i have watched “Endgame” solely for Ms. Baccarin who is so talented and beautiful i would watch her reading a phone book (were there still phone books).
“Naomi” is one of my favorite comic books, written by a white man living in Portland OR who has a Black daughter roughly her age. the show captures the energy of the book and really tells a story never seen before in the superhero genre. like “Black Lightning,” this show is presenting Black life in a way that shows we are as human as white folks. i am really enjoying it.
I first noticed Baccarin in Firefly years ago. She is unforgettable. And she’s an actress we don’t see often enough.
I’m really enjoying Naomi, too. Didn’t know about the author of the comic. I agree we need more shows like Naomi and Black Lightning.
Another reply, Christopher, because your story about the Oregon comic book writer reminds me of a personal scenario I made up about Last Tango in Halifax and little Flora’s dad making a comic book about a six or seven year old child of color being a super hero. Calamity is her sidekick. I probably had this genius inspiration after watching Raising Dion, but maybe it’s my very own.
i’d buy that book. in a world with ever increasing ways to get entertainment, our choices ought, need, to include stories with characters who look like us. i was well into adulthood before i realized, i mean really took in, that all of the characters i loved in fiction were white; if a character wasnt, their race was specifically mentioned. and when i watched the news, i figured out that the suspect in a crime was white when that person’s race wasnt mentioned. i have been blessed with parents who encouraged and supported their children so my being in my 60’s raised in the South becoming a lawyer seemed like a given but i see way too many people who look like me who have never even seen a Black professional let alone thought they could be one themselves. i think shows like Naomi and Black Lightning, the Neighborhood and Bob Hearts Abishola and others show the varied experience of people of color in America and help people see we are all just humans. (getting off soapbox).
❤️