‘Blindspotting’ season 2 review: Reality and imagination collide in a thoughtful probe of family, race, and the prison system
The decision to take the 2018 Sundance hit Blindspotting and spin off a supporting character into her own TV series, and not starring Daveed Diggs, was a bold one that paid off with a rich and rewarding first season. Having proven itself capable of indulging in hyperrealism and utilizing performance art to tackle race and the criminal justice system, the Starz series returns for a more fine-tuned, fascinating, and furiously interesting second season that’s equally entertaining and heart-wrenching.
While Miles (Rafael Casal, also the series showrunner), the best friend of Diggs’ character Collin in the film, had a minimal role in season one, he’s more prominently featured in the show’s sophomore season. The fact that Sean (Atticus Woodward) knows his father is in prison and that Ashley (Emmy Award winner Jasmine Cephas Jones) is now eligible for family visitation with her husband means that the nature of their family dynamic can evolve. Yet nothing is simple, and the renewed presence Miles is able to have in his son and wife’s life is only made more painful by the knowledge that every moment is fleeting and can be interrupted by the harsh sound of the prison roll call count.
Blindspotting likes to engage with issues in a unique and mesmerizing way, exaggerating its events and character interactions in a coolly choreographed manner. When a key favor for Sean’s birthday party isn’t available, his aunt Trish (Jaylen Barron) busts out power tools to carve the perfect replacement, a more enjoyable way of visualizing her quick makeshift solution. During a weekend conjugal visit, Sean and his parents play a board game and act it out with finger pistols, with Miles taking some time to explain the antiquated origins of the game and its problematic nature.
This show often works best when it’s most direct, most acutely exemplified when Ashley and Miles react to hearing Sean use the n-word. Miles, who is white, begins by taking most of Sean’s money in the game, explaining only that it’s how the system works for Black people (Ashley groans but then admits he’s not wrong), and then the two decide to tell Sean a long story they know he won’t fully understand. What follows is a stirring montage of slavery, segregation, and police brutality, weaving in the show’s signature performance art to tremendous effect. Those serious moments are jarring and enormously powerful, underlining how harsh the world can be even if it’s seen often through this show’s more lighthearted lens.
The comedy remains present and frontal in a number of ways, some of which are subtle and good for an easy laugh. Miles and Trish’s mother, Rainey (Helen Hunt), attends a support group called Mothers of Incarcerated Sons Together (M.O.I.S.T), and that’s about as far as the joke goes. I almost spit out my tea when Miles casually corrected his son’s request for an explanation of satanic geometry by noting that he was probably asking about systemic inequality. The humor is sharp and quick, and the transition to a more sobering tone often comes without warning, which feels like a gut punch every time it happens and isn’t readily forgotten.
Eight episodes don’t feel like nearly enough time to devote to this excellent cast of characters, but this show does its best. Earl (Benjamin Earl Turner) and Janelle (Candace Nicholas-Lippman) both get stellar showcases and deliver even when they’re not the primary focus of other episodes. Woodward is a delight, and his scenes with both Cephas Jones and Casal are particularly wonderful. Hunt continues to do great work as a white woman fully aware of how others in her predominantly Black world perceive her. Just as in season one, the standout is Barron, who instills Trish with an untameable fury most potently observed when she clashes with her sister-in-law. Audiences also get to experience a more vulnerable side of Trish as she processes her unspoken feelings for her oblivious best friend, Jacque (April Absynth), as her new romantic relationship with Cuddie (Lance Cameron Holloway) intensifies.
Blindspotting has much to offer, constantly changing its approach and style from episode to episode. One memorable half-hour finds Ashley, Trish, Earl, and Janelle dressed as nuns and considering faking a disability in order to skip the lines at a theme park, and it includes both all-out absurdity (a goblet filled with a drink made up of many cheeses) and more serious character development that lingers in the dejected looks on two characters’ faces as they ride a rollercoaster. This show processes and engages with many difficult and intriguing topics, and it does it in a way that’s all its own.
Grade: A-
The 8-episode second season of Blindspotting begins streaming April 14 on Starz.
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