Black-ish’s "Juneteenth: The Musical" was a comedy, a work of education and an indictment

The Atlantic

“Every once in a while,” says Megan Garber, “a show will break out of the comfortable paradigm to engage in something much more productive than comfort alone—every once in a while, a primetime network sitcom will double as an urgent argument about the way we live now and the way we might live better. Black-ish, on ABC, offers episodes like that as a matter of course, and the show’s Season 4 premiere, ‘Juneteenth: The Musical,’ is the most powerful breakout so far. Tuesday evening’s Black-ish is, as its title suggests, largely a musical episode, inspired in turns by Hamilton and Schoolhouse Rock! It is also, as its title further suggests, a consideration of a holiday that is not (yet) nationally celebrated—and, in that, also a meditation on cultural memory and national apology and monuments and flags and kneeling and history as something that is both shared among all Americans and extremely biased in its vision.”

ALSO:

• Kenya Barris: ABC was very supportive, but it was an episode viewers were either going to love or hate
• “Black-ish was lit. It was a full-on celebration of black history and culture”
• “This is why Black-ish using its broadcast network platform to help people understand Juneteenth is so important”