black-ish (Hope)
It feels wrong in some ways to praise this episode for being “entertaining”, especially given the subject manner, but I’ll argue that’s what makes it powerful. No doubt “Hope” will one day serve the purpose of being a time capsule that informs future generations of what these times felt like, but for the surprisingly earnest discussions of police brutality, its willingness to name-drop authors so the audience can better educate themselves, and the wrenching monologue about the episode’s title, “Hope” doesn’t see “black-ish” become a dreary PSA for half an hour. It’s an episode of wit, executed damn near perfectly.
10