Unprisoned

So far, I'm a few episodes in and I'm falling in love hard with Unprisoned.

There's quite a bit of one liners and a bit of comedic situational set up, however ther is a strong drama through line, especially if you've experienced a distanced/estranged relationship with a parent. The comedy is there to lighten it, which is paced well and fitting in a cultural aspect.

Kerri Washington & Delroy Lindo do a fantastic job at making this father-daughter dynamic feel believable and there is a suspense on how it will resolve for all characters. I know these characters, these personalities are people I've known in my life, so the writing is on point. A special shout out to Jordyn McIntosh as Little Paige, the inner child whose monologues are an insight to Paige's issues in her dynamic with her father, delivered with such sass and comedic timing...I can't wait to see more of her!

Based off of the life of Terry McMillan. I do see work and vulnerability to put this out there. The realness of struggles piking on all at once, microagressions, the love and humor to get you through. This is no laugh track Chuck Lorre, and I for one am glad for the reprieve. It feels like a modern mix of The Cosby Show and Everybody Hates Chris: smart, silly, heartfelt, and most of all real.

9* because I'm in the middle of the season.

I swear this movie is so real and hit home! It was truly written by someone that has had to deal with people that have been locked up and the post treatment! Both my mother and father were in prison when I was little and I remember the terrible feeling I had when I would go visit and see them behind bars and not being able to get to close to them and being told visiting hours are over!! And when my mom got out she couldn't get jobs at descent places because she was a felon even though she wasn't on parole and had served her time!! Every time she went right and tried to do right she was reminded of all the wrong she did even though she never went back to the streets and separated herself from the old life. Thank God a friend gave her a job and let her take home leftovers and I was 16 and able to work!! But I cried because I felt his pained and lived through it!! It's made me a ver compassionate and caring individual!! GREAT SERIES!!!

We don't often get shows like this.

I'd say the casting department did their job well.

Kerry Washington has a good relationship and legacy with ABC, and it's nice that she gets a starring vehicle that lets her feature her comedy skills. I don't know if this will be limited to the 1 series of 8 half hour episodes, but hopefully we'll get more.

The show is Delroy Lindo's show. He's been a working actor for years who is respected in the industry. He's been in several films that are part of culture. Washington is the lead, but this is Lindo's show.

He's playing a man I see on a daily basis in the community I'm in, but not on screen. The character is complex, and you know Lindo has worked him out for us from how he is on screen. A complex character that is approachable.

This show is based on heavy topics. Daddy issues, release from prison, being black in Minnesota, revisiting relationships, the housing market in America, and how technology changes culture.

The overall tone of the show is lite, and at times cartoonish. It IS a sitcom, in 8 half hour segments that goes into those topics. How it is able to do that is the cast. The last few episodes get a bit heavier, but retain most of the positive tone about life.

We know it is based on a true story. Sometimes trauma includes laughs. It is how we live. The supporting cast, is there for the leads. In many ways they provide the drama to the show, and it is a nice mix.

By the supporting cast providing the drama, we get to enjoy watching how the two leads work through their flaws, with humor.

The shortcomings with the show are in someways related to the sitcom nature. Story lines just end. That is how life is sometimes. Problems just resolve themselves because there isn't anything else you can do with it.

I like the show. It will be nice to see more shows like this in production, and I hope the numbers support that decision for Hulu.

Like most, I tuned in to watch because of the caliber of leading actors including Kerry Washington and Delroy Lindo. I so wanted to like this, but after binge watching all episodes, I was left wondering what the point of it all was. Unfortunately, the storytelling does not live up to the hype. The main character is a middle aged, social media obsessed therapist who like many in her profession, has a wreck of a personal life of her own. Kerry Washington is a really good actress with the right content. In this show, she comes across as a very childish graying woman who can't figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. Of course, the storyline tells us that's because she was in foster care and her father was in the criminal justice system. Those things can be true. But one must wonder if the character learned anything about herself while she was studying to become a therapist. The storylines are messy, including one around her love life. While the show makes light of her dating her father's parole officer, there's nothing advisable about that. It's predatory no matter how handsome he is. In the real world, that situation could be easily, and dangerously manipulated or even weaponized by the parole officer against her father in the event things didn't work out. There are also some interesting messages about the criminal justice system, indeed, sometimes they are literally post-its on screen. There's no doubt that this show was written with a particular message that it wanted to share. It's unfortunate that there wasn't a better caliber of storytelling to make us really care about that story and who these characters were as people. I left indifferent. One thing in particular that truly bothered me was her inner child, played by a very young black female actress. It was offensive to have that little girl cursing that way. NOT cute or funny. The same story could have been told without this child being the most profane on the show. I missed the "comedy" in this one. If there's a season 2, hopefully someone else will write it and helm it.

"Unprisoned" (S01, 8 eps, 30-min, Hulu) stars cute Kerry Washington as an instagramming therapist raising her 16yo boy in Minneapolis when her father (played by cool cat Delroy Lindo) comes to see her after being released after serving a 17yr prison sentence for crime(s) unknown, maybe that'll be a season two reveal. The show is a dramedy and though it's a racially diverse cast, the writers don't beat you up with divisive social messaging. At its core it's really about a broken family and how prison release isn't as freeing as it would seem. There's an interesting plot device they use when Kerry's character talks to her inner child and that features young Jordyn McIntosh who's a firecracker and actually uses hard-swears in her dialogue which I thought was a Hollywood no-no. In any case, it's a really good show that we were disappointed in its short 8-ep run, having to wait another year for a second season if it even happens. These streamers' 8-10 ep seasons are plain $@#% at this point. We need solid 22-ep commitments that made tv entertainment great.