Emmy Episodes: A Black Lady Sketch Show

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the sixth year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

A Black Lady Sketch Show: Season 2, Episode 1 “But the Tilapias Are Fine Though, Right?” (B-)

This is my second time checking into this show after last year screening the pilot because guest actress Angela Bassett was nominated. This time around, the show doubled its take in that category, and this episode features an equally short appearance by Yvette Nicole Brown, who stars as the judge in the black lady courtroom sketch, which is apparently continued from the season one finale, which I didn’t screen. That same sketch also features Issa Rae, who is nominated alongside Brown but submitted a different episode for consideration. I think I would vote for Rae based on this showcase alone, simply because her role is more substantial and she’s more memorable, though I do like seeing Brown, who is funny. As with the last time I watched this show, Robin Thede’s monologue abilities are pretty impressive, which opened this episode in a memorable way, and the sketches are hit or miss. I don’t quite comprehend this still-present end-of-the-world-event narrative, and the bank robbery bit didn’t go as far as it could have, getting lost somewhere around the teller having to put on her ears. The same goes for the MASH sketch, which felt a little more freaky than funny, which I guess is sometimes how comedy ends up working out. I did enjoy Tone Bell’s guest appearance in the stripper dinner sketch and the horror that Robin felt when she realized that he knew exactly where he was and that it was ruining her fantasy, which of course was his goal all along.