Interview with Abe: Cindy Chao and Michele Yu

I had the pleasure of speaking with Emmy nominees Cindy Chao and Michele Yu, production designers for “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” Check out our great conversation for Below the Line News.

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 4 “My Booty Look Juicy, Don't It?” (C)

This is the third episode of this show that I’ve watched now, and it was the one I found least engaging and entertaining. Knowing that Issa Rae was nominated for an Emmy for this installment, I assumed there was going to be another Black Lady Courtroom segment, but instead, she showed up in an even shorter one-scene role as one of the friends on the meditation retreat. It was fun to see her doing something different than what she does on “Insecure,” which has earned her multiple Emmy nominations, but this is such a small and insignificant part, and not one I would have singled out for consideration even though I really do like Rae. None of the other sketches worked particularly well in my opinion, like the under-the-bed friend and the final concert. The Fairy Aunt Mother was entertaining mostly because of how much what she thought she was experiencing and putting out into the world was not reflective of reality. Ally being so upbeat about everything, including the bone that was horrifyingly protruding, was definitely a bit much, and I still fail to see what the magic is about these post-apocalyptic scenes where people don’t seem nearly as panicked about the end of the world as they should be, instead focusing on things that are much more trivial and hardly as consequential as whatever that devastating event was. I’m sure I’ll be back watching more episodes of this show when it gets nominated again for season three.

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.

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 fifth 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 1, Episode 1 “Angela Bassett Is the Baddest B***h” (B-)

I watched this episode, which is actually the pilot of this six-episode series that was renewed by HBO for a second round, after marathoning all of the “Saturday Night Live” episodes in contention for Emmy this year. It is refreshing in a way to see sketches that are visually higher-quality and more polished, but I still have the same issue with this kind of series, which is that I really prefer a more cohesive storyline. The continued check-ins a number of hours or minutes after “the event” did maintain a narrative, though it was more about not breaking phones or spilling secrets than the apparent end of the world that just casually came up. There was a mild violence warning when the episode started since this show seems to lean towards action-oriented sketches, with the CIA agent who’s invisible ultimately fighting herself and the opening bit with the woman running away from the monster. I was happy to recognize a few actresses who aren’t regular members of the cast in this episode, including Nicole Byer from “Nailed It,” Yvonne Orji from “Insecure,” Gina Torres from “Suits,” and Laverne Cox from “Orange is the New Black.” The reason that I watched this episode was because it’s Emmy-nominated for Angela Bassett’s brief appearance, which really didn’t astound me all that much. She did fine with the material and made the most of it, but I’m not sure I would have remembered she appeared in this episode if I hadn’t been looking for her. Overall, I think what impressed me the most was star Robin Thede’s monologue skills as the absurd teacher in the Hertep Masterclass.