Per usual, the latest episode of Black-ish chooses a socially relevant theme. "One Angry Man" focuses around Dre's experience on an otherwise all white jury, deciding a case with a seemingly guilty young black suspect. Unfortunately, the show makes a mistakes by pairing the theme with a whimsical tone which may distract viewers from the seriousness of the subject at hand.
The episode starts will Dre shredding a jury duty letter, only to find out that boneheaded Junior has not only repaired it (somehow) but also written back to the court letting them know the letter was received. Dre is devastated.
When the kids are just a little too helpful. #blackish pic.twitter.com/vcKst1u3sd
— black-ish (@black_ishABC) February 24, 2017
" I would kill you right now but then that means I would be making some poor fella sit on a jury like you just did to me!" said the exasperated father to his clueless son. Thus begins Dre's endeavor into the justice system.
While Dre is dealing with this, Bow and the kids deliver one of the more humorous and memorable subplots of the entire season. After Bow sees that the neighbors let their son cuss because it makes their son open up to them. Albeit against her best judgement, adamantly decrying that this is an "oh shucks house," she begins to follow suit upon realizing her kids won't tell her anything about themselves. And the hilarity ensues.
Oops. Thought you had a friend. #blackish pic.twitter.com/P9vQUgXJjA
— black-ish (@black_ishABC) February 27, 2017
"I'm sorry mom, I'm just not comfortable with this, I don't swear."
"Jeanine's been recording you Junior."
"That b****!!!"
As a viewer the scenes with the children walking around cussing are quite amusing, and fortunately for Bow her idea works. The kids begin to open up her. Unfortunately, Bow and her "oh shucks" ways just can't take the expletives anymore and she returns things back to the way they were. It's too bad because I could have gotten used to their liberated vocabulary.
Getting back to the main plot, Dre is completely uninterested in the jury duty until he realizes he is the only black juror and the defendant is a young black man. Following this realization he becomes instantly interested in making sure he gets a fair trial. The bumbling oaf who is assigned defend him gives an atrocious opening statement.
"To be honest guy's, I thought this trial was tomorrow. All I can say is just vote with your heart."
Though intended to be exaggerated and humorous, it draws light to the real life problem of over-worked and under-qualified public defendants whose competency can determine the future of a young person's life. Junior, being the bastion of random knowledge that he is, delineates this issue to Dre in much more detail.
When Dre brings the trial up at work they get into the regular race talk. Dre uses the opportunity to discuss the history of discriminatory jury practices throughout U.S. history and correlates it to the astounding fact that 1 in 18 whites are sent to jail while 1 in 3 blacks are.
While back on the trial, the jurors give their votes and Dre is the sole holdout choosing not to convict him, despite the case seeming to be open and shut. He argues that the kid isn't given a fair trial and they should take their time before trying to convict him.
There has been a critical error on your website.<\/p>
Learn more about debugging in WordPress.<\/a><\/p>","data":{"status":500},"additional_errors":[]}