what it means to be too big, Black, and brilliant for this world

June 14, 2023 7:04 AM

I'm A Virgo [Official Trailer] “Through its depiction of Cootie — an awkward but endlessly curious and kindhearted young man Jerome inhabits with a boyish charm — and his parents, whose strict rules are a reflection of their love for him, I’m a Virgo is very explicitly telling a tale about what it means to be (or to raise) children whose Blackness and brilliance makes them too “big” for the world. Cootie’s gigantism is the way that Black children are robbed of their childhoods because of how other people perceive them to be older than they actually are and more deserving of punishment. Cootie’s gigantism is the boundless potential for greatness parents see in their Black children knowing full well that the society they’re living in isn’t designed to help them maximize it but, rather, to stifle it. It’s also a rather direct way of unpacking how, even when Black people manage to play the game successfully and reach the upper echelons of fame and fortune, the specter of racism by way of dehumanization is never all that far away.” [via: The Verge]
posted by Fizz (7 comments total)

Had absolutely no idea that Boots Riley and Tze Chun had a TV series in the works, let alone one that was about to come out in two weeks' time. I'm not an Amazon subscriber for reasons, but I may have to find some means of seeing this one.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:15 AM on June 14, 2023

The trailer on this looks good - and it seems to using the same type of new storytelling device as my current personal favorite, Mrs. Davis — it takes the metaphor, or the cultural “meme”, and makes it literal.

I’m fascinated by the shift. When it’s approached earnestly, and not with a nudge-and-wink, it’s surprisingly effective, at least for me. And there is an aspect of it that feels like the old oral-tradition culture-stories (doing my best to avoid the word “myths” here cuz of the diminution implicit in the term). But they do feel like culture-stories and not man-versus…, protagonist-driven, “Heat”-type, hyper-Individualistic tales.
posted by Silvery Fish at 7:55 AM on June 14, 2023

Loved Sorry To Bother You and have been excited about I'm a Virgo for quite awhile. His band The Coup are pretty darn great too!
posted by ericthegardener at 7:55 AM on June 14, 2023 [4 favorites]

I’m an old white guy with very long COVID hair and this trailer may be the thing that pushes me to visit the barber.
posted by brachiopod at 8:27 AM on June 14, 2023 [2 favorites]

I had only heard about this briefly, in passing--was it mentioned on a Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast? I'm so glad to see the trailer, because it looks SO GOOD.
posted by theatro at 12:46 PM on June 14, 2023

Very excited about this. When I rewatched Sorry To Bother You, I saw how many hilarious and telling details I missed the first time around. I bet this will be like that too.
posted by umbú at 12:27 PM on June 15, 2023

Finished watching a couple days ago, and this show is so great. There's a full-season thread on FanFare, by the way (link to landing to avoid going right into the spoiler-ish thread.)
posted by larrybob at 9:47 AM on June 30, 2023