We constantly hear complaints about melanated people not being represented in a positive light, or even represented at all on most television series. The biggest cure for this is creating our own content — produced by us, written by us, played by us. We’ve listed some really dope series below doing just that. Taking control of our narrative! Black Web Series are becoming more and more popular as online viewing and streaming are normalizing. Here are some shows making waves.
Black&Sexy TV
We can’t have this post and not list all of the dopeness that is Black&SexyTV (B&STV) first. They are well deserving of the recognition as trailblazers in the genre. They’ve been relatively transparent about their process with their fans who have been on the journey with them since 2012. Through all of their trials and tribulations, they are polishing their brand and readying it for major moves. They are currently in production for the movie of their award winning series, RoomieLiverFriends; also in production for their series The Couple to be on HBO; and have season 1 of one of their newest series, Chef Julien, playing on Centric. For those of us anti-television viewers, Black&Sexy has free minisodes on YouTube, with full episodes via their paid Subscription on VHX. Their platform is available for ROKU, ChromeCast, Android, and iPhone users as well. Here’s a list of their shows you need to catch up on. Hell, be sure to watch the older series as well since all of the characters in the Black&Sexy Universe are connected and make cameos on other shows!
Through the past 4 years B&STV has had a plethora of series. Most that are still in rotation, some that they moved on from, and others that they have rebooted. Since the B&STV Universe is all connected, it’s fun (and important) to even watch the older series. I’ve broken them down categorically as best I could for this beautifully overlapping spider web of shows!
Still in Rotation:
RoomieLoverFriends was my first introduction to the B&STV Universe. It captures the highs and lows of roommates/lovers/friends Tamiko and Jay as they navigate the waters of living together, crushing on each other, and dealing with outside and personal influences.
Sexless follows the lives of 4 best friends who deal with being “Sexless” in their 20s. Stacy & Farrah are virgins. Nolita is attempting to wait until marriage. Wendy is looking for a serious relationship.
Chef Julian is a spinoff from Sexless that gives the dating narrative from the male perspective of Julian, Wendy’s beau from Sexless (see how the web weaves through episodes).
HelloCupid is a crazy story of two friends, Whitney & Robin, who catfish a guy they found on the HelloCupid dating app, who they both end up liking. The story goes so much deeper, but I’m trying to keep this as spoiler-free as possible. It’s so much better to watch it and be surprised. The upcoming season features other characters from other shows of the B&STV universe (hence why it makes it so much better to watch EVERY series).
Rider/Nite Rider tell the hilariously outrageous stories that Rider drivers (think Uber or Lyft) experience. Rider has the chill, daytime passengers. Nite Rider always has some craziness… You’ll definitely see some familiar faces from other shows (yup, you guessed it, spider web).
Rebooted Series:
The Number Reboot is a revived series from the original series The Number where Melissa and her fiancé reveal to each other their sexual partner count and her fiancé is thrown for a loop. *Spoiler Alert* In the Reboot Melissa and her fiancé have parted ways and she has now shared her number with her new beau Kevin, who we first met on HelloCupid (more spider webs). This series meshes pettiness, comedy, and emotional attachments like no other!
Yellow is the tale of poor Austin who can’t seem to catch a break and forever experiences life based on his yellow complexion verses his merits. *Not So Spoiler Alert* We find out Yellow is coming back soon with a twist via one of the episodes of Rider!
The Couple, isn’t exactly a reboot, but I’ll place it here because it will feel like it due to it being years since the series last aired and HBO opted to pick it up. This was the second B&STV series I watched and I could relate so much because of the odd hilarities from my own relationship. Guy and Girl depict both the mushy and aggravating sides of living with and committing yourself to another person.
Former Series:
That Guy was definitely one of B&STV’s most popular series. The drama levels were off the charts. It was a dope replacement for the garbage spewed in reality tv and the sudorealism of soap operas. It’s essentially about the personalities, relationships, and roller coasters of Judah and his friends. The spider webs and spoiler alerts are too intense to give more details, so you’ll have to watch for yourself.
Becoming Nia is the spinoff from That Guy that gives the perspective from single mother, Nia, who has a child with Judah and has to navigate being a mom, her feelings for Judah, her self esteem, and the hardships of all of that on a struggling entrepreneurial income.
The Extras:
In addition to all of these dope web series, B&STV provides talk shows, behind the scenes, get to knows, and even their own award show where the fans vote for which characters and actors should win the BLEXY award! They’ve also expanded to feature and sponsor shows from outside producers (“The Process”), including their annual HBCU sponsorship which first went to a Howard University student (“Doing It Wrong”… HU!!) These shows include:
The After Party, Herbs & Honesty, The Underground, Bedtime, Black&Sexy Music Moment, Buy Black for 30, The Process, Doing it Wrong, Blexy Awards & Battle of the G.O.A.Ts
More Black Web Series that you should definitely watch and judge for yourself are… (In no order of excellence, but ranging from romance drama to hood classic…)
Unwritten Rules
Unwritten Rules was based on the book, “40 Hours and an Unwritten Rule: The Diary of a Nigger, Negro, Colored, Black, African-American Woman” (Butterfly Ink Publishing, 2004), and guides us through the comedic realities of Racey Jones, a Black woman in a predominantly white workplace. In all of it’s 3 seasons, I laughed, I got angry, and I laughed some more.
Everything I Did Wrong in My 20s
Everything I Did Wrong in My 20s was 2 seasons of reflecting on life once you hit the dreaded threshold of 30, dun dun dun!! Seriously, you all need to chill and stop acting like 30 is the new 80, you’ll be fine… That’s exactly what the main character in this series starts to discover.
First
Robin and Charles have known each other since Middle School, but have their first date in their late 20s. As the day of surprises unfolds, they quickly realize there is more than friendship in their future.
Tough Love
Six millennials, living in New York City, all have differing ideals and desires when it comes to life and love. The show centers around their dating encounters, the debates they have among each other, and their day-to-day struggles. We also watch as they each secretly meet with a therapist and share their true feelings about different statistics within the dating world.
Makeup and Breakup the Series
The ups and downs of mixing relationships.
Brothers With No Game
Brothers With No Game follows 4 blokes, childhood friends, through their social and romantic lives.
No Love Lost
Divorced couple navigates life and relationships while still living under the same roof.
How Men Become Dogs
It’s not often you see a group of African American men who’ll be completely honest about their experiences with women, particularly when those encounters reveal them being cheated on, lied to or left behind for someone better. When we think of love in movies, we tend to think of women who endure pain at first, find their long lost love in the middle and finally live ‘happily ever after’ in the end. Unfortunately, in real life that’s not always the case… especially for men. See for yourself…
https://youtu.be/WEuuQ6t-UEk?list=PLVo7nGot4fPhr1OGwHjQop4onzPMVLX3h
Close Friends
The complexities of love and friendship from a group of urban mid twenty somethings.a
Anonymous (The Diary of the Other Woman)
Anonymous (The Diary of the Other Woman) an edgy, seductive and captivating web series that will grab your attention and keep you wondering what will happen next. Its vivid content, subject matter and diversity gives it everything that you want in a series but have yet to see. This series is going to touch on subjects that are sensitive to some and most people will be able to relate to & it will always keep you wanting more…
Grey
In the series premiere, Simone is considering another man while her husband, Braden, works to keep his past a secret. Then the drama unfolds…
Coming Home
What happens when your man is locked up? And you’re on the outside trying to maintain life? What decisions do you make?
What Happened to Love
A dramedy based on the state of love and relationships.
First Dates
A comedy about being fresh on the dating scene and going on first dates again.
JEZEBEL
A twisting and turning drama about intersecting relationships.
Street Matrimony
When the realest person on your team is your woman, you gotta respect that. This is street romance in its rawest form. Many people talk about or say they want that ride or die love… but it’s a rare occasion when they actually mean it.
Lanes
A look into the different paths people take on the streets of Brooklyn.
The Ave
A courageous young man who commits to defrauding checks must find out and realizes that his loyalty comes with a price.
Hood
In this urban base crime drama Chalice “HOOD” Pruitt struggles to put his life back together after serving eight years of a twelve year sentence for his role in the murder of Diane Clark wanting nothing more than to have a relationship with a daughter he has never met HOOD desperately tries to find the balance of being dedicated father and the next air to the Pruitt family criminal legacy.
Trap Kings
Living the Trap King lifestyle.
Cold World
A story based on Love, Lust, Heartache, Music and Inspiration.
The Worst Of Us
When an accidental murder is committed by one of five siblings they make a poor attempt to cover up the gruesome crime. Roz Hood, the eldest of the quintet, also a convicted felon, uses her feminine wiles to seduce Barks Daily, brother to the victim, in an effort to throw him off her sexual deviant sister’s trail.
We’d also like to lay mention to www.ColoredContent.com which hosts a lot of these shows and more on their platform, as well as TheVillageTV which is producing a string of shows to launch in July!
Keep in mind that most of these shows are working on negative budgets or whatever they’ve gained from crowd sourcing and/or membership dues. If you have it in your pockets, please invest in these shows because representation matters. We can’t keep complaining that “they” don’t cast us while doing nothing about it. I’m all for creating your own instead of waiting on a generous hand, especially when that hand is most famous for the mass genocide, impoverishment, and imprisonment of our people. Here we have us doing for us, so donate, subscribe, share, yell it from the roof tops. Cut back on cable channels that you don’t watch and give that money to them. Hell, I quit cable all together years ago, and definitely prefer online viewing and being able to give to Black&SexyTV every month instead. Pockets looking linty? Guess what! Clicking the like, subscribe, and share buttons don’t cost you a penny, but it means the world to these content producers! Go indulge!
Let us know your favorites in the comments and tell us any we’ve missed to update our list!