Issa Rae’s ‘Seen & Heard’ Chronicles the History, Impact and Struggle of Blackness in Television
On the second day of the SXSW Festival, Issa Rae debuted the second part of her HBO docu-series “Seen & Heard.” The actress spoke at length about the film in a keynote conversation with Rotten Tomatoes Awards Editor Jacqueline Coley earlier in the day.
The series is centered around the history and treatment of Black people in American television. While the first episode focused on how studios have “used Black audiences to build up their network,” before abandoning them “as soon as it was convenient,” the new episode seeks to explore the comprehensive, rich history of Blackness in television to explain how the industry got to where it is.
Testimonials by television giants like Oprah Winfrey, Shonda Rhimes, Tyler Perry, Tracee Ellis Ross, Lena Waithe and Rae herself provide a rich range of experiences and successfully illuminate the impact Black characters and creators have had on the entertainment industry, particularly from the ’90s to today.
The documentary calls out “fictitious Blackness” in Hollywood — a consequence, they argue, of white-run studios and white-dominant writers’ rooms, that relegate roles for Black actors to harmful stereotypes, as well as the system of control that is created by depending on white-majority larger corporations providing the funding for projects.
Instead of waiting for permission and change, the film encourages audiences to create their own. Rae did this with her comedy web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl,” which she premiered on YouTube in 2011.
In the keynote conversation Rae explained that her own shows are often semi-autobiographical because of the unwillingness of studios to invest in characters she can see herself in. She said she refused to believe that there was no audience for her ideas because she existed and she was the audience.
“Nobody can beat me at serving my audience,” Tyler Perry said at one point in the episode, echoing Rae’s sentiment.
But today “it feels bleak,” Rae said during the keynote conversation, referring to diversity in the industry. “It used to seem possible,” she said. “The diversity initiative needs a better publicist.”
Rae resonated with Sean Baker’s battlecry at the Oscars, where the “Anora” director pleaded the industry invest in independent film. Rae said her own battlecry would echo this, and she wants to see an industry that supports artistry and is not afraid to take risks on original scripts.
Shonda Rhimes has a big part in the documentary, as it honors the impact the creative has had on television — from “Grey’s Anatomy,” to “Scandal,” “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Bridgerton.”
Rhimes gets candid in the film and reveals her decision to move from ABC to Netflix in 2018, after 15 years at the network. The incident that was her tipping point happened after she had asked the Disney-owned network for an additional all-inclusive pass to Disneyland to give to her sister. When she called a “high-ranking executive” at the company after the pass failed to work, he allegedly responded with “Don’t you have enough, Shonda?”
This moment didn’t bruise her ego, she said, but proved to her that she will never be able to escape this dynamic with the network and they were always going to expect her to be grateful, instead of being able to recognize what she has given to their network.
“Seen & Heard” is dynamic and versatile. It does just what it asks of the larger industry: portray the humanity and complexity of the Black experience from the joys and struggles; motherhood, love and success, to discrimination, neglect and abuse. It also celebrates the power of television as a unique medium, where great characters can become a part of viewers’ lives, and creators have the opportunity to develop characters to a degree that film doesn’t allow.
“I wish people were as quick to consume history books as they are to consume film and TV,” said former journalist turned film writer Cord Jefferson in the series, speaking about his frustration with the journalism industry and having to repeatedly cover the “racism beat,” without seeing it have an impact.
Thus, media makers must never forget the huge responsibility they have in making good stories because human behavior is largely influenced by the TV we watch, he said.