Black Lightning is n’t the first tv show to prominently feature black superheroes and it also is n’t the first cape series with a predominately black shape . And yet , Black Lightning is telling a very fussy story about black lives that ’s unlike anything else on the CW right now and it feels very much like it ’s go on a different level than most other TV show based on comic books .
Black Lightning ’s first few episodesimmediately make it clear that for the prison term being , Jefferson Pierce ’s ( Cress Williams ) life-time as a vigilance man has always been for the most part concentre on street - level criminal offense with a direct impact on his community . Long before he became the lead at Freeland ’s Garfield High School , Black Lightning dedicate his life to get by with law-breaking boss and corrupted politicians when the police could ( or would ) not .
Like his fellow CW superheroes , Jefferson ’s compulsion to police the street of his urban center is borne out of a desire to protect the innocent and vulnerable . But Black Lightning is distinguishable from other show on the web because of the way it cautiously brings Freeland ’s residential area to life . It ’s always a niggling odd listening to the Flash or Supergirl talking about how they ’ve sworn to protect Central and National City ( places they supposedly love ) because neither of those cities in reality seems like they have any kind of evident personality to them .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ujTcNAf9a8
Central City and National City are — as their generic , cookie - cutter gens might suggest — meant to be a white canvas of kind for The Flash and Supergirl ’s characters to act in front of but never really interact with in any substantive mode . There are citizens living out their various lives , sure , but you never get a sense that there ’s a deeper interiority to them the once they wander off camera . Black Lightning ’s Freeland , by equivalence , is populated by people that front , sound , and feel veridical , which is a key component to making the show work .
Because protecting Freeland is finally Black Lightning ’s principal destination , the city had to be amply realize in a way that makes the hearing care about it as well . That kind of commitment to thoughtful world - construction would have ensured that Freeland was describe intelligently no matter what form showrunner Salim Akil desire the urban center to take , but the decision to focus on Freeland ’s black community of interests is peculiarly important .
Freeland ’s school system , law force , and local medium are all portrayed as consisting almost entirely of black people and something happen when traditionally marginalized communities become the central centering of shows like Black Lightning . There are black supporting characters on every single one of the CW ’s other superhero display , but there ’s a very special mode in which those characters ’ plotlines seldom dig into stories about their backwash because they ’re supporting characters . There may be the periodic mention of how Joe West ’s race bear upon his life history as a police ship’s officer , but The Flash has never really explored what it was like for Joe to evoke a white child as if he were his own . That is n’t necessarily the kind of storey that we should always want or require for characters of coloring material simply because of their race , but they ’re the sort of narrative texture to a role ’s life that constitute them seem more three - dimensional .
Because Black Lightning ’s story is so rooted in the life of black people , you never get the signified that the show might shy away from palm issues relating to race in the heart of each episode ’s main secret plan . Black Lightning does n’t have to slow things down to get into the Very Special Message About Discrimination because none of the lineament postulate to be cue what racism or police brutality are . Black Lightning assumes that we as spectator have enough of an understanding of those issues that its part can tackle them lead on , honestly , and sometimes untidily — the path literal the great unwashed do .
One of the most inspiriting things about the series ’ first few episode is how the dialogue is written and delivered . Put simply — you could tell that there are plenty of dark people in Black Lightning ’s author ’s room and their writing from their own personal experiences . Jefferson Pierce ’s fatherly pontification about province and the grandness of pedagogy come across as kind of stodgy and kind of condescending , but that ’s how parent are with their children . Jefferson ’s daughters Anissa ( Nefessa Williams ) and Jennifer ( China Anne McClain ) hash it out with their father and never lack an opportunity to challenge his potency even though they bonk that he fundamentally worry about them .
While watching Black Lightning ’s first two episodes , the show ’s characters immediately felt conversant because , as a smuggled person , I recognized the broad strokes of their personalities and voice . I recognize what it ’s like to be a black student at a shoal where the corpus sleep with everybody ’s name and is seemingly always in your personal clientele . I know that slightly overbear father who worries too much about his children and also question if he ’s labour them aside . I eff that exasperated teenager who just wants a hazard to endure their life outside of their parents ’ shadows — I’ve been that someone .
To be fair , these story beats have been seen on television before , and in black superhero shows , no less . But what Black Lightning manages to extract off that Luke Cage does n’t is that it build out a world rendered in spectre of gray as opposed to blackened and blanched . When Luke Cage is on silver screen take to task someone , you may evidence that Luke Cage want you to side with the titular Italian sandwich and immediately take his read on the spot as the precise one . Black Lightning frames Jefferson Pierce as a more fallible individual that other masses are n’t afraid to go toe - to - toe with ( be they friend or enemy ) when they sense it ’s necessary . That does n’t think that Jefferson ’s always ( or even usually ) in the legal injury , but rather that Black Lightning is willing to challenge and be critical of its hero .
If we ’re getting down to the organisation tacks of it , Black Lightning ’s ultimate major power is that it ’s got a kind of multifariousness that ’s greater than the sum of its share — diversity in front of the camera , behind it , and in the writer ’s way as well . It ’s when there are a multifariousness of dissimilar narration , from different perspective , lay out that we can really begin to see the kind of meaningful mental representation that more and more multitude are beginning to push for in pop culture — which gives Black Lightning an bound that ca n’t be magnify .
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