Four women, a sisterhood, really, who together are taking on love, relationships, careers and navigating the big city, is a tried and true Hollywood format. See Living Single, Girlfriends, Sex and the City, Golden Girls, Designing Women, Insecure as proof — and now we have one more to add to that list: Run the World, Starz’ new comedy from the mind of executive producer and creator Leigh Davenport. It’s a show that’s very much needed in terms of representation of Black women on the small screen. The show is about four smart, funny, and vibrant 30-something Black female friends as they take on Harlem (and New York City, in general) through a millennial lens. The series premiered on Sunday, May 16, and ‘it’s giving everything that it was suppose to have gave.’ Fashion, sex, stylish apartments, beautiful men eye-candy, kiki-ing over cocktails, oh, and did we already say fashion? Yeah, it’s safe to say we’re pretty much obsessed with this show.
The first episode opens up with a punch as the girls convene over cocktails at the iconic Red Rooster restaurant in Harlem. From there it’s jam packed with culture — Mickalene Thomas designed the series title card posted on a bus stop (see below), an infamous Elsa Peretti bone cuff bracelet, a print of Jacob Lawrence’s panel 58 from his Migration Series hangs on the wall, discussions around the impact of Soulja Boy’s career, the citing of Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman“ in a bodega, fashion icon Bevy Smith casually walking across the screen, nude tone pointe shoes for Black ballet dancers. All of that and more in just this one episode. Wow!
The concept of the show — Black women simply existing, enjoying life, and supporting each other all while wearing luxury brands — sadly isn’t something we see too often within television and film. That’s why this show is so important. Run The World stands on the shoulders of Black sisterhood centered sitcoms before it. So much so in fact that Living Single creator Yvette Lee Bowser serves as the series’ showrunner (our favorite boss attorney Maxine Shaw, played by Erika Alexander, also makes a cameo in the series). The show is a continuation of the work laid out by Yvette Lee Bowser on Living Single and Mara Brock Akil’s Girlfriends in each of their respective groundbreaking series.
Inspired by the plethora of sisterhood centered shows, the characters draw inspiration from iconic sitcom characters of yesterday. We noticed character archetypes from Living Single, mixed with Girlfriends and a little sprinkle of Sex and the City-isms. Ella (played by Andrea Bordeaux) is a crafted mix of Khadijah James meets Carrie Bradshaw, as she navigates publishing and media (she even refers to her situationship boyfriend as her ‘Big,’ as in the infamous ‘Mr. Big’). Whitney (Amber Stevens West) is the bougie, traditional corporate professional bride to be, created in the spirit of Charlotte York Goldenblatt. Sondi (Corbin Reid) is the resident “resist against the status quo” character always ready to smash the patriarchy that brings to mind Lynn Ann Searcy mixed with a little Miranda Hobbs. And Renee (Bresha Webb) is equal parts Maya Wilkes/Samantha Jones/Regine Hunter — the vibrant, hilarious friend that has no problem telling it like it is.
And even though it might take some inspiration from SATC, let’s note that it’s not “the Black Sex and the City”, it is its own cultural, Black AF entity.
We can’t wait to watch the rest of the season. Run the World airs Sundays at 8:30 p.m. EST on Starz.
