Black-ish a Truly Modern Family- Review

Comedies with an actual point of view are as rare as they are welcome — especially in a fall awash in mediocre new cookie-cutter romantic comedies. Even in a better season, ABC's provocative and very funny Black-ish (9:30/8:30c) would stand out for its broad and biting satire of an uneasily post racial society seen through a very modern-family prism. 

Anthony Anderson (a co-executive producer) stars as successful ad exec and family man Andre "Dre" Johnson, who's living the American dream — as he tells

us in an incessant voice-over that the show needs to tone down in future episodes — but as often happens in these scenarios, the dream isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Not when it comes at the expense of one's own cultural and racial identity. His spoiled kids are so oblivious to their roots and to race in general that they've become basically color-blind, which in Dre's mind translates to not being black enough. Case in point: His namesake son (a very good Marcus Scribner) is trying out for field hockey — hardly dad's sport of choice — and asks for a bar mitzvah on his 13th birthday. It's bad enough his friends call him "Andy" instead of "Dre," but when Junior suggests adopting a Hebrew name, it's time for an emergency family meeting.

And what a family. In addition to the gregarious Anderson, the terrific cast includes Tracee Ellis Ross as his mixed-race wife, Rainbow, an accomplished doctor who's never afraid to tell Dre when he's pushing too hard; and Laurence Fishburne a delight as Dre's curmudgeonly "Pops," who's suffering his full-of-himself son and fractious offspring with wry and detached amusement. But even Pops makes a fuss when baked fried chicken is served for dinner.

Dre's anxiety over "keeping it real" extends to his mostly white workplace, where his pride over "breaking down barriers" is tainted with tokenism when a long-awaited promotion turns out to be ghettoized to a new "urban division." Or, as Dre sees it: "Did they just put me in charge of black stuff?" Black-ish has the tart, timely tang of Norman Lear's classic '70s comedies (All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, etc.), which felt rooted in a specific time with something significant to say. And there's plenty that's universal in Dre's desire to provide a better life for his family without allowing them to lose sight of what their accomplishments mean.

If Black-ish is the hit it deserves to be, it would also be an important achievement for network TV in general, which is embracing diversity in very positive ways this season (with Latino families the focus of the upcoming Jane the Virgin and Cristela, to name a few examples).

Did you watch it? What did you think?