Season Review: Everybody Still Hates Chris Season 1 Part 2
After nearly a two year wait, the second half of the first season of animated sequel to the Chris Rock is…STILL not out yet. At least, not out in the states, but it did end up coming out on Paramount+ in Brazil. BRAZIL. I would be surprised, but this is hardly the first time that Paramount has done this, most recently to my recollection being when they suddenly took Star Trek: Prodigy off their service but its already finished second season still ended up airing in France. And don’t get me started on the numerous Nickelodeon shows from the 90’s and 2000’s that had handfuls of episodes simply not be on television long past their series ended until maybe being quietly shown on a secondary network and forgotten. So yeah, the second half of this season is not LEGALLY available on American Paramount+…and I suspect it probably won’t for some time, which leads me to believe that this series is effectively dead. Having not seen the original live action series it’s based on, I have no idea if this cartoon version just failed to live up to the viewership expectations, or was a casualty of the Skydance merger, or some completely different third thing, but it seems someone with enough influence still hated it enough to pull the plug and not bother showing most people the rest that was already done.
Which is honestly quite a shame, not just because lots of people worked hard to make these episodes and it sucks to not let them have that work out there for people to see, but also because this and the first half were pretty decent television. It’s of course not anything particularly unique or distinct in the deluge of animated sitcoms that exists now, but it uses its premise of a financially struggling Black family in 80’s New York quite effectively in my opinion. There’s your standard plots about wanting some expensive sneakers or sneaking out with dad’s car to impress a girl, but there’s also ones about how white people started co-opting rap, a Black art form that was becoming more prominent at that time, or how White Guilt and White Savior complexes were damaging to minorities despite at least starting with good intentions, or…well, there’s kind of a lot of how frustrating it is to deal with white people, which I certainly can’t argue with as a white guy myself. My point is that I think it makes sense to focus on how being a black adolescent was a significant aspect of Chris (even a fictionalized and exaggerated Chris) and his youth. And, perhaps predicting they may not get a second season, the finale does show Chris getting a taste for stand up comedy and getting with the girl he’s been pining after the whole show, so at least those plot threads are wrapped up and, in the event of them getting another bite at the apple, it can explore those interesting developments.
Do I think this unceremonious likely cancellation came from racial malice? It would be easy to point that way, especially considering the current Paramount-Skydance CEO and his ties to Donald Trump, but it would be hard to prove. And either way, it just seems like more apathy towards animation and the still dedicated people who are willing to make it in an attempt to tell their stories that can give us a wide spectrum of perspectives. I say that, but it’s also worth acknowledging that this is a nostalgic sequel to long cancelled live action sitcom that itself was nostalgic for the 80’s, and had Chris Rock’s name attached to help it get made in the first place, so it’s not like we’re seeing some original and revolutionary story being put down by the establishment. All the same, it really should not have been treated like this way, and I hope these remaining ten episodes get an official release somewhere for those who are interested to see it. This will very likely not be the last Paramount produced series to face this sort of fate, but we’ll do our best to give it a fair shake, even if the guys upstairs didn’t think it was worth it.
