This Week’s Web Series You Need to Watch: The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl

Check out this review of one of my favorite (and actually the only) web series that I actually the watch. It's both genius and relatable.. It's steadily growing in popularity, and with that, I hope it can keep it's lq-humor and dry attitude.

FML. Creeper. Awkward. These are the go-to utterances of the bottom dwellers among us, the flip-cup braggarts, the BBM-addicted, remember-that-time-in-high-school-when groupthink dregs who struggle to think original thoughts, let alone communicate them. Instead of articulating how they feel, they substitute catchall buzzwords for more nuanced human emotions.

It’s not “My dad just called to tell me he’s concerned about how much I’ve been drinking and that makes me feel loved, but a little invaded too.” It’s “My dad’s being a tool. FML.” It’s never “Wow, this girl seems to be really intent upon contacting me, what with all the texts she’s sending.” It’s “Creeper. Creeper. Creeper alert. Creeper.” And, very rarely do we hear or read “This is making me uncomfortable and I’m having trouble dealing with it.” Instead, it’s almost always: “This is soooo awkward, haha.”

Of all the really dumb words, I hate “awkward” most. Its overuse has become a signifier of a crumbling American lexicon, a pernicious marker of teenage laziness and, to be honest, when I came across The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl, a flag went up. I almost didn’t want to watch. The series’ title suggested a thrown-together collection of overused or semi-inside jokes, the core of a rushed up YouTube job — a sad prayer for speedy web fame. Once I got over myself and gave it a try, I realized it was anything but.

Written and created by LA based producer/director/writer/actress Issa Rae, Awkward Black Girl is great for all the reasons that embolden the anti-awkward front. It’s raw and unusual, in both narrative and cinematographic form. Awkward Black Girl pulls off a difficult marriage between the understated style of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the more boisterous, often race-driven humor of Ice Cube’s Friday or the gold-standard Chappelle’s Show.

Episodes are long and exploratory, but always funny and never without purpose. Character development, story arc, and inter-episode connective tissue is strong. Awkward Black Girl is cool because it feels uninhibited, authentic, and unafraid — the very opposite of anyone who peppers their sentences with the insufferable “awkward.”

From Splitsider.

As an awkward black guy, I could not have said it any better myself. It's such a great series and I hope it goes far! :D

Check out this first episode here:

And follow the trail to the other ones! They're fantastic!