Critics have been saying BET’s new scripted series is basically an update of the Cosby Show. The comparisons are seemingly obvious if you consider that they have 1) married parents who are both professionals in their own right, 2) a gang of cute kids, and 3) they have Malcolm-Jamal Warner. There you go.
I have to watch myself as I write this review, since I’ve been jonesing for this show (any depiction of a good, strong black marriage, really) all year. I can’t let the hype get to me. I will be fair.
That being said, the pilot was pretty standard. We had the introduction of characters and a twist that most readers didn’t realize was coming (Theo…um, “Alex” is the stepdad to two of the kids). And then we see how kids change the dynamic of a marriage “”Every time the parents tried to get comfy and sexy, here comes those kids! This is real life, folks.
They also examined what happens when the wife feels like she’s “same ol’, same ol'” and wonders if her husband is still attracted to her. In the first episode, Carla, a successful therapist, treats a patient with sexual addiction (Robin Givens) and feels a bit threatened when the aforementioned patient is in fact a parent of one of her daughter’s classmates.
She later tries an over-the-top seduction bit (think naughty schoolgirl), which falls flat.
“Are you wearing heels to bed?” Alex asks, with a gleam in his eye. And then two seconds later…”Ow, I think I’m bleeding!”
The first 15 minutes of the episode, admittedly, were kind of dry. Which is expected. It’s a pilot. But at the end, they seemed to warm up and display the chemistry that the casting directors probably saw. We got to see two black folks, loving on each other and being 100% real with them.
“I wanna be sexy for you, Alex,” Carla said after the mishap with the heels.
“You don’t have to jump through hoops to be sexy for me,” Alex replied. Say it with me now: Awwww!
All in all, I thought the pilot episode was solid. I’d give it a B+.
What did you think about Reed Between The Lines?