Rapper and actor Vince Staples has a series, “The Vince Staples Show,” premiering Thursday on Netflix. It's described as a limited series, which suggests that these five episodes are all there will be, which would be a shame, because it's really good and could go all sorts of interesting and unpredictable places.
Staples, who was seen in last season's “Abbott Elementary” as Gregory's friend and Janine's boyfriend Maurice, plays a less successful, or less obviously successful, less powerful version of himself, as celebrities tend to do. in this type of programs. (Although he carries a lot of cash and just moved into a nice Craftsman house.) He's a regular guy, more or less, around whom he spins, waves, and slaps an irregular life, a deadpan Buster Keaton. (Though there are indirect references to his abandoned teenage past as a gang member.) The police subpoena his lyrics and ask for tickets to his shows, and a cellmate (Staples is arrested after a speeding stop) wants to sing for him. , but most of the time his name means nothing. “Who is Vince Staples?” could serve as an alternative title for the show.
Created by Staples with Ian Edelman, who created HBO's fantastic “How to Make It in America,” and Maurice Williams, who co-created Kid Cudi's animated romantic comedy “Entergalactic,” its episodes run from 18 to 26. minutes and play independently. short stories Featuring color-coded titles (Pink House, Black Business, Brown Family, Red Door, and White Boy) and set respectively in a prison cell, a bank, an amusement park, a family reunion, and the course of a foot and foot chase. by automobile, they are linked, like Fitzgerald's Pat Hobby stories or Updike's Maples series, by the character of Staples. (Along with him, Andrea Ellsworth appears recurrently as his girlfriend and Vanessa Bell Calloway as his mother; the performers, older and younger, are excellent throughout).
Andrea Ellsworth plays Vince Staples' girlfriend, Deja, on “The Vince Staples Show.”
(Netflix)
Because this is a comedy in which things get out of control, and because this is an alternative comedy, they get out of control in sometimes disturbing or violent ways, or in ways that threaten to become violent. Staples is attacked by costumed characters at a low-rent amusement park, finds himself on the run from someone he offended in high school, and finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery carried out by old friends who are happy to see him. A threadbare magic show in the episode “Red Door” seems to nod specifically to David Lynch.
“Short stories” could describe almost any episodic sitcom, but there are shows (“Louie,” “Atlanta,” “Master of None,” and “Reservation Dogs” come to mind) that are less interested in the development of the series than in the characters. and ideas and formal invention and have something in common with literary fiction. Episodes may end with nothing resolved or explained. (“How was your day?” Vince’s girlfriend asks, after an extremely exhausting one. “It was great.” “Did anything interesting happen?” “Not really.”)
For some reason, black creators are behind many of these shows: Donald Glover's “Atlanta,” Boots Riley's “I'm a Virgo,” Terence Nance's “Random Acts of Flyness,” Henry's animated “Lazor Wulf.” Bonsu and Diallo Riddle and Bashir Salahuddin. Sociohistorical musical sketch program “Sherman's Showcase”. They share a taste for the surreal, the absurd, the satirical and the poetic, and Staples' series fits comfortably and impressively between them.
Calling them “literary” doesn’t seem quite right; After all, it is an audiovisual experience, where images and sounds count as much as what any character does or says, but that's not entirely wrong. “Cinematic” doesn't fit either, but they have integrity and ambition and I can't think of a better word for this kind of television anyway. Maybe it's time to invent one.
