Amazon Prime’s latest series Harlem is out now, and we can honestly say we loved everything about it. The series follows four black women as they navigate their careers, friendship, and love lives. As we have said time and time again, representation matters. Harlem does a wonderful job of showcasing what it means to be a black woman.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down for a quick chat with writer and creator Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip) to talk about the show and she gave us some very thoughtful answers. Check it out below.
Like Tracy Oliver said, although there have been shows with black women, the friendships that we see haven’t necessarily been positive ones. They tend to have a lot more fighting, and we agree that there is a lot of shit talking as well. We appreciate what Tracy has done with Harlem by removing that stereotype of the angry black woman who is always fighting with her friends or trying to compete with them. As a fan of classic shows like Living Single, and Girlfriends which highlighted the friendships of black women in a positive way, I loved hearing how much it meant to Tracy that those were the shows Harlem made me think about.
First off, I have nothing against Sex and the City, however, I do think that it pushed other shows that focused on female friendships, mainly ones starring women of color, to the back burner. I would never compare Harlem to a show like Sex and the City because that’s just not what Harlem is. Not only that, but it’s also important for people to recognize that black women do have shows of our own that have had an impact on our lives. As Tracy mentioned Girlfriends was an important show and it clearly had an impact on her because you can see some similarities as you watch Harlem. People who loved Girlfriends and Living Single, are definitely going to feel nostalgic because a show like this one is long overdue.
We also appreciate how real Tracy made all of the experiences each and every one of these women has gone through. Episode seven “The Strong Black Woman” in particular is such an important episode. Hearing Tracy talk about the inspiration behind that entire episode was so interesting. I can only imagine how it felt for everyone to be in that room sharing their experiences that ultimately led to such an emotional episode.
Harlem is such a great show and as we told Tracy during our interview, we really hope that a season two is in the works.
Harlem is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video.
