Ready to Love
If you’re into reality shows centered on dating, then this might be the show for you. OWN’s Ready To Love is based in Atlanta and centers around men and women in their 30s and 40s who are looking for — you guessed it — love. With comedian Nephew Tommy as the host, the 10-episode series will have you hooked from start to finish, rooting for real connections to happen every step of the way.
Being Mary Jane
Since spring 2012, Gabrielle Union has been the titular character of a show we can’t help but love. Being Mary Jane centers around Mary Jane Paul as she navigates the ups and downs of life, the highs and lows of love, her ever-demanding career, and her super dramatic family. As if that’s not enough to get you hooked, maybe the assortment of eye candy on this show — everyone from Omari Hardwick to Michael Ealy — will have you glued in for the drama and the good times.
Insecure
Coming to us from the genius of Issa Rae, HBO’s Insecure has become a favorite amongst #millennials who once had social media timelines divided into #TeamLawrence and #TeamIssa. Rae stars as Issa, a 20-something who cheats on her long-term boyfriend in season 1 with a longtime crush and spends the rest of the series getting her life under control. With her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji) and other BFF’s Kelly and Tiffany, played by Natasha Rothwell and Amanda Seales respectively, Issa has moments that every Black person of a certain age can relate to and learn from — and you know what we call that? Growth.
Living Single
Claws
With Niecy Nash (and her waistline) at the helm, Claws is a sitcom that hit airwaves during the summer of 2017 and became an instant hit. The show centers around Nash as Desna, a nail technician with a crazy crew of friends and an even wilder ambition to get out of a life of crime to go legit with her big dreams. Alongside Kaeruche Tran, the series is headed into its third season and we just can’t get enough.
Chewing Gum
Written by and starring British-Nigerian comedienne Michaela Coel, Chewing Gum is what a good binge is all about. It’s a hilarious series with Coel starring as 24-year-old shop assistant Tracey Gordon, who loves Beyonce and wants to explore the world, relationships, and sex without the judgment of her uber-religious mother and buttoned-up sister. While we’ve only got two seasons for a total of 12 episodes, we promise that it’s worth watching (and then watching again)!
Dear White People
First Dear White People was a movie from Justin Simien, but now it’s a Netflix series we love. The show, of the same name, leans on the narratives of the 2014 film and expounds upon the characters, storylines, and relationships of all involved. Touching on themes of race relations, women’s rights and autonomy, social media, and more, the show is what young 20-somethings need to see. With a gorgeous cast including Logan Browning, Ashley Blaine Featherson, Antoinette Robertson, Brandon P. Bell, DeRon Horton, and Marque Richardson, we can’t wait for the show to return for season 3 — but until then, we’ll just keep binging!
Atlanta
From Donald Glover (not his musical alter ego Childish Gambino), we have Atlanta — a series following two cousins as they try to make it in the rap industry in the Dirty South. Glover stars as Earn, a young father trying to use his dropout Princeton education to manage his cousin, Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), to new heights in the music game. Lakeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz round out the eclectic cast of characters who are just trying to make a way out of no way. Season 3 of the series most likely won’t return until sometime in 2020 so, BINGE. ON.
Power
For the Starz series, Power, it’s a big rich town with Omari Hardwick as James “Ghost” St. Patrick, and we’ve been deeply invested into his world since the series premiered in 2014. Joseph Sikora stars as Tommy Egan, Ghost’s best friend and business partner in a drug distribution game that sometimes spins out of control. Former 3LW singer Naturi Naughton stars as Hardwick’s on-screen wife, the non-sense Tasha St. Patrick who along with her best friend LaKeisha (La La Anthony) are two badass ladies we’d love to go to brunch with. Oh, and then there’s Angela Valdes (Lela Loren), Ghost’s former childhood sweetheart turned mistress, who enters the series in season 1 and is embedded so deep into the action, who knows what will happen next. 50 Cent stars in and serves as executive producer on this show which has 5 seasons and a 6th (and final) season on the way.
Survivor’s Remorse
While Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse only got four seasons, we loved it then, and we still love it now. Starring Tichina Arnold, Mike Epps, Erica Ash, RonReaco Lee, Teyonah Parris, and Jessie T. Usher, as the Calloway family who is thrust into a whole new lifestyle when Cam (Usher) becomes a professional basketball player and moves his family from Boston to Atlanta. The series has LeBron James as the producer, as it explores themes of newly acquired wealth, how incarceration derails dreams and breaks up families, sexual assault, and sexual orientation.
Queen Sugar
Academy Award-nominated director Ava DuVernay took her talents to OWN with the series, Queen Sugar. Centered around the Bordelon family, the series follows three siblings who inherit a sugar farm after their father’s death, and they adjust to being Black business owners in New Orleans. The show discusses the navigation of family drama with discussions on class, culture, and gender woven into each episode.
The Chi
Lena Waithe’s The Chi hit Showtime in 2018, and we’ve loved every minute of watching. Taking place in Waithe’s hometown of Chicago, the series centers on the city’s Southside neighborhood where the main characters are bonded by coincidence and tragedy, and the game of survival is often threatened, but, in the end, joy tries its best to prevail. Currently on its second season, the show has quickly become one of the best binge-worthy series on television, and rejoice, it’s already received a season 3 greenlight from the network!
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