Almost ‘Famous’
BLACK COMIC STRIVES FOR CROSSOVER STARDOM IN SHOWTIME SERIES
`White Famous” drops at a hot moment.
This Showtime comedy, inspired by executive producer and Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx's early days, tracks a rising black comic's chance at crossover stardom — “white famous” — as he encounters all sorts of sociopathic producers and directors.
In light of the growing scandal around Harvey Weinstein's decades of alleged sexual harassment shaking Hollywood and exposing ugly practices tolerated for decades, it turns the experience of watching the opening episodes into something far more cringeworthy than intended.
In the opener, Floyd Mooney (Jay Pharoah, “Saturday Night Live”) isn't even sure he wants stardom if it means selling out. He enjoys his stand-up work, but his agent, Malcolm (Utkarsh Ambudkar, “The Mindy Project”), pushes him to meet with a producer who is making a film about one of Bill Cosby's accusers — and wants him to play an old woman.
Floyd, who has always wanted to be the next Eddie Murphy, is keenly aware of Hollywood's history of emasculating black men and rejects the role in colorful terms.
“There are times when you have to be a little less you,” an exasperated Malcolm tells him.
(There's just so little of the dialogue that can be quoted in a family newspaper. If “White Famous'” f-bombs were actual bombs, ISIS would be dust.)
Floyd is more or less happy with his spot in life. He lives with his best friend and pal Balls (Boston native Jacob Ming-Trent, “Feed the Beast”), a postman. He is estranged from Sadie (Cleopatra Coleman, “The Last Man on Earth”), the mother of his young son, Trevor (Lonnie Chavis, “This is Us”), and the two dance around the matter of reuniting almost constantly.
Some actors chase parts, but Floyd discovers through an odd chain of events, some parts chase actors.
After a director mistakes him for a valet (in a too easily telegraphed moment), Floyd finds himself meeting with star Foxx (guesting as an over-the-top version of himself), who extols the virtues of lady garments that ends in an R-rated sight gag you won't be able to push out of your mind. (You have been warned.)
In upcoming episodes, Floyd finds himself offered such parts as the token black guy on a “Friends” remake and a role in a musical version of “Hidden Figures.” He settles on a prestige project close to home that has him working for a director (Michael Rapaport, “Atypical”) who is all method, twice the madness and likes to push his cast by having them wrestle each other.
Pharoah reminds you in the pilot why he was one of “Saturday Night Live's” greatest secret weapons when he dusts off his killer Denzel Washington impersonation. While “White Famous” proves he can lead a series, it doesn't give him many opportunities to show how funny he is. It does make a great argument that everyone in Hollywood is criminally unhinged.