Life’s challenges keep piling up in ‘Insecure’
Deep into the new, third season of “Insecure,” Issa (series creator, executive producer, writer, star and Emmy nominee Issa Rae) wonders why every time she reinvents herself, old baggage keeps crashing down on her.
That’s the frustrating part of life, one that the HBO comedy finds our
heroine addressing with increasing clarity.
Change is coming, and there are moments you just can’t — or won’t — avoid it any longer.
As the season opens, Issa seems to have hit rock bottom. She is sleeping on the couch of her sort-of-ex Daniel (Y’lan Noel), and the two can’t agree on what their relationship is.
“Just be real,” he tells her (later in the season).
“I came here because I knew you’d be here for me,” she admits.
Oof. The chemistry. If only their timing weren’t so twisted.
Daniel is trying to further his own music career, and Issa turns out to be one of his biggest believers. Lawrence (Jay Ellis)? Issa’s ex is not a presence, at least for the first half of the eight-episode season, and while fans might be begging for his return (over 11,000 signed a petition on care2.com), Issa is keeping busy.
With a credit score that might as well be in the negative triple digits, she moonlights as a Lyft driver to save cash for her own place, even if it means dealing with all sorts of shady folks. She’s about a sneeze away from being fired from her day job at the nonprofit We Got Y’All.
“You keep overstepping your bounds,” her vile boss snaps at her.
Issa’s BFF Molly (Yvonne Orji) is trying to negotiate boundaries as well with her married lover Dro (Sarunas J. Jackson). Are they friends who don’t have sex or acquaintances who only have sex?
“But we love pancakes,” he tells her.
Molly’s dream job at a black law firm turns out to have a leaky lining: She can’t get anyone to listen to her.
“Did I get a demotion?” she wonders.
We don’t get to see nearly enough of Issa’s pals Kelli (Natasha Rothwell) and Tiffany (Amanda Seales).
The important thing to know about this season: Issa is pushing forward. “Insecure” shows life never stops being a work in progress.