The Filtered Excellence: June 12, 2021

Master Of None: Moments Of Love.  The third season of the critically acclaimed, award-winning Netflix series shifts away from Dev (Aziz Asari) to his best friend Denise (Lena Waithe).  She’s now a New York Times best-selling author, living a quiet life in upstate New York with her wife, Alicia (Naomi Ackie), attempting to write a follow up.  When Dev and his current girlfriend come by for dinner, it sets into motion a series of events that takes their lives into unforeseen directions.  Taking huge cues from European art house films (especially Igmar Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage), Waithe and Asari -(who directed each episode) explore the complexities and nuances that come with maintaining a relationship in the new millennium.  They sensitively deal with issues such as infidelity, how career choices can affect a marriage and the emotional roller coaster that comes when trying to conceive.  While Waithe is yet again on point as Denise, but it’s Ackie who really shines as Alicia, who crushes in her scenes with Waithe and in her stand alone episode centering around her visit to the fertility clinic.   While fans of the show will be startled at the abrupt move from comedy to drama, Waithe and Asari deliver a season that shows their strong range and versatility.  Master Of None: Moments Of Love is available now on Netflix.

Betty.  Season 2 of writer-director Crystal Moselle’s HBO series continues to follow the lives of New York City-based young women skaters trying to make their mark in the male-dominated world of skateboarding.  Janay (Dede Lovelace), Indigo (Amani Russell), Camille, Honeybear (Moonbear) and the always colorful Kirt (Nina Moran) are back, navigating through sexism, gentrification, family dynamics, identity issues, and, of course, love, while showing they can hold their own with the male skateboarding counterparts.  Moselle once again captures a young, vibrant community with a slowly recovering New York City as a backdrop.  A welcome return to one of HBO’s best shows.   Season 2 of Betty is available now on HBO Max.

The Kings.  With the retirement of Muhammad Ali, and a country consumed with capitalism, boxing needed someone that represented the underdog and the underrepresented.  They got it with the arrival of four outstanding fighters:  Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard.  Throughout the 1980s, they revitalized the sport with epic battles that are considered the best the sport have ever seen.  This new, four-part Showtime series profiles all of the fighters, covering their long, tough road to the top, along with insights into their triumphs and setbacks.  Featuring in-depth interviews, archival footage and commentary from insiders, reporters, friends and family, it’s a great look back at boxing’s last true golden age.  The Kings is available now on the Showtime On Demand and the Showtime app.

Cavalcade by Black Midi.  For their second album, Black Midi move away from the expanded improvisations used on their debut album, Schlagenheim, in favor of a more concise, traditional approach.  Working again with producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy, the band effortlessly shifts from prog rock, 60s traditional Brit pop, Afrobeat, jazz fusion and post-punk.  On first listen, Black Midi sounds like a band of seasoned veterans and not being just a few years removed from performing arts college.  An incredible follow up from a band with a world of big things ahead of them.  One of the year’s best. Cavalcade by Black Midi is available now on all major streaming services.

The Last Poets.  Since their formation in 1968, The Last Poets have been performing powerful spoken word pieces documenting the joys and pains of life as a Black person in America.  Their use of flow, cadence and the incorporation of various African-American based rhythms laid the groundwork to what is now known as hip hop, with several of the genre’s biggest names citing them as a primary influence.  To coincide with the 50th Anniversary of their seminal debut album, The Last Poets will be live streaming a performance from the future home of The Universal Hip Hop Museum in The Bronx.  It will be a night that will enlighten as it will entertain. The livestream of The Last Poets will take place on May 19th.  You can go to www.launch global.tv for more information.