Matthew Cherry's "Young Love" is the Black, Blackity, Black-Black series that I didn't know I needed.
"Young Love," now available on Max, is a continuation of Cherry's Oscar-winning short animated film "Hair Love." which tells the tale of young Black family of three, dealing with cancer and life after remission.
The matriarch Angela (Issa Rae) is diagnosed and admitted to the hospital for an extended stay, leaving dad Stephen (Kid Cudi) to take on all of the chores alone: cooking, cleaning, providing entertainment and yes, learning to do a Black girl's hair. Trust me, this task is not easy. I have a three-year-old, and on the days my wife is away on business or a girls' trip, I become the "Hair Love" dad, charged with the task of whipping and twisting and styling my daughter's massive cloud of an afro into something presentable. Sometimes I get it right, but most times I don't. Stephen almost makes it look too easy.
"Young Love" picks up after Angela is settled at home and begins working her way back into the fold of her household. Where does she fit in? This also happens when parents like myself have to travel to different places for work or other reasons; we tend to miss out on those small things like when the baby stopped liking pancakes because she discovered French toast, stopped wearing those cute Little Air Jordans because she discovered church shoes or her bedtime becomes 10:00 p.m. when it was 8:00 p.m. two weeks ago when you first left. We get the opportunity to see Angela's frustrations and the humor it entails. While she was in the hospital, Stephen taught their daughter Zuri (Brooke Monroe Conaway) how to make grilled cheese with an iron and that you can save a lot of time by washing your dishes and your child at the same time in the same water. I play the same games when my wife is away, allowing my daughter to eat ice cream at 4 a.m., pizza for breakfast, and stay up for days at time while dressed like a princess, while rocking the crooked, fuzzy afro puff I created. Mom comes home and instantly reestablishes order. Angela attempts to do the same, and Zuri slowly complies but pushes back at the same time. We see this when she rejects her mother's hairstyle, longing for one of her dad's creation.
Angela's struggles also go beyond the house and drift into her job at the salon where she styles natural hair. Angela has been away healing and has lost a step. Her clients aren't necessarily happy with their hairdos. Some show grace because of her illness, buy one feisty elderly woman puts Angela in her place, telling her that her hair looks horrible and needs to be redone ASAP. I welled up with tears, just like Angela who needed that energy to reclaim her normalcy.
Stephen is on his own journey as struggling music producer, trying to sell beats while maintaining his artistic integrity. Sometimes he can chip in on the rent and sometimes he can't. The couple lives in a building owned by Angela's penny pinching dad Russell Young (Harry Lennix). Russell has an app on his phone that tracks the temperature in their apartment. If it's too cool in the summer – he'll bust their door letting them know that AC is for paying tenants. What's so cool about "Young Love" is that Angela and Stephen are not married.
The creators choose not to create some kind of fantasy. Angela and Stephen are real people, trying to figure it out. Angela wants to be an influencer but can't monetize. Stephen is dreaming of selling beats to top acts but has yet to learn the industry; their love is as young as their business experience. It is a real show that's so relatable, it forces us to laugh.
I don't necessarily think this is a kids show; however, there is scene at the beginning of the second episode that displays Zuri and Angela sleep, both in their bonnets. That image caused my wife to run upstairs to get our daughter because this never happens on television.
"Look, baby. They are wearing their bonnets," my wife said, reapplying my daughter's bonnet that may have slipped off as she fought her sleep, "You must protect your hair."
The scene was also funny because Zuri was sleeping in the bed with her parents – a battle that we have been having recently. Our daughter went from sleeping in her bed all night to banging or our door in the wee hours, hungry to find a space between mom and dad. And sometimes we act like we don't hear, but most times we let her in because our family and love is young, just like the show, and that's why it works.
"Young Love" is streaming on Max.
