Sidney Poitier once said he was tasked with “a terrific burden”. As the most high-profile Black actor of his era he felt he carried “the hopes and dreams of an entire people”, but in 2024, when the TV landscape has nurtured the talents of Will Smith, Issa Rae, Tracee Ellis Ross and Quinta Brunson, Black talent’s burden seems less terrific. Clearly musician/comedian/actor Vince Staples doesn’t feel the pressure to be the respectable role model that Poitier felt he needed to be, judging by his self-titled sitcom – in which he really lets his freak flag fly.
Staples’s latest project embraces the weird, with this self-titled, surreal comedy – in which his protagonist navigates the dream-logic of a disquieting reality. He plays a fictionalised version of himself, a successful performer with a natural swagger whose world is filled with twisted, David Lynch-like humour. This Vince lives in a stylish mid-century modern home in a bizarre version of Long Beach, California, which is referred to only as “the Beach”, and the episodes begin with a Fargo-esque disclaimer: “This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual events are purely coincidental.”
