A Black Lady Sketch Show Review: But the Tilapias Are Fine… (Season 2 Episode 1)

HBO’s groundbreaking comedy series A Black Lady Sketch Show Season 2 Episode 1, “But the Tilapias Are Fine…,” features new cast members Skye Townsend and Laci Mosley joining Robin Thede, Ashley Nicole Black, and Gabrielle Dennis.

A Black Lady Sketch Show returns with a strong outing that includes fan favorites and big-name guest stars. After waiting so long for Season 2, it was great to see the show come back with a mostly perfect outing.

Like any good sketch show, every idea won’t be great, but what sets the series apart is that it’s willing and able to go places other sketch comedy shows can’t and won’t.

What better way to start the season than with Dr. Hadassah and her ridiculous yet hilarious conspiracy theories. Thede’s most frequent character is a brilliant play on the crazy cousin in every family. She’s also very authentic since all her wild ideas come directly from the internet.

This new version seems to have toned down the militant side of her and turned the nonsense way up. A smart change that makes Hadassah more fun.

For the uninitiated, each episode usually features three sketches and interstitials that show the women surviving the end of the world.

If you ever played MASH in middle school, you know that it’s important to make good choices. Unfortunately for Salina, her childhood best friend couldn’t count, and now she’s stuck living in a shack with nine kids while driving a Ford Pinto.

Meanwhile, LaDonna has a perfect life as a video vixen married to R&B singer Omarion and driving a Lamborghini.

What moves this sketch is the physical comedy. Everything about Thede as Salina screams defeated. We can’t smell her through the TV, but when she mentions it, we can imagine it perfectly. Her over-the-top desperation makes the premise completely believable.

A game of MASH that comes true is such a clever piece of real-life to base a sketch on. This is where A Black Lady Sketch Show shines. It takes a small bit of truth and builds a hilarious idea around it.

With Quinta Brunson opting out of this season due to scheduling conflicts, all the action from Season 1’s end of the world set up is made into a dream Thede has while knocked out. She wakes up with her friends still the lone survivors, but no one bats an eyelash at newcomers Townsend and Mosley.

In the A Black Lady Sketch Show universe, this is the funniest and best way to handle a cast change. Considering the absurd comedy of the show, it would’ve been disappointing if it made a big deal about the switch.

In the best sketch of the night, we return to a Season 1 favorite “Black Lady Courtroom.” This time it ups the ante with a Black Lady Jury. Issa Rae and Yvette Nicole Brown once again guest star, this time as a Black man is thrown into the mix as a lawyer who gums up the works.

Brown is 100 percent the star of this bit, as she’s able to convey so much with one look. Every time she so much as glances at the one man in the courtroom, she tells him and the viewer exactly what’s on her mind. No dialogue is necessary for her to be funny.

As great as the regular cast is, the way guest stars come in and unselfishly make complete fools of themselves is the most entertaining part of watching the show.

We can’t overstate how important it is to have a comedy show created, written, produced by, and starring Black women. It allows everyone involved the freedom to let loose and tell stories that spotlight the funny side of the drama Black women consistently find themselves in.

It’s like having a guaranteed safe space to go to every week.

What did you think of this episode of A Black Lady Sketch Show? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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A Black Lady Sketch Show airs Fridays at 11/10c on HBO.

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