Harlem Season 1 Review: Five Star Show that Feels Like Real Friendship
The new series Harlem is a five-star success.
Yes, it covers timely topics and showcases a diverse group of black women. Even more than the boxes it checks for inclusion and cultural significance, Harlem is plain excellent entertainment!
The show follows four best friends as they figure themselves out. It has a similar set up to Sex and the City, including the narrating lead who is the least interesting of the four. Unlike Sex and the City, though, the show highlights masterfully how these people are truly good friends to each other.
There is a lot of sex in Harlem, but it isn’t about the sex, or even the city. It is about this “tribe of unstoppable sisters,” learning how to find happiness, even when their dreams and aspirations close down quicker than Ray’s Restaurant.
From the pilot, the ten-episode Amazon Prime show nails pacing. Harlem Season 1 Episode 1, “Pilot,” introduces us to our four main characters in a way that feels like we met them at a bar and interrupted them mid-banter. This seamless exposition is possible because of the pacing.
Tye bursts onto the scene and makes the mistake of drinking a drink left on the table by the previous customers. This is subtly brilliant.
Tye is a powerhouse character who has a huge presence. The choice to have her drink a leftover cocktail humbles her, in a sweet way. Because she is humbled, we get to understand her from the very beginning as accessible and human.
The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it characterization occurs throughout the episodes. This is a key strength of the series because it feels like real friendship. It might land harder and be more obvious, but when dialogue is overt and composed, like on an Aaron Sorkin show, it doesn’t seem real.
So many shows do dialogue between best friends like a dance. It’s choreographed and has clean lines, and that’s not how my friends and I talk. Harlem has dialogue that mimics real friendships; it is messy and doesn’t wait for each person to have their turn.
The characterization through dialogue and the pacing work hand in hand to keep us constantly entertained, which helps make this series is incredibly fun.
It is important to note that this review is from the perspective of a non-Black woman. Therefore, it is limited. From that perspective, it seems that this show is not catered to me. Hallelujah!
Harlem is so comfortable with itself and it never feels like it is translating the Black experience for others. Rather, it feels like a conversation between Black women that we non-Black folks are very lucky to get to see.
In this way, it distinguished itself from the excellent Gentefied. Gentefied provides an insightful and light-hearted inside look into Latinx culture in East Los Angeles. It feels aimed at letting others in.
Harlem is unconcerned with the outside looking in. It wants to just be and exist without having an audience.
That perhaps sounds strange because, I mean, of course, it wants an audience. What I mean is that Harlem is the show equivalent of “dance like no one’s watching.”
Its purpose is to tell the story of a group of women in Harlem who are Black. It isn’t to tell the story of Black women in Harlem.
The difference is perhaps subtle. The result is that the series Harlem feels like you got invited to a slumber party, not a seminar. I happen to love seminars, but slumber parties are a heck of a lot more fun.
Quality character moments on Harlem abound.
Between Camille twerking her way out of the yoga class she was awkwardly expelled from, Angie hunting for a fluffy sex partner on Harlem Season 1 Episode 5, “Cuffing Season”, every single scene between Camille and Whoopie Goldberg’s Dr. Pruitt, and Tye unveiling her super short haircut to Anne and getting that reaction, all these moments help us to feel like we know these women.
We are invested in how Camille, Tye, Quinn, and Angie’s stories end. So why, oh why, did Harlem Season 1 have to end on such a cliffhanger!? It is a deliciously cruel end to a super first season. It’s not necessarily a bad thing that Amazon Prime’s engaging comedy leaves us wanting more.
Stray Thoughts
- Ian isn’t the one for Camille. I said it. It’s the princess story she is attached to, not him.
- Angie’s voice is ridiculous, I could listen to that duet all day long.
- The fashion on Harlem is beyond top-notch. That brown skin-tight dress Camille wears to the restaurant launch? I can not stop staring. Tye’s suit at the final Weather Wives viewing is the same!
- Why can’t there be a Weather Wives show in real life? Let’s make that happen.
- Camille’s speech to Dr. Pruitt about why her social media presence matters is legit inspiring. Loads and loads better than a drunk tirade at your boss’s brownstone could have gone!
- Quinn’s AOC-alike love interest Isabela really is the shit. Quinn isn’t cookie cutter and neither is her happy ending.
- Harlem nails body diversity and skin tone diversity. On Season 2, it would be great to see more disabled characters too, played by disabled actors, of course.
- Camille, saving yourself isn’t kissing your ex the night before his wedding to someone else. Just saying.
- WHERE IS OUR SEASON 2 ANNOUNCEMENT!?
What did you think of Harlem? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Critic Rating:
User Rating:
Harlem Season 1 is streaming now on Amazon Prime.
Follow us on Twitter and on 
Instagram!
Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!
Janelle Ureta
Janelle Ureta is equal parts Veronica Mars, Raven Reyes, and Rebecca Bunch, but she aspires to add some Tammy Taylor to the mix. An attorney turned teacher, Janelle believes in the power of a well-told story. She is currently exploring how to tell short stories, 140 characters or less, on twitter. She loves to talk about TV, and right now she can't shut up about Timeless, Dear White People, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The 100, or Younger.