Should Insecure Be Confident Of Earning A Place On Your DVR?

What Is This Thing?

Having just turned twenty-nine, Los Angeles resident Issa reassesses her life, from the annoying white-guilty nerds at the educational non-profit where she works to her trifling live-in boyfriend.

When Is It On?

Sundays at 10:30 PM ET on HBO, starting October 9. However! HBO put the first episode up on demand today (subscription required).

Why Was It Made Now?

Having bought New York-set web series High Maintenance to turn into a sitcom, HBO decided to be fair to the other coast by buying a web series set in L.A. -- specifically, The Misadventures Of Awkward Black Girl. HBO also just seems to be on a sitcom-launching tear; Insecure's time slot lead-in is fellow freshman series Divorce, from Catastrophe co-creator Sharon Horgan.

What's Its Pedigree?

Issa Rae -- who, logically enough, plays Issa -- created and starred in ...Awkward Black Girl, and adapted it for TV with Larry Wilmore (host of The Nightly Show and a producer on Black-ish). The cast also includes Catherine Curtin (Orange Is The New Black) as Issa's boss and Lisa Joyce (Billy & Billie).

...And?

The premiere's opening scene finds Issa at work -- specifically, delivering a spiel on behalf of We Got Y'all, the non-profit where she works, to a classroom full of its target clients: underachieving urban tweens. Because they're kids, and also because they don't give a fuck, they ignore what she's actually tried to tell them and start peppering her with rude questions: "Why you talk like a white girl?" "What's up with your hair?...My cousin can put some tracks in it, unless you like it like that." "This what you always wanted to do?" "Are you single?" Frustrated, Issa tightly delivers a monologue about her personal life: "I'm twenty-eight -- actually, twenty-nine, 'cause today's my birthday! I came from a great family. I have a college degree. I work in the non-profit world because I like to give back. I've been with my boyfriend for five years, and I did this to my hair on purpose." She tries to get back to We Got Y'all, but one girl has another question: "Why ain't you married?...My dad says ain't nobody checking for bitter-ass black women anymore." Issa patiently suggests, "Tell your dad that black women aren't bitter; they're just tired of being expected to settle for less."

It's such a smart way to get through exposition -- efficiently, and without being too piloty -- and especially to establish our protagonist's character: smart, tough, professional, but beset by idiots. Particularly at work, a place intended to serve clients of colour but where Issa is the only employee who isn't white, meaning she is frequently called upon to speak on behalf of all black people.

Some dumb honky: Issa! What's 'on fleek'?

Issa: [smiling apologetically] I don't know what that means.

Issa's voice-over: I know what that shit means.

I would be the dumb honky in an exchange like this particular one, but most people who aren't straight white men have had the experience of being the only [fill in the blank] somewhere, and Issa's underplayed irritation resonates.

In terms of her relationships outside work, Issa's challenges will be familiar to anyone who's ever been a single woman. Her boyfriend Lawrence (Jay Ellis) is a disappointment, but they've been together so long that ending it seems like it would be too much of a hassle. She feels inadequate compared to her guy-magnet friend Molly, with whom she should maybe consider not going to the club with anymore.

However, after Issa and Molly fall out over Issa's freestyle rap -- as you do -- she knows how to make amends.

I look forward to seeing more of their friendship over the episodes to come.

...But?

Some might say the uber-sensitivity of Issa's white co-workers feels a tiny bit over-the-top -- challenged by the kid about talking "like a white girl," Issa tries to defuse the moment by joking that she's in blackface, at which Frieda (Joyce) hisses, "That's racist!" -- but (a) it's a sitcom; it's okay to exaggerate; and (b) white saviours really can't be mocked enough.

...So?

Like its fellow freshman sitcoms Atlanta and Better Things before it, Insecure is a very smart, very funny, and most importantly very specific story anchored by a creator-star who's had her whole life to develop this story. If you liked the other two, you'll like this.