One of the challenges of the era of peak TV, as a critic, is trying to figure out what to write about. There are some obvious choices: I write a lot about "Game of Thrones" because...
| |  | | | | Alyssa Rosenberg on culture and politics | | | | | | From left, Michael Epps as Jake, Alex Hibbert as Kevin and Shamon Brown as Papa in "The Chi." (Elizabeth Sisson/Showtime) | One of the challenges of the era of peak TV, as a critic, is trying to figure out what to write about. There are some obvious choices: I write a lot about “Game of Thrones” because it interests me, and it’s obvious that a lot of you want to talk about it. But sometimes it’s not so clear: I stopped recapping “The Americans,” for example, because those of you who were watching it were often binging it off-season, making it hard to know when to weigh in. The real challenge is when a show comes along, and I watch to see whether a conversation emerges around the series or whether something emerges for me to write about. | | I feel like Showtime’s “The Chi” falls into the latter category; It’s not doing huge numbers (yet) and I haven’t seen a ton of writing about it that crystallizes the series for me. But I like Lena Waithe, the series creator, and I’m enjoying enough of what’s going on in the show that, even if I’m not wholly sold on the central narrative, I want to keep an eye on it. | | In particular, I wanted to take the opportunity of this newsletter to draw attention to the work that Alex Hibbert is doing on the show. He plays Kevin, a middle school student who, in between hanging out with his friends and getting roped into a production of “The Wiz” by a cute girl, has had the misfortune to witness a murder. | | | Some of you may be familiar with Hibbert from “Moonlight,” where he played Little during the first third of the film. He’s very young, and in both “The Chi” and “Moonlight,” he’s quiet and contained. Yet he manages to convey something very special: the simultaneous feelings of wanting something and being afraid to be noticed wanting it, or even to want it at all. There’s something so particularly boyish about that mix of emotions, and I love seeing Hibbert get an opportunity to portray them. He’s so wonderful that I almost wish “The Chi” would have simply let his story be about what it’s like to be that age, rather than wrapping him up in adult violence at all. But most of all, I’m glad Hibbert’s getting to do this again, and I can’t wait to see what he does next. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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