In its first hour, ABC’s new revival of Haddish, a thrilling arrival on the comedy scene in 2017 with her breakout supporting role in “Girls Trip,” is a performer who lives within her choice not to…
Haddish, a thrilling arrival on the comedy scene in 2017 with her breakout supporting role in “Girls Trip,” is a performer who lives within her choice not to modulate; her character, in that film and others, is a provocateur by nature, one whom a project can cut away from but never otherwise constrain. That’s an easier fit with a flamboyant, and scripted, movie comedy than with a series that places Haddish in conversation with real kids.
All of which works against what was supposed to be the idea of the show. We get a flashback to the show’s beginning in the “Kids Say” pilot, with clips of Art Linkletter interviewing youngsters in segments from his series “House Party.” Back then, Linkletter’s low-key interviewing style allowed young people the space to express their view of society; if there’s a virtue to a format that necessarily tends towards the saccharine, it’s that glimpse into genuine childish weirdness.
Haddish, a competitive comedian, can’t help but mug over the kids she’s supposed to be introducing, and redirects the conversation perpetually to her celebrity status, including in an opening monologue about her fame that seemed strangely out-of-place. Her overarching comic idea for the show appears to be that she presupposes children won’t be impressed by her fame and thus she needs to convince them of it.
There’s a stressful energy to “Kids Say” in its 2019 iteration — a sense, perhaps, that the show is particularly well-suited to a paranoid, aggressive moment among comedians.
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