Harlem on Amazon Prime immerses us in a committed and warm sorority

Four New York thirties, stylish and ambitious, looking for great love (or at least a solid ass plan) and welded by an unconditional friendship ... Does that remind you of something?If Harlem, the new original series produced by Amazon Prime Video, is a little sister of Sex and the City, it is not the only one.From Lipstick Jungle to The Bold Type through Girls, the feminist fashionista interpreted by Sarah Jessica Parker inspired a number of portraits of women ready to devour the big apple.And for the generation that grew up with original actresses, it is even possible to indulge in nostalgia for revival and just like that….So how do Harlem heroines distinguish themselves from their sisters?Everything is in the title.

A tasty ode to friendship

Welcome to Harlem, the Manhattan district which extends from the north of Central Park to the Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.Its rich past, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Harlem Cultural Festival, without forgetting its sublime architecture and its restaurants at the forefront of Soul Food, make it one of the most effervescent places in New York.However, in six seasons, Carrie and her friends never set foot there.It was therefore high time for the creator of Harlem, Tracy Oliver (screenwriter of the film Girls Trip, released in 2017), to highlight this part of the city where a large African-American community resides, now confronted with a phenomenongalloping gentrification.As she explains to her: "I couldn't find New York -based series that include people who look like me.[…] New York contains a cultural and ethnic diversity so robust that I wanted to write on the subject ”.

Surrounded by renowned producers, including Pharrell Williams and Amy Poehler, she designs a strong main character, but full of contradictions which, like Carrie, serves as a narrator for the series.Camille (Meagan Good) is a professor of anthropology at Columbia University and resides in Harlem in an overpriced bohemian apartment (another resemblance to SATC).She is therefore at the forefront to observe the socio-economic changes in her neighborhood ... and echo it on Twitter.The reports of breeds and classes are an integral part of the story, but Harlem is above all a tasty ode to friendship, morning of urban rom-com.We follow the sentimental and professional adventures of the Meagan tribe, which she compares in the introduction to the Moso people of Himalayas where women choose their partners and change as they see fit.Ah, if it was so simple!

Four imperfect heroines

Quinn (Grace Byrs) is the most blue flower in the band: she continues the disastrous gallant meetings in the hope of finding "The One", while trying to keep her business business respectful of the environment.She hosts semi-permanent Angie (Shoniqua Shandai), a singer who has trouble going up the slope after a flop, but whose self-confidence (in life and in bed) is as impressive as the wigs that shelikely.Finally, Tye (Jerrie Johnson) is a queer entrepreneur who put on the market a dating app for LGBT+ color people.

Camille is the cement of this quartet and the series opens on two disturbing elements which concern it directly.Five years after her departure for Paris, the ex whom she has never managed to forget (Tyler Lepley) is back.On the other hand, the appointment of a black woman to the post of head of the anthropology department (Whoopi Goldberg, an excellent surprise) gives him the hope of obtaining a coveted promotion.Obviously, nothing will go as planned ...

From this starting point, after all quite classic, Harlem unrolls a multitude of fun or embarrassing situations.We do not sulk his pleasure in front of these twists and turns that spice up the plot, even if they are often as unrealistic as those of Emily in Paris.On the other hand, the scenes of brunches watered with salated humor and the distributed-signing of Sex and the City-give a feeling of deja.What saves Harlem of this pitfall is the alchemy between its ultra-charismatic actresses and the will of the showrunner to make us share with generosity her experience of entry into adulthood.

A committed and engaging series

The palpable complicity between these friends who have known each other at university is based on the fact that they agree the space necessary to debate not only of their sex problems, but also their views on the policy of respectability(Respectability Politics), Black Excellence, or even mixed marriage.Intelligent and committed, they nevertheless have horrible faults: Camille lacks maturity;Quinn has trouble taking its independence financially;The radicalism of Angie puts off some;As for Tye, she hides a youth error.

But, together, these four women trace their way in modern America.They have no account to make anyone ... Not even Run The World fans, the Starz series released last May whose pitch is almost identical to that of Harlem.Fortunately there is room for several series on black sorority, especially when they reflect a diversity full of accuracy.Carrie only has to stand well ...

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