Review Roundup: Here’s What Everyone Is Saying About W. Kamau Bell’s ‘We Need To Talk About Cosby’

(YouTube/Showtime)

The Basics

Where To Watch: Showtime (January 30, 2022)

Starring: W. Kamau Bell, Jemele Hill, Roland Martin, Marc Lamont Hill

Description: A four-part docuseries directed by W. Kamau Bell, We Need To Talk About wrestles with the conversations of the #MeToo movement, focusing on Bill Cosby’s descent from “America’s Dad” to alleged sexual predator. The series explores the complex story of Cosby’s life and work, weighing his actions against his indisputable global influence through interviews with comedians, cultural commentators, journalists and women who share their most personal, harrowing encounters with Cosby. Through archival footage, Cosby reveals who he may have been all along – the antithesis of the principled, public figure who became a hero, not only to African American people but to all people. Peeling back complex layers of the African American icon, We Need To Talk About Cosby offers viewers the chance to reconsider his mark in a society where rape culture, toxic masculinity, capitalism and white supremacy is shaping how we re-evaluate sex, power and agency.

Trailer

Critics Chatter

“The most pernicious question We Need to Talk About Bill Cosby raises isn’t one that Bell directly asks the camera. It’s not necessarily whether all the good that was done by Cosby was spoiled by his actions, which remains for each Cosby Show viewer to decide for themselves. It’s whether that good — the showing Americans an unapologetically Black vision of family togetherness — was an earnest expression of anything, or just Cosby’s will to power manifested onscreen, a way for him to create situations in which he had access to those he might dominate.”

-Daniel D’Addario, Variety | Read The Full Review Here

“The title of W. Kamau Bell’s Showtime docuseries, We Need To Talk About Cosby, is both provocative and self-aware. Unlike the bore at a party who’s pinned you into a corner and drones on incessantly about an uncomfortable topic, Bell understands that the last thing most of us want to do is discuss Bill Cosby, whom 60 women have credibly accused of sexual assault. However, Bell insists that we have the conversation, and over the course of four powerful installments, he justifies the presumption. He doesn’t subject us to a hagiography of the disgraced comedian or a simple condemnation of one horrible man. We Need To Talk About Cosby is instead an insightful yet sobering examination of how a monster fully infiltrated our cultural DNA.”

-Stephen Robinson, AV Club | Read The Full Review Here

“Listen, that Cosby was a powerful force in American culture isn’t new information. Most of the accounts shared by his survivors in this series have been given before. But there is something unshakable about internalizing those two separate narratives as one, over the course of a series this detailed and, yes, this long. It’s imperative to watch We Need to Talk About Cosby in its entirety because it’s imperative to consider the entirety of who he is and what he did in order to grasp where we need to go as a still-misogynistic, still-victim-blaming, still-bigoted society. It’s a grand and messy endeavor, and perhaps that’s the point. Because that’s the reality. Remember after watching all this: In June 2021, Bill Cosby was released from prison and his sexual assault conviction was overturned.”

-Kevin Fallon, The Daily Beast | Read The Full Review Here

Timeline Talk

Related Topics

You May Also Like