A common belief is that the book is always better than the movie adaptation. But what if it’s not? Take, for example, American Psycho, which turned Bret Easton Ellis’s baffling 1991 novel into a riveting big-screen thriller. Or what if the situation is too complex to be explained by simple comparisons?
The latter more aptly applies to “The Other Black Girl.” of novel to read Two summers ago, when that interesting title was released. The word “other” suggests an unsettling and all-too-relatable question. If one of the Black women’s girlfriends is the “other,” who is the first one, and is that positioning likely to change? Can one become a prominent black woman in the “Single White Woman” style, while the other… fades into the background?
These are the conundrums at the heart of Zakiyah Dalila Harris’s page-turner, when Nella, the only black woman at a predominantly white book publisher, meets Hazel, a black woman who has just started working at the publishing company. It starts out as a simple but fascinating story about what happens. company.
The story begins with a sigh of welcome–“Ah, finally another black girl!”–and then descends into something less intimate and decidedly more sinister. However, the abrupt change in direction toward the end of the 368-page book makes it feel a bit awkward. And barely recover from that.
Hazel has been questionable from the jump, so you might expect some kind of twist to be on the cards. But the detour from a suspenseful drama to a straight-up thriller with all the reveals that come with it might have needed more explanation.
Hulu’s “The Other Black Girl,” from showrunners Jordan Redout and Gus Hickey, pretty much solves that problem. It also helps that there are ten half-hour episodes to expand on what the novel only hints at in twists, and that Harris himself was in the writers’ room and was able to keep the story honest. There is.
That last part is felt well into the series and should satisfy fans of the book. The novel contains many discernible elements that appear in the novel, primarily gaslighting, discomfort, exclusion, and of course otherness, all that often comes with being black in a white space. Contains elements.
But best of all, Hulu’s adaptation introduces more sinister elements earlier, like in the opening scene where a black woman (Cassi Maddox) experiences a nightmare on the New York subway in the ’80s, and throughout subsequent storylines. they are woven into it. .
In the current story, we meet Nella (Sinclair Daniel), a driven young black and African professional navigating the murky waters of a predominantly white industry.
Even though “The Other Black Girl” has been distributed to a mainstream streamer that appeals to a more general audience, the book’s distinctive rhetoric has been maintained.Redout, Hickey, and a writing team that included Rashida Jones and several scribes fromLooks like a mix” Universe (we’re working with a much better premise here) borrows heavily from Harris’ Black Girl shorthand.
Much of it is implicit, but it’s still there. And, like her novels, Nella maintains a constant conversation with the black women in the audience, allowing her modesty to be eye-opening.
Microaggressions in the office, white co-workers saying “but I’m on your side”, expectations to co-sign with problematic white writers (“The Office” star Brian Baumgartner), even just one black voice. Just because you need it, that’s it. That last part is the event that causes the story’s conflict.
Nella is understandably distressed by this whole thing, but she also has no one to talk to about it. So she goes to vent to her best friend and confidant, Malaika (a perfect Brittany Adebumola).
When Hazel (Ashley Murray) starts working at Wagner Books, some viewers might expect things to be different for Nella. She would at least have had a confidant or someone to support her through many awkward moments. Is there such a thing? Well, somehow. But that’s actually not the case. Even when Nella begins to doubt her confidence, Hazel is cunning enough to make Nella believe that she is on her side. That’s how gaslighting works.
The fact that both the screenwriter’s story and Harris’ book feed on the level of trust built in between black women based on their shared race (and even hair) makes this story at its core. It makes you feel embarrassed.
of course You expect two black women to want each other in a super white space. That’s part of the reason why Neela and Malaika’s relationship becomes more and more important as the story progresses.
As any black woman can attest, that friendship guarantees a black woman’s comfort. In need of Code-switching, even if you’re expected to do so around other people (which Nella rarely seems to do anyway).
That makes the seemingly trivial but pertinent details of Neela’s closeness to white people as interesting as her relationship with Malaika. They include that she, like Harris, grew up in a predominantly white area of Connecticut, lives in the predominantly white Brooklyn suburb of Bay Ridge, and has a white boyfriend (Hunter Parrish) with whom she lives. It includes the fact that there is.
Nella is a woman who, despite her white surroundings, wants to center black voices and talent like Hazel, herself, and the black women editors who came before them. It’s a tendency many black women share. So it’s hard to think that Hazel or any other black female character doesn’t at least have her best intentions in mind for Nella.
But “The Other Black Girl” wasn’t, and still isn’t, about the growing tension between two black women. It becomes one-dimensional and boring, stripping both characters of their textured identities.
Rather, the series spends its time taking a close look at the environments that create its vitriol. In this case, it is overwhelmingly white corporate America that creates relationships like Nella and Hazel’s. He even develops a relationship with Diana Gordon (Garcelle Beauvais), Wagner’s only black female writer, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
That’s part of what struck Harris about Nella Larsen’s seminal 1929 novel “Passing,” which inspired the main character’s name and the central theme of “Another Negro Girl.”
“How two exceptional black women feel the pressures from white society and how they act towards each other compared to how they act with others. “It’s a very interesting perspective on Larsen’s novel,” Harris said of Larsen’s novel. In a 2021 Esquire interview. “Passing had a big influence on me when I was thinking about Nella and Hazel, and how envy, friendship, hostility and class come into play.”
Hulu’s adaptation of Harris’ novel also subtly explores each theme, giving Hazel a backstory as well, and thankfully doesn’t rely on genre elements to simply tell that story. It’s showing.That’s the problem with too many shows like this these days. “they” Failed to navigate.
I’m not saying this series is perfect. It brings much of Harris’s story to the fore and also carries over the villainous subplots. But like a novel, its parts don’t quite come together.
Whatever we’re supposed to glean from that subplot doesn’t translate as well on the screen as it does on the page. That’s not necessary either. The relationships that evolve in this story and the motivations that animate them are what make it so interesting.
On the positive side, the multiple eras of the series are much cleaner executed than in the book, and become more relevant as the story progresses. (Note the year and, as always, the hair.) They help paint a dynamic pattern for this particular black professional over the decades and further focus the story’s themes.
While Mr. Harris’s novels are must-reads to take you on a wild journey, the series led by Mr. Redout and Mr. Hickey has terrifyingly haunting bookends that shake up the story.
Daniel is in most of the scenes and works brilliantly as a wide-eyed audience surrogate. But the entire cast gives solid performances, including the wily Murray, Maddox and Beauvais in supporting roles, and Bellamy Young and Eric McCormack as Wagner’s increasingly suspicious editors.
Fans of Hulu’s “The Other Black Girl” may want an additional season, even if the show is flawed (the final moments leave room for one). But this definitely should end here, especially since Harris has only written one of her novels (so far).
May what works in this story stick with you as it was always intended.
