The Type of Friends You Should Strive For
I’ve been a fan of Issa Rae since she had her YouTube series Awkward Black Girl a few years back. Insecurity knows no boundaries and strikes all walks of life and in Rae’s work she shows how these insecurities will sneak up on you at the most hilarious and inappropriate moments.
I’ve had Insecure on my to-watch list for a while. Being on vacation this week gave me a chance to binge-watch it. I’d actually caught the last ten minutes of the latest episode earlier this week, which gave me the drive to watch all of it from the beginning.
We meet Issa in Los Angeles. She works for a non-profit that helps to tutor and mentor disadvantaged students. Her best friend, Molly, is her partner in crime and the hijinks they get into together on this show will have you laughing out loud. Two more friends round up the group — Kelli, an accountant, and Tiffany, a housewife. I don’t want to draw comparisons, but it does have similarities to Sex and the City. Four women, finding themselves in Los Angeles.
If we take a moment to acknowledge the Sex and the City similarity — these are who the girls are.
Tiffany is Charlotte.
She is happy to be a housewife, her husband does well. They haven’t gone into detail about what Tiffany’s background is, but she rubs elbows with the industry people that work for Diddy and Beyonce. At her baby shower, her photos were renditions of famous maternity poses including Serena Williams and Beyonce. Tiffany is the first one to tell you if your life choices are not fitting into the structured boxes she believes your life path should be taking. I also love that her resolution to every problem is to go on vacation. I’m all for that as well.
Kelli would be Miranda.
They haven’t quite fleshed out Kelli and I was afraid she would end up being the wallflower member of the group, but she has her own personality that shines through. I would love to see her have a stronger presence in the fourth season. What I do like is she’s the money girl. Miranda was the money girl, but she never told Carrie to get her shit together, but it was probably because Carrie was dating money most of the time. Kelli has no problem telling Issa to stay in her financial lane. That’s a true friend.
Molly is Samantha, with a hint of Charlotte.
Yes, she’s strong, independent and isn’t afraid to ask for what she wants, but she’s also looking for the traditional life. Where Samantha rejected the traditional constructs of family life, Molly craves it. She’s a true friend to Issa and the honesty they have with each other is refreshing. Where two characters may avoid each other for an episode or two over an argument, Issa and Molly will go at each other right then and there to resolve it.
Issa is a Carrie that doesn’t know she’s a Carrie.
What I like about Issa is she hasn’t figured herself out yet and that’s okay. Carrie’s love interests were politicians, famous artists, and Kennedy’s. It didn’t matter who she was dating, that love interest always had a summer house in the Hampton’s. That seemed to be the end goal for Carrie and in her story, we rooted for her to get the prize — the really, really rich white guy.
Issa is on the verge of her awakening and right now I’m rooting for Nathan. We don’t know what his story is, but after the first two seasons of her teeter-tottering between Lawrence and Daniel, it’s nice to see someone come into her life that seems on the surface to be genuine and drama-free.
Shows about insecurity and dating all come down to the guys. Let’s go there right now:
Lawrence was Issa’s boyfriend for four years. He spent the last two years living on her couch, unemployed, working on an app that was supposed to take off. When she voiced her concerns about the stagnation in their life and relationship, he did get a job. He made it into a firm in his field and was doing really well. Then she cheated. I think she self-sabotaged the relationship on purpose because she was never going to have the courage to confront the chance that maybe they just weren’t supposed to be forever.
Lawrence is not my first pick. He’s good-looking, college educated and has all of the right boxes checked off, but he’s boring. He bored her and that’s why she stepped out. I don’t know if you can actually make it work with someone that you find boring. The show is shaping the narrative that he is her soulmate and they will find their way back to each other, but I don’t buy it just yet.
Daniel is beautiful. This was her high school crush and she has always carried a torch for him. This relationship confused me. I was for sure that they would end up together. They have history, common interests in music and they just vibed when they were living together.
Daniel was there for Issa throughout her break-up and in needing a place to stay. She in turn was just the support he needed to get to the next level of his music career. Their conversations and the way they communicate with just their eyes seem like a married couple. I see a stronger connection between them than she ever had with Lawrence.
I hope Daniel makes it in the music industry and I wonder if his career taking off in season 4 may put him in a new light for Issa. I’m up in the air about this one, but I would pick him before granola Lawrence. Now to my top pick.
Nathan is a figment of Issa’s imagination. He literally fell out of the sky and ended up in her Uber. This is the kind of guy that all single girls living in California make-up in their mind while they’re sitting at work. He’s gorgeous, mysterious, and last minute invites you to go with him to Coachella where he has a hook-up for great parties. Also, he does exactly what you want your imaginary boyfriend to do at Coachella. You meet up with the group, reserve your spot to see Beyonce, then you and your boyfriend ditch everyone to go ride the ferris wheel together because as much as he loves live music, he hates people as much as you do. This is what’s happened to Issa and I have to wait for the last two episodes to see if he turns out to be real or just another f-boy.
I’m excited to see where this show goes and I hope Issa Rae gets to do a lot more projects along with this television show. She definitely has a unique and funny voice and she’s an asset to HBO.
