Cherish the Day: Genesis

February 19, 2020 2:19 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Ava DuVernay's new series tracks the relationship between Gently (Xosha Roquemore) and Evan (Alano Miller), two young African-Americans in south Los Angeles. Each of the 8 episodes takes place during one day, across what the series will cover as five years. In the premiere the two meet at the library and spend the day getting to know each other via cheesecake and a refrigerator. Cicely Tyson has a supporting role as a sharp, sly aging film star. Airing, like DuVernay's Queen Sugar, on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
posted by mediareport (3 comments total)

I've really been enjoying this realistic look at a modern love story. The characters are flawed and interesting, the love letter to Los Angeles is a pleasure to watch unfold, and the supporting characters - Evan's brother-in-law, Gently's father, Cicely Tyson's Miss Luma - are fun to get to know. The show's a bit soapy, of course, and occasionally DuVernay's patented preachiness shows its head, but the soundtrack is great, the cinematography wonderful, and the acting is so beautiful and naturalistic it's a pleasure to engage with the characters.

I loved the sexy, sultry, revealing opening scene in this premiere episode; what a great way to introduce these two characters.
posted by mediareport at 2:25 PM on February 19, 2020

Thanks for the heads-up -- I haven't been seeing OWN show promos since Queen Sugar is between seasons, and hadn't heard about this premiering. I'll have to get caught up.

I was all 'Picard face-palm-gif' at Evan when things turned sour at the end in the back of the truck. Like, it's an understandably innocent/naive thing for someone from a happy/stable family to say "where were your parents?" after Gently said how much school she skipped as a teen. But he that he couldn't see from the look on her face saying "What's that supposed to mean?" that he'd just stepped in a hole and to back off, but instead he just got out the shovel and kept digging.
posted by oh yeah! at 6:11 PM on February 20, 2020

I am way behind on this, so watch me scurry to catch up!

This first episode was very Pride and Prejudice, but I thought it did a surprisingly good job of portraying both lead characters as sympathetic but flawed. I am usually hard Team Lizzie Bennett Character in these kind of set ups, but I found Evan as engaging as Gently, and don't think he's entirely to blame for that fight. He is tactless and too quick to continually default to money as solution. But Gently's defensive walls are Great Wall of China-caliber - Xosha Roquemore is great in this, you can just see her shut down.

Too early in the series to be sad these two crazy kids can't work it out, but I was sad that gorgeous vintage fridge wouldn't fit in Luma's kitchen, that was a great find.
posted by the primroses were over at 4:15 PM on March 3, 2020 [1 favorite]