Clear Slate is what occurs when TV arithmetic provides up. Produced by two TV legends, Norman Lear and Laverne Cox, this Black household sitcom from Prime Video brings collectively the previous’s sensibilities — as seen in traditional hits like All within the Household, Maude, and Good Instances — with the four-time Emmy-nominated Orange Is the New Black star’s ardour for trans illustration, and distinctive mix of sass and coronary heart.
Earlier than his passing in December of 2024, Lear served as govt producer on this Prime Video sitcom, which Cox not solely headlines but in addition created alongside Dan Ewen (Expensive Santa) and Clear Slate co-star George Wallace. Collectively, they’ve crafted an Alabama-set household comedy through which generations conflict, however in a approach that makes for extra laughs than rigidity. Suppose Archie Bunker and his “Meathead” son-in-law Michael of All within the Household, but when at the very least certainly one of them had gone to remedy.
Clear Slate facilities on a father and daughter reconnecting after years of estrangement.
Laverne Cox and George Wallace co-star as daughter and father in “Clean Slate.”
Credit score: Prime Video
Harry Slate (Wallace) is a well-recognized determine on household sitcoms. Residing in a comfy American small city, he is a hard-working, blue-collared dad, who is aware of his neighbors, loving some — just like the no-nonsense churchgoer Miss Ella (Household Issues‘ Telma Hopkins) — and loathing others — just like the hillbilly-nerd subsequent door, Miguel (Phillip Garcia). He’s pleased with his work as a automotive wash proprietor, providing companies to his neighbors with an enormous smile and a classic convertible brandishing his emblem alongside its pristine paint job. However there is a gap in Harry’s life the place his household as soon as was.
After the demise of his spouse twenty-some years earlier than, his teenager left their Alabama dwelling for components unknown, and hasn’t been in contact since. Harry is elated when an e-mail arrives, promising his prodigal little one is coming dwelling. However this proud papa is anticipating the son who performed soccer, not the “fancy lady” (Cox) who seems on his porch with a suitcase and a strained smile. Then she says, “Dad, I’m your daughter, Desiree….I’ve always been Desiree.”
Surprised however welcoming, Harry invitations within the daughter he by no means actually knew, and thru 10 episodes, they each develop in understanding and acceptance of one another.
Cultures conflict in Clear Slate.
Laverne Cox and George Wallace co-star as daughter and father in “Clean Slate.”
Credit score: Prime Video
23 years earlier than, Desiree left behind her Southern small city for large New York Metropolis desires. She turned a lady, glamorous and educated, and an aspiring gallerista. However when the funding falls by for her gallery (blame an unreliable beau), she comes dwelling to regroup. And she or he’s bringing along with her metropolitan expectations, queer tradition, and the language of remedy. In the meantime, Harry hasn’t modified a factor in regards to the household dwelling in all these years, sitting amid rotting furnishings and recollections fading like framed pictures within the Alabama solar. He is confounded when Desiree explains she must loosen up her vagus nerve or provides him chia seed pudding, however is supportive as greatest he could be. In addition they arrange a pronoun jar, which he pays into anytime he misgenders or deadnames his little one. (“I’m gonna retire off this,” Desiree quips dryly.)
Mashable High Tales
In a sensible transfer, Clear Slate‘s tradition class hits on a number of fronts. There’s the generational divide made crystal-clear by Desiree’s embrace of remedy and Harry’s confusion over the coping instruments she speaks about. There is a large metropolis versus small city chasm, with Desiree susceptible to rolling her eyes over her father’s thought of sophistication, like a “Last Supper of Soul” portray that includes traditional Black musicians like Ray Charles however not — as Desiree notes — Grammy-winning diva Beyoncé. Then there’s Harry’s publicity to queer tradition by his daughter and her pals, which incorporates her closeted native bestie, Louis (D.Okay. Uzoukwu). However this cultural trade is a two-way road.
Revisiting her previous means Desiree will get a contemporary perspective on the Southern charms she’d left behind, like a good filled with video games and outdated however endearing prizes. Issues she might have remembered fondly however had been tainted by the hiding of herself she felt compelled to carry out at the moment are rediscovered with child-like glee, and this time along with her dad actually seeing her.
Greater than a joyful exploration of parent-child love, Harry and Desiree’s relationship supplies a mirror and mannequin to pals of the household Mack (Jay Wilkison) and Opal (Norah Murphy). He’s a previously incarcerated single dad who works devotedly at Harry’s carwash. She is his younger and sensible daughter, who has ambitions of being “the following Jeff Bezos.” For the previous, Desiree is enchanting, a potential love curiosity, whereas for the younger woman, she is a task mannequin for getting out of the shadow of your father and paving your personal approach. However as Clear Slate strikes by episodes, it is turns into clear you possibly can do the latter with out leaving your dad within the mud.
Trans illustration, however not queer utopia, is offered in Clear Slate.
Telma Hopkins and George Wallace play neighbors in “Clean Slate.”
Credit score: Prime Video
This sequence about household love and acceptance feels radical in a time through which Republicans are demonizing trans and queer individuals by propaganda and absurd govt orders. The place Desiree feared rejection by her father and former group, she is as an alternative largely embraced — even when it takes her dad a while to regulate to the “pronoun sitch” (as Opal calls it). She reconnects with outdated pals and makes new ones. However within the fourth episode, throughout a go to to church, she is confronted by a bigoted preacher.
Desiree is anxious about going again to a spot the place “eternal damnation” was promised for embracing her fact. To draw much less consideration, she clothes “conservatively,” abandoning the intense colours and snug-fitting but stylish clothes she favors for a beige two-piece, an extended skirt and shirt. As quickly as she arrives, Miss Ella ushers her to the entrance to sit down along with her and her girlfriends. However after service, the pastor, who’s fast to hug his feminine congregants, forces a handshake on Desiree, greeting her as he does the boys. Seeing Desiree is wounded by the misgendering gesture, Miss Ella is not going to let that stand. She calls her “girlfriends of grace” collectively for a protest, and urges Harry to struggle for his daughter too. He’ll in his approach, and issues will get messy.
Whereas protecting the buoyancy of the sitcom tone — not falling into “very special episode” seriousness of the ’90s — Clear Slate provides an accessible information to allyship. Whereas her family members wish to make an enormous present of help in protest and vandalism, that is not what Desiree needs. And the way they hear her and act in response is a phenomenal climax to the episode, and that it occurs so early within the season makes it hit even more durable. As a result of it should not be a unprecedented factor to indicate up for these we love. Clear Slate exhibits how simply we will try this in our on a regular basis lives, and the way extraordinary that may really feel to these we do it for. Having mentioned that, the pastor and this plotline comes again within the finale. And the sequence climax is divine.
Clear Slate premieres on Prime Video on Feb. 6.
