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By Stuart Emmrich
TV screens are canceled all the time. But the stars of those exhibits rarely turn to social media to challenge the network leaders who make those decisions; publicly accusing them of a lack of diversity in their programming.
But that’s what Kravitz did this weekend, following the announcement that his Hulu show, High Fidelity, wouldn’t be renewed for a moment of season.
“I need to yell at my circle of family #alta fidelity,” Kravitz said on Instagram on Friday. Thank you for all the love and the center you put into this show. I’m all inspired by all of you. And thank you to everyone who has looked at us, enjoyed and supported us. #breakupssuck. “
Several key players presented their condolences and support. “Oh, I enjoyed #HighFidelity! This is bad news,” Mindy Kaling tweeted. Reese Witherspoon responded to Kravitz’s written message. “I’m so unhappy. I enjoyed that show. Another reaction from Lena Waithe:” NOOOOOOO !!! I rarely find screens that really impress me. He did it. I told you how much I enjoyed this show. And I do. This one definitely deserved another season.
But when actress Tessa Thompson published her own reaction to Kravitz’s message – “I will miss you so much” – that Kravitz made her mind transparent about the decision. In his reply, he wrote to Thompson: “That’s great. At least Hulu has a lot of other screens with women of color that we can see. Oh, wait.”
While Hulu has series such as Wu-Tang: An American Saga, with a predominantly black cast; Ramy, with Emmy-nominated Muslim actor Ramy Youssef; and the newly renovated Love, Victor, with a character named Latinx, the protagonists of those series are all men. The limited series Little Fires Everywhere is the only other series with original screenplay in Hulu with a black woman, Kerry Washington, at the helm. (On Sunday, Hulu had responded publicly to Kravitz’s message.)
The Hulu series was founded in Nick Hornthrough’s 1995 e-book of the same call and the much-loved 2000 film adaptation starring John Cusack as Rob Gordon, the owner of a bankrupt record store in Chicago. In the television version, Kravitz played Rothroughn “Rob” Gordon, the reimagined role of genre originally played by Cusack, and the set moved to the gentrified Community of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, not far from where Kravitz herself lives.
But the character’s romantic difficulties remain an essential component of the plot. As Vogue wrote about the show’s premiere: “The pains are the same, updated for a more progressive generation; she is massacred through a procession of lovers, men and women.” (High Fidelity also has a family connection circle; Kravitz’s mother, Lisa Bonet, starred opposite Cusack in the film version, betting on her character’s ex-girlfriend).
In an episode of Variety’s The Big Ticket podcast and previous iHeartRadio this year, Kravitz recalled the enthusiastic fan feedback he won at High Fidelity.
“The amount of comments, commercials, things on Twitter, articles written about brown women who love music, were afraid of engagement, that they had never noticed a user like them on TV, they feel noticed for the first time,” he said. I have a friend who, one of his greatest productive friends, loves punk music and is gay, is like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t. I’m seeing a gay boy in a Minor Threat’ T-shirt. I’ve never noticed that before. “By breaking stereotypes, I feel like other people love them. That’s why I feel very fortunate to have been able to offer this, because one of the most vital things for me was authenticity and bringing a genuine world to life. I have lived in New York for a long time and, somehow, it was a love letter to New York with all its disorder and diversity.”
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