http://youtu.be/5FNFOOe0wgU
by Nsenga K. Burton
Must-see Thursdays has turned into Must-see Mondays for the African Diaspora. NBC’s ‘Deception’ starring Meagan Good and Laz Alonso is airing tonight at 10 PM EST/9 Central. PBS is also airing Byron Hurt’s documentary ‘Soul Food Junkies‘ tonight. Thank goodness for DVR technology because it is possible to watch one and then the other. After watching TV One’s critically acclaimed series Find Our Missing on TV One at 9 p.m., make sure you turn the channel to NBC or PBS and set your DVRs for both shows.
‘Deception’ is a classic whodunnit with a high-profile murder, multiple suspects with motives, two detectives (that also happen to be black and beautiful), a ridiculously wealthy and complicated family and characters who are not what they seem.
On the other end of the spectrum, there is Byron Hurt’s ‘Soul Food Junkies,’ a personal documentary about the cost of soul food on the lives of people of African descent. Hurt (Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes) made the film after his father, a lover of soul food, passed away at age 63.
Why should you watch ‘Deception?’ Besides the talents of Good and Alonso, it is a classic whodunnit with potential to resuscitate the genre while proving that folks will watch a drama with two African-American (and Cuban in the case of Alonso) leads. As we know, the show needs an opportunity to grow and develop, and that is largely based on the number of viewers early on.
Why should you watch ‘Soul Food Junkies?’ Hurt fought hard to get this film made. After losing funding, Hurt launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the remaining $25,000. He raised $30,000, moving the project forward and making the deal with PBS. Now that’s a whole lot of soul.
Set your DVRs and make sure that you tune into at least one of these shows tonight. If we want more quality programming that appeals to the African Diaspora, then we’ll have to tune our channels to where our mouths are and make sure that we keep shows like ‘Deception’ and documentaries like ‘Soul Food Junkies’ on our radar.
Check your local listings for channel information.
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