For an entire generation of people, Bill Cosby is, or was, “America’s Dad”. We looked up to him every single week while watching The Cosby Show, laughed at his comedy specials and learned from cartoons such as Fat Albert. So what are we to do with everything we’ve learned about him since, the terrible things that had been kept in secret for years and ultimately landed Cosby in prison? Can we separate the art from the artist?
I’ll confess, this is a question I’ve often grappled with and it will be tackled by W. Kamau Bell in Showtime’s upcoming series, We Need to Talk About Cosby. Does Cosby being an alleged sexual predator lessen all of the good things he did throughout his life and career? And what does it mean for the Black culture to have one of its major heroes ruined in such a way?
We Need to Talk About Cosby will have its world premiere at Sundance, then hit Showtime on January 30th.
A four-part docuseries directed by W. Kamau Bell, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY wrestles with the conversations of the #MeToo movement, focusing on Bill Cosby’s descent from “America’s Dad” to alleged sexual predator. The series explores the complex story of Cosby’s life and work, weighing his actions against his indisputable global influence through interviews with comedians, cultural commentators, journalists and women who share their most personal, harrowing encounters with Cosby. Through archival footage, Cosby reveals who he may have been all along – the antithesis of the principled, public figure who became a hero, not only to African American people but to all people. Peeling back complex layers of the African American icon, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY offers viewers the chance to reconsider his mark in a society where rape culture, toxic masculinity, capitalism and white supremacy is shaping how we re-evaluate sex, power and agency.
