Grand Crew aims to fulfill the Black "hang-out" show void without "being too preachy"

Indiewire

"I think people are really digging the vibe of the show," creator Phil Augusta Jackson tells Indiewire. "I think it’s been a while since we’ve had a Black 'hang-out' show and what makes me happy is that people seem to be noticing the themes we’re hitting. But the thing that really makes me happy paired with that is that people are saying that the show is funny. We have these themes but also we also have these jokes. I want people to laugh and when we were in the midst of this pandemic shooting the pilot, the goal was to make a feel-good show that could make people laugh. What really excites me is viewers finding the show funny and feeling like they’re a part of the Crew." Jackson also intended to fill gaps in the portrayal of Black men. "The stories we presented in this first season were inspired by either real conversations that I’ve had or real experiences that my amazing writers’ room would present," he says. "We would gather around certain topics to say, “This is something we want to talk about.” But we never wanted it to be in a way where it felt like we were being too preachy — we wanted to make these conversations, to provide the humor and then when you watch it, you’ll think, “Wait, there’s actually a deeper theme here.”