Recommended: Woke Season 2 on Hulu
What's new and what's changed?
Last season, Black cartoonist Keef Knight was happy to keep politics out of his comic strip, but he was forced to reconsider after a run-in with the SFPD, who mistook him for a suspect. Events eventually pushed him into a much brighter spotlight, and Season 2 follows his attempts to make use of that platform.
This year, we see less of the conceit that inanimate objects — from a trash can to a bottle of malt liquor — will speak up to Keef offering unsolicited advice. The human beings are now just as provocative as the things, and Keef emerges as a Seinfeldian character: cool-headed next to those around him, yet roiling under the surface as he navigates the strange world of activism.
Who's involved?
Lamorne Morris returns as Keef, and the rest of the ensemble remains tight. T. Murph and Blake Anderson (Workaholics) are Keef's appealingly dumb roommates Clovis and Gunther. Sasheer Zamata (SNL) is his nemesis-turned-ally Ayana, who becomes his guide to the inner rings of Bay Area radicalism. And in an intriguing new role, Aimee Garcia plays Laura, a wealthy benefactor.
Why (and to whom) do we recommend it?
Woke's tonal diversity lets it deftly segue from knowing jabs at political correctness (Ayana is working on a roundup of “The Bay Area’s Wokest Wines”) to spot-on insights about social problems to good old bro comedy with Clovis and Gunther. It’s a different kind of coming-of-age comedy. The journey of Keef Knight from apolitical kid just trying to make his way in the world to Man With a Platform is highly watchable, and Woke’s observations about a political climate that seems to make people lose their damn minds are pleasingly trenchant.
Pairs well with
TOPICS: Woke, Hulu, Aimee Garcia, Blake Anderson, J.B. Smoove, Keith Knight, Lamorne Morris, Marquita Goings, Marshall Todd, Rose McIver, Sasheer Zamata, T. Murph