Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Lyrical drama has mature content, great beauty.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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David Makes Man
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
David (Akili McDowell), the 14-year-old hero of DAVID MAKES MAN, is a boy in conflict. Sometimes it feels like everyone expects to see a different David. At his magnet school he's expected to be studious and hard-working, on a path to higher education under the watchful eye of his gifted English teacher, Dr. Woods-Trap (Phylicia Rashad). At home, he has to compensate for the gaps left by his struggling mom Gloria (Alana Arenas) and care for his little brother. Around the Miami projects where he lives, he's forced to act tough to save face, particularly when one neighborhood dealer takes a particular interest in David's future. This drama is created by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who won an Academy Award as the co-writer of Moonlight.
Is It Any Good?
This lyrical and achingly beautiful drama takes its time getting where it's going, but the destination is such an uncommonly beautiful one that you'll be happy to settle in and wait. From the moment we meet the title character, sweaty from an unsuccessful school-bus chase and supremely jittery about an upcoming class presentation he fears will expose his improverished background to his better-off classmates, we sympathize deeply with his conflict. At school he sees a display of privilege that adults tell him could be his someday; in the evenings, he returns to a place where the most successful people he knows eventually wind up dead or in jail. Stuck in between, his code-switching is made all the more plain by the different names others call him. To his mom and teachers, he's diligent David; to the rough crowd at the projects he's Dai; to his school friend Seren (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre) he's class clown DJ. And one of the main things this series gets exactly right is depicting just how much it takes out of David to maintain each conflicting persona, how exhausting and confusing and scary it is to be this boy at this time and place.
But the drama also has sympathy for each character we meet: for Glorida, trapped in systemic poverty; for Dr. Woods-Trap, who can only do so much for her students; even for Raynan (Ade Chike Torbert), the underage dealer who projects an aura of power but beneath it is just as desperate for security and authentic connections as David himself. It's painful to watch them struggle, but there's beauty in it too. As David explains in his class presentation, playing a Mary J. Blige song, so many people feel like they're unimportant and nothing special, "but something as simple as a song on the radio can tell you that you're not a nobody." David Makes Man is potent evidence that a TV show can too.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about David and how David Makes Man depicts the challenges he faces growing up. Is the movie respectful of and empathetic to his situation? Does it give viewers a deeper understanding of the social and economic forces that shape his life?
David is frequently a target for bullies around the housing project he lives in. How does the film handle the subject of bullying? How did Chiron's circumstances shape the man he becomes?
How is drug use portrayed in the movie? What role do drugs play in David's life, and in the life of those around him? How does it impact their futures?
How do the characters in David Makes Man demonstrate compassion and integrity? Why are those important character strengths?
TV Details
- Premiere date : August 14, 2019
- Cast : Akili McDowell , Alana Arenas , Ade Chike Torbert
- Network : OWN
- Genre : Drama
- Character Strengths : Compassion , Integrity
- TV rating :
- Last updated : February 15, 2023
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