One might think a Black-ish episode focused on the Johnson family’s consumerist bent might lead to painful results, and for two-thirds of an episode, it certainly does, offering some of the ugliest, most unfunny portrayals of its main characters we’ve ever seen. And yet, “Stuff” is an emotional highlight of the series, offering a third act as nuanced, layered, and effective as anything we’ve ever seen before. By focusing on the much-maligned Pops/Dre relationship, Black-ish‘s Christmas episode surprisingly rises to the top of this year’s batch of holiday-themed installments.
The idea of children becoming too consumed with consumerism, and thus “forgetting what Christmas is really about,” is an abundantly familiar theme for any Christmas story in the post-Planes, Trains, and Automobile days, when family gatherings and good tidings took a back seat to going crazy for sales and blowing huge sums of money on the day after a holiday. In that sense, “Stuff” is pretty typical Christmas comedy fare, the kids whining and lamenting that their family will only let them get one gift each, while Dre remembers the “tougher” times as a kid, when he ate cold fried chicken with his father – and probably spent an unhealthy amount of time listening to Ruby talk about Black Jesus, I’d imagine.
Thankfully, the episode focuses on Pop and Dre, rather than the ‘thrilling’ celebrations Ruby brings to the table; I think half my appreciation for the episode comes from the show willingly backseating her in a story she’s a major part of, giving the Pops/Dre dynamic some much-needed room to breathe. Unfortunately, nobody knows how to kill a scene like Ruby, and this episode makes the necessary decision to sideline her, and for good reason – her singing “happy birthday Black Jesus” is about the most obnoxious thing I’ve seen on TV in 2015, continuing to erode my love for Jenifer Lewis with each painful line she has to embody as Ruby.
Smartly, the episode isn’t about her, or the kids’ plans to behave and manipulate their gifts back into their laps: it’s about Dre trying to overcompensate for the unhappy Christmases he had as a kid. When Dre expresses that to Pops, “Stuff” finds unexpected pathos when it flips the camera, and puts a little pressure on Dre’s righteousness. Pops stayed loyal to his crappy Christmas traditions, even after Dre grew up and become affluent, out of pride: he wasn’t trying to teach the kids a lesson (even if they need it), just trying to keep the guise alive that Dre’s holidays were terrible growing up by choice, rather than out of necessity (“Hey son, I work a minimum-wage job” – could you imagine your father saying something more depressing right before Christmas?).
In that moment, Black-ish not only finds an empathetic avenue for its toughest character, but addresses an interesting sociological concern: in the inter-generational pursuit of making sure our kids live better, more comfortable lives than we did, what ends up getting lost? Appreciation for family, and recognition of the sacrifices that come with the abject consumerism modern Christmas so thoroughly represents. As Pops notes, he didn’t give Dre a bad Christmas gift from the fridge every year because he wanted to; it was all he could do, and Pops thought that better than trying to explain to a child that his parents are poor. Rather than destroy any hope Dre’s mind might have for success, Pops decided to take the hit, and do what little he could to give him some kind of holiday memories.
[Photo credit: Ron Batzdorff/ABC]
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