If your timeline has suddenly been overrun by self-proclaimed “Ghetto Goonies,” there’s a very good reason for that.
From the creators spreading the word to fans weighing in and championing many of its stars, including Diarra Kilpatrick and Shoniqua Shandai, “Diarra From Detroit,” currently in its second season on Paramount+, has been cropping up all over the timeline this week, particularly with the launch of “Black Threads” as an official community.
Dubbed the show to watch for Black girls who grew up reading “Nancy Drew” by many, “Diarra From Detroit” follows its titular heroine as she attempts to have a calm summer after an extremely wild fall and winter, only to find herself smack dab in the middle of yet another multilayered and highly compelling mystery. And people are hooked.
Online, in addition to the many using Black Threads to delcare it’s the show the internet is watching as a family, fans have taken to calling themselves the “Ghetto Goonies,” celebrating everything from the show’s distinctly Black sense of humor and Detroit flavor to Shandai, a sorely underused talent who owns nearly every scene she’s in as Diarra’s wise-cracking cousin, Requeeba, who gets pulled into the madness right alongside her.
While last season was about solving the disappearance of a Tinder date who seemingly ghosted Diarra, this season finds her unraveling a new mystery tied to the family he’s connected to. Season two may have a brand-new case, but it’s got the same amazing cast, refreshing humor, character, joy, and fun that made the first season such a good time.
With a long weekend ahead, now is the perfect time to throw it on for the first time or finally catch up if you’re already hooked — and “Diarra From Detroit” is far from the only thing worth pressing play on. With an extra day to make a dent in all those shows and movies from the first half of the year you swore you’d get around to eventually, we rounded up a handful worth adding to your holiday weekend queue.
Shows
“The Varnell Hill Show” — Paramount+
Return to the universe of the hit ’90s sitcom “Martin” in this new spin-off that dares to ask what Varnell Hill, Tommy Davidson’s gloriously over-the-top talk show host, would be up to today, taking us behind the scenes as the old-school star fights to stay relevant amid new bosses, celebrity guests, and plenty of workplace chaos.
“Average Joe” — Paramount+
The mystery continues in the second season of “Average Joe,” as Deon Cole’s Pittsburgh plumber Joe Washington learns he is nowhere near done paying for his late father’s criminal secrets and takes his equally in-over-their-heads crew all the way to Cape Town, South Africa, chasing answers while assassins, bounty hunters, and even more family revelations chase them.
The people have spoken, and they love “Lanterns,” HBO’s new superhero mystery following veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and younger recruit John Stewart as the latter steps toward a destiny that is far bigger and stranger than he imagined — and Aaron Pierre playing Stewart with those green eyes of his certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Set in the gritty underbelly of London’s boxing scene, 50 Cent brings us another crime drama, this time following former heavyweight champion Maduka “Duke” Kilroy (Howard Charles), who returns home after eight years in prison, determined to avenge his brother’s murder and take down the man he blames for destroying everything he had.
The sensational Bellarie family has returned for another wild, dramatic, and deliciously soapy season of “Beauty in Black,” with their Chicago hair-care empire buckling under years of secrets, betrayal, and buried crimes as Kimmie fights to hold onto her newfound power and seemingly everybody else plots their next move.
Zoe Saldaña is back in full “don’t-play-with-me” mode for Season 3 of “Lioness,” as CIA operative Joe finds the lines between work and home getting even messier while hidden networks, foreign operatives, and betrayals inside her own world turn another covert mission into something much bigger.
Get into the “Outer Banks” craze as the hit adventure series comes to a close, following a tight-knit group of working-class North Carolina teens, including brainy Pope (Jonathan Daviss) and his Bahamian love interest Cleo (Carlacia Grant), as they chase lost treasure, dodge their wealthy rivals, and somehow find themselves in increasingly dangerous situations around the world.
“Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross”
Come for the gorgeous destinations, stay for Tracee Ellis Ross treating each trip like a fashion spread in “Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross,” which returned for a second season following the actress, fashion girl, and famously enthusiastic over-packer as she heads off alone to Melbourne, Switzerland, and Northern Thailand and makes a pretty convincing case for booking that trip by yourself.
Leave it to Leslie Jones to turn a home-renovation show into a roast session in “Roast My Rental,” where the comedian hilariously drags some of America’s most questionable short-term rentals before designer Jasmine Roth and her team swoop in to make them places somebody might actually want to spend the night.
“Married at First Sight” went bigger for Season 20, matching a franchise-record 14 Seattle singles into seven couples who first meet at the altar before attempting the minor task of building an entire marriage with a stranger, and now that the finale and reunion have aired, you can binge every wedding, honeymoon, argument and Decision Day disaster without waiting a week to find out who actually makes it.
“The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip”
Celebrating 20 years of the franchise, season 5 of “The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip” takes “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Porsha Williams, “Real Housewife of Potomac” star Gizelle Bryant, as well as Vicki Gunvalson, Luann de Lesseps, Teresa Giudice, Kyle Richards and Lisa Barlow through iconic locations from its epic two-decade history, dragging out plenty of old drama, some very familiar faces — including the return of the one and only NeNe Leakes — and, naturally, plenty of new mess along the way.
Before the next generation arrives at Hillman later this month, there is no better time to go back to where it all started with all six seasons of the original “A Different World,” the beloved HBCU sitcom that gave us Whitley Gilbert, Dwayne Wayne, Freddie, Ron, and one of Black television’s most enduring depictions of young, gifted, and Black people figuring out school, life, friendship, love and adulthood.
Movies
After all the hype, headlines, and debate, “Michael” is finally streaming, with Jaafar Jackson stepping into his iconic uncle Michael Jackson’s loafers for Antoine Fuqua’s sprawling biopic tracing the King of Pop from his Jackson 5 beginnings through his historic rise to global superstardom.
If Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page falling in love against the ridiculously gorgeous backdrop of Italy wasn’t already enough to get you seated for “You, Me & Tuscany,” the buzzy rom-com sends Bailey’s aspiring chef character to a Tuscan villa where one little lie about being engaged gets complicated fast when she starts falling for her faux fiancé’s cousin.
The highly anticipated revenge thriller “Is God Is” is finally streaming, which brought Aleshea Harris’ acclaimed play to the screen as twin sisters Racine and Anaia set out across the country to settle a violent family score, with Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Sterling K. Brown, Janelle Monáe, Vivica A. Fox and Erika Alexander all rounding out one stacked cast.
If you missed one of 2024’s most acclaimed films, now is your chance to catch “Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’ Oscar-nominated adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about two Black boys whose friendship becomes a lifeline while surviving a brutal reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
Kevin Hart is 40, out of touch with what’s cool, and headed to Miami with a bunch of twentysomethings in “72 Hours,” a new comedy that finds his ad executive crashing a chaotic bachelor weekend with Teyana Taylor, Marcello Hernández, and Mason Gooding in a desperate attempt to save his career.
“Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy”
Comedian Mo Gilligan loves fried chicken enough to eat it three times a day for 28 days in “Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy,” a funny and surprisingly deep dive into the multibillion-dollar industry, health concerns, and very particular racial baggage surrounding one of the world’s favorite foods.
Nothing says relaxing holiday weekend quite like watching somebody else’s go completely to hell, and “The Blackening” remains perfect night-one group-trip viewing as a Juneteenth getaway for a group of Black college friends turns into a hilarious fight for survival against a killer determined to find out who among them is the Blackest.
Eric André comes crashing back into his successful older brother’s picture-perfect life in “Little Brother,” teaming up with John Cena for a very unserious family comedy about two wildly different brothers forced back into each other’s orbit.
Black debutante culture gets a Gen Z spin in “The Debutantes,” which follows a group of high school girls in Canton, Ohio, as the Black women in their community revive the local debutante ball, and the girls decide for themselves which traditions they want to carry forward.
Chlöe Bailey enters her scream queen era in “Strung,” playing a talented violinist whose seemingly dreamy job tutoring the daughter of a wealthy family quickly turns sinister as she realizes something in that gorgeous house is very, very off.
“Scary Movie” — Paramount+
The Wayans are back, baby, and so are Brenda, Cindy, Shorty, and Ray in the first “Scary Movie” in more than a decade, reuniting Marlon and Shawn Wayans with Regina Hall and Anna Faris for another gloriously ridiculous round of horror movie spoofs that is now streaming just in time for the long weekend.
Before Tyler Perry gets the gang back together for “Why Did I Get Married Again?” on Sept. 9, revisit the original getaway from hell where four married couples, including Janet Jackson, Jill Scott, Tasha Smith, and Michael Jai White, head to the mountains for a little R&R and instead unpack infidelity, resentment, and a whole lot of marital mess.
Mentioned in this article:Black TVEntertainmentBlack Movies
