White Famous

A scathingly funny cocktail of hardball racial humor, caustic Hollywood self-lampoon and general filthy talk.

[A] sharply written dramedy.

Pharaoh was an underrated and underutilized player on “Saturday Night Live” and he finally gets to shine here. With great comedic timing, strong acting chops and charisma to spare, Pharaoh elevates White Famous, making it a series well worth your time.

It’s not particularly original, but with lively guests such as Foxx, Tobolowsky, and, beginning in episode two, Michael Rapaport and Natalie Zea (as a soulless agent named Amy Von Getz; Kapinos clearly likes to play with names), the material is nonetheless twisted fun. It’s Pharoah, though, best known for his six-season stint on “Saturday Night Live,” who carries the action.

White Famous can be faulted in its conceits and concept, but Pharoah is fully invested and funny at times, too.

While White Famous proves he [Jay Pharoah] can lead a series, it doesn’t give him many opportunities to show how funny he is. It does make a great argument that everyone in Hollywood is criminally unhinged.

It feels altogether too on-the-nose, a rigged game in which almost all the points are awarded to Floyd. ... Pharoah, an "SNL" veteran who has not done much straight acting, pulls his weight throughout, but working with Rapaport, as with Coleman and the low-key excellent Jacob Ming-Trent as Floyd's wisdom-dispensing friend and roommate Ron Balls, lifts him to that vaunted next level.

Pharoah, though, almost makes it worth it. He has a solid presence that lifts the show. You just wish it were a better show.

The promising White Famous delivers a more agreeable take on industry satire. ... Floyd is almost too good to be true. [16-29 Oct 2017, p.15]

Consistently watchable due to a versatile and charismatic lead performance by Jay Pharoah, White Famous still feels like an impersonal relic of television past.

The show tries to do too much and isn’t always sure if it’s satire, a straight-on sitcom or an African American “Entourage.” Pharoah has a lot of heavy lifting to do, but mostly carries it off.

One suspects star power had plenty to do with Showtime giving the go-ahead to this once-over-lightly version of making it in Hollywood -- the kind of material that, in comedy terms, feels more like open-mic night than a headliner.

White Famous is the oldest trick in Hollywood's book, a phony Horatio Alger story that's really a vanity project struggling to validate its own vanity. [13 Oct 2017, p.48]

The problem with White Famous is its lack of problems. Every potential conflict resolves itself without consequence or development.

[There] are the few instances where that Floyd offers up a goofy, introspective side to his character. The rest of the time, he’s a stubbornly shallow protagonist in a stubbornly shallow show.

White Famous is a jumble of hyper-masculine yucks designed to titillate and amusemale viewers, but its viewpoint feels outdated and in poor taste.

The series comes off especially tone deaf in its pilot episode thanks to a poorly timed story arc about a sexist, powerful Hollywood producer. ... And even setting aside the thorny trappings of a Harvey Weinstein comparison, the series illustrates a casual sexism that’s concerning. In the pilot, there are more women who appear naked without speaking and without being given a name than there are speaking roles for women.

The show carries itself as a blast of revelatory fresh air. But everything about it is stale.