Woke: Season 1

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Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Ratings

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4.2

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4.2	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 16 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

HULU | Season Premiere Date: September 9, 2020

Summary: San Francisco cartoonist Keef (Lamorne Morris) is close to making it into the "big time" when something happens that challenges his previous point-of-view in this comedy inspired by the personal experiences of writer/executive producer (and fellow cartoonist) Keith Knight.

Creator: Keith Knight and Marshall Todd

Genre(s): Comedy

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E3. Gig E. Smalls
Air Date: September 9, 2020

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Critic Reviews

Glenn Garvin

Sep 5, 2020

In a dreary age in which we're battered on one side by authentic police mayhem and on the other by puerile PC paladins, Hulu's new comedy series Woke is little short of a miracle. It manages to carefully and very funnily thread a needle through a political and social straitjacket. Read full review

Mekeisha Madden Toby

Sep 2, 2020

Keef's inner struggles as a Black artist versus an artist who happens to be Black is an unapologetically funny and honest through line that also gives the show the authenticity it needs. Although San Francisco as a setting doesn't factor in as the uncredited character that it should, Stanley Clarke's thoughtful score deliciously folds in a number of Black musical influences and vibes. Read full review

John Anderson

Sep 9, 2020

Charming. This can be credited in large part to Mr. Morris, who plays Keef with equal parts self-awareness and bemusement, but also to the balance “Woke” strikes between politics and the pure comedy of human interaction. Or collision. ... The music is remarkably good. The cast is even better. Read full review

Melanie McFarland

Sep 10, 2020

There's a lot about "Woke" that works because of the people in it, and the man who makes it, and not entirely due its execution, which begins a lot of conversations but doesn't pause or conclude them in ways that give the premise of the series its meaning. Read full review

Collider Kay B

Sep 11, 2020

While I can’t fault the performances, the discontinuity and lack of purposeful writing are where the series failed for me. Initially having high hopes for Woke, I walked away not quite knowing who the intended audience was. And while the subject matter grabbed my attention, I had to wait until the final culmination for it to pay off. Read full review

Daniel D'Addario

Sep 2, 2020

The show is at odds with itself, drawing a mordantly funny vision of a person sent into disarray by his newly surfaced awareness of American racism and seeding it with broad and somewhat lazy sight gags. A version of “Woke” with fewer distractions — limiting or perhaps fine-tuning the comic device, and keeping its eye more closely on Morris’s performance — would be one that got its point across, and that entertained, far more effectively. Read full review

RogerEbert.com Robert Daniels

Sep 8, 2020

While the eight-episode Hulu series “Woke” satirizes the definitions of Blackness and artistic integrity, its inert discussions lead to few laughs. Read full review

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User Reviews

Dushell

Sep 20, 2020

Loved it. Satirical approach to a moment or moments that occur in the life of every black man, bar none. If hulu can bring a show like Pen15 back for season 2, this should should be green lit for 10 more.

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

Jacks320

Sep 11, 2020

This show is decent not horrible, some funny moments, overall a decent show.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

DAL1960

Sep 18, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've been through four episodes of "Woke" and I have to say it's really a hard show to get through. The show has potential, but the writing and direction let it down. Keith Morris, who created this show, needs to turn this show over to real writers. It's not funny. Keef, the main character, is an artist who is about to break out, but he blows it when he has a meltdown at an important event. Ok...that's a good point where the Keef can make a comeback and the audience can witness his redemption. But nooo..the show goes into different direction, sort of.

I really want this series to work, but the writers and producers need to get together and figure out the characters. I like Lamorne Morris as Keef. Morris plays him to be a nice, but confused Black man. His friends are just too generic. You have the black friend, who tries to be a playa with no game and no money is too stereotypical. I think the character has to be about something. The white friend started to be typical San Francisco stoner kid, who as the show goes on, is trying to be Keef's conscience. I was put off by that because once again media is trying to be the hero. What they should stay with is the objects that talk to Keef. A pen, voiced by JB Smoove and garbage can, voiced by Cedric The Entertainer. They were funny and they should be the one giving Keef some life lessons.
Also the women on this show are just used as props. You have the Black journalist who calls Keef out, is there in spurts. I need to see her more. As for the white woman, who sleeps with him. I liked her, but it seems to be there for window dressing. I think this is the part where they think their "Woke". Interracial relationship on TV..ok that's progress. But there's no chemistry. I think she needed to be less beautiful. I din't think in real, a nerdy brother Keef could pull the gorgeous, blonde artist. I don't see it. There's a story there, but its told haphazardly. They meet at a party...she rebuffs him. The next show..they are in bed together. Say what? How did that happen? Honestly...I think Hulu aired this to ease their guilt for canceling "High Fidelity". Zoe Kravitz called them out for what she felt that Hulu didn't like Black people and thus decided to add this show to its programming. "High Fidelity was WAY better than "Woke" and far more hip. "Woke" isn't quite woke. It needs more emotional punch and be more pervasive. The producers and Keith Knight need to wake up or it will suffer the fate as "high Fidelity".… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

RidingHood

Sep 15, 2020

Disastrously bad acting ruins a promising idea. The main character in particular has been portrayed in a terribly campy fashion, and every joke is stretched out to its unfunny limit.

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

Seasons & Episodes

61

Series Overview
Season 2

tbd
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: April 8, 2022
Season 1

61
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: September 9, 2020
- tbd
  S1:E3. Gig E. Smalls
  Air Date: September 9, 2020