2018 was the year that time stretched long and thick like evil taffy.  Maybe the crumbling of American democracy had some kind of cosmic effect on it, but it felt this year felt like three...and a half. Thankfully, the year was crammed with great television, movies and music.  From Black Panther (yes it was released this year) to HBO's Succession to the return of Christina Aguilera, the entertainment got us through it.  

With that said, Hollywood definitely tried it in too many ways, and here’s hoping they will stay in the endless nightmare-chasm that was 2018.  Here are 8 entertainment trends that should stay in 2018...

When I was a little girl, my mother didn’t buy me clothes with white people on them.  It was her way of making sure I didn't idolize the litany of white characters on television and in books.  I never really noticed until I was older when I was shopping for my niece and was reluctant to the do the same (I literally made her Gryffindor gear with my bare hands.  She raised a proper blerd, don't worry).  As long as I had my Michael Jackson t-shirt or Care Bears nightgown, I was happy. 
 
As I watched Black Lightning from the new CW superhero series and electrocute racist cops that told him to “get his black ass on the ground” and his daughters hold their own against their own personal villain, I felt my inner eight-year-old giggle with glee in a way she rarely had.  Because I saw myself eagerly saving my allowance to buy a Black Lightning shirt instead of my Michael Jackson cards.  Is this why kids love comic books?  Because they get to see themselves and their stories reflected back and heightened by imagination and fantasy?  Because it's so easy to envision themselves as the savior?  

SSGers, did you know that I'm a little bit psychic? It's totally true.

I magically knew that the Hollywood Foreign Press wouldn't nominate Tiffany Haddish for her hilarious, grapefruit-abusing turn in Girls' Trip and would completely ignore Queen Sugar--one of the best shows on television (Word in the street is: they probably don't even watch them). And earlier this week, I was thinking "Why the fork hasn't Kylie Bunbury booked another TV show?"

Ask and you shall receive! (I wish Kim Zolciak-Biermann and her dusty wig would get booted for #RHOA!)

TVLine.com reports that Bunbury, lead in the woefully short-lived Pitch, has drafted to star in the ABC reboot of Get Christie Love.

Every fall, I always make a valiant attempt to watch at least one episode of every new series.  Even with DVR, I usually tap out before mid-October.  While very few pilots piqued by interest this season, even a failed tradition is a tradition.  And since I’m stubborn enough not to learn anything from the past, I’ve also decided to write as many reviews of those shows as possible. 

There are far too many TV shows and so little time,  so here are 6 reviews of new shows in 200 words or less...

​There are extraordinary hours of television that stick with you because they effect and reflect the very turmoil stirring in your own soul. The second season of Queen Sugar explored the intricately complex subject of police brutality in the black community by following baby-faced Micah West (Nicholas L. Ashe) unlawful arrest and violent mistreatment by a racist police officer.

The plot unspooled in a gut-wrenching study of tragedy, trauma, and catharsis for viewers who are concerned with far more dire things than the amount of their traffic ticket when they are stopped by police. It was far more powerful than broadcast cable's attempts (*side-eyes Chicago PD, Bluebloods and Law & Order: SUV*) because Queen Sugar’s primarily black writers and cast inherently understand the nuance, shame, and fear of existing in a country build on institutionalized racism.  It was a beautiful and intensely haunting reflection of the age-old reflection of the rule to write what you know.
 
And sadly, this is the direct opposite of showrunner Marc Guggenheim's desire to wedge a Black Lives Matter "topical episode" into season 6 of his white-boy-vigilante superhero drama, Arrow.  

When I first saw the trailer for The Bold Type, I could not contain the socket-spraining eyeroll.  For the post-The Sex And The City and The Devil Wears Prada generation, television shows and movies about chic twenty-somethings who move the The Big Apple in search of fabulousness and love at a fashion magazine are about as common as its Tuesday airdate and just as realistic as an airbrushed photo of a supermodel.

I braced myself for faux feminism, the lone minority (Sweet/Vicious' Aisha Dee) to have scraps of a storyline, and lots of pseudo-glam outfits.  

And I have never been more happy to be wrong about everything, including the fashion.  Freeform's The Bold Type is the splashy summer show that lives up to its titular promise by pairing painfully relatable drama with the provocative shot of real female empowerment. 

My idle mind is a funny place.  It may look like I'm working or normal or even sane, but most of the time, I'm thinking about really weird things, like what my life would be like as a superhero.  Though I would have to figure out ways to get rich before I'd forfeit my TGIT for saving lives, I often imagine how much easier my life would be if I could throw lightning or take a leisurely super-sonic jog to a gloriously Cheeto-free Earth (On Earth-2 Beyonce is a senator!) like The Flash's Barry Allen.
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​But Iris West, one of the only members of Team Flash who isn't a meta-human, is forever proving that black girls have a power all their own: black girl magic.

I will forever loathe Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson for patenting that hyper-intelligent super-polished manner in which teenagers in all high school dramas now speak, especially when I can only pry a few words out of my incredibly intelligent niece.
 
It's one of the very few downsides of 13 Reasons Why, Netflix's latest and possibly best series since House Of Cards.  Based on the novel by Jay Asher, 13 follows Clay Jensen's discovery of cassette tapes his friend Hannah recorded before her suicide dictating the reasons why she decided to take her own life.  It is a haunting cautionary tale about teen suicide, bullying and a rightfully scathing commentary about society as a whole.  ​
 
Overwrought dialogue aside, 13 is an unflinchingly powerful, beautifully written and expertly acted glimpse at the emotional rigors of high school life in the age of Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter--something executive producer Selena Gomez knows more than a little about.  In these times, when compassion seems to be nearing global extinction, 13 Reasons Why is should be assigned homework for everyone, parents and kids alike.

Thanks to Andy Cohen, Bravo has created some of the most decadent reality TV moments in the genre’s history.  Who can forget the ‘Who Gon' Check me Boo?’ greatness from The Real Housewives of Atlanta, the brutally of the Richards’ sisters limo fight or the ‘Scary Island’ episodes from The Real Housewives of New York that proved that truth is always more terrifying than fiction? 
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There’s another priceless gem to add to Bravo's treasure trove of entertainment: the dueling marriage conferences on Married To Medicine.  

​Here's all the tea about how this priceless event came to be...