‘Blindspotting’ takes on the criminal justice system with the people left on the outside
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It’s not only those behind bars who are trapped by incarceration.
“Blindspotting,” the Oakland, California-based Starz comedy, which premiered Sunday and serves as a sequel to the 2018 movie of the same name, stays almost exclusively on the other side of the prison walls, focusing on those left to pick up the pieces.
At its heart is Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones), a suddenly single mother after her partner Miles (Rafael Casal, reprising his role from the film) is busted for drug possession.
“It’s a story that was about watching Ashley decide and struggle with and commit to what life is now and deal with all the ramifications of a prison system that is a very tricky one to navigate,” “Hamilton” alum Daveed Diggs, who wrote and executive produced the show alongside Casal, told the Daily News.
“We get to see the effects of the prison industrial complex on people who are not incarcerated. How it’s affecting families and whole communities.”
After Miles’ arrest, Ashley lands in the tornado of her mother-in-law’s house, now with her own son Sean and Miles’ half-sister Trish. Across the street is her best friend Janelle and her new roommate Earl.
At best, the living arrangements are chaotic: Trish is running a business out of the living room, Ashley is living on the couch, and Earl is walking around with an extension cord attached to his ankle monitor.
Ashley, though, only cares about her son.
“She’s not perfect and she’s kind of the unsung hero without a cape,” Jones, who co-starred in “Hamilton” with Diggs, told The News.
“She doesn’t have any powers but her emotions and how she handles situations is her superpower. There are a lot of women out there like this and a lot of their stories don’t get told and we don’t see their perspective and how they handle these situations beautifully but not perfectly.”
Ashley, over the years, has put up a wall, hardened by her circumstances. Sometimes she takes it out on herself, sometimes on those trying to help, sometimes on a hotel room with a tennis racket. When she can’t express her emotions, “Blindspotting” uses verse and dance to do it for her, taking advantage of Jones’ talents and the art of local Oakland choreographers Lil Buck and Jon Boogz.
For Diggs and Casal, both Bay Area natives, showcasing their hometown on screen was as important to “Blindspotting” as Ashley’s story itself, from the taco trucks to the sideshows. After the Golden State Warriors won the NBA championship in 2018, Casal took Jones to a parade to give her a taste of what a joyous Oakland looks like.
Where it would be easy for “Blindspotting” to lose itself in the trauma of incarceration, its writers and actors took an active choice not to do that.
“This show is an example of resilience. A lot of times, people just assume that those who are incarcerated will act a certain way or the choices they make will be the same choices that led to them getting incarcerated,” Candace Nicholas-Lippman, who plays Janelle, told The News.
“With this show, we’re opening your eyes to show these people are human. There is rehabilitation. There is reform. There is still joy in the midst of all the sorrow and all the hardship. There is so much power in community and knowing that those who have been incarcerated are not alone, that those who love you are still here. We’re still rocking with you. Those mistakes do not define you. There’s always a chance to redefine yourself.”
Helen Hunt, playing Miles’ cool mom Rainey, viewed the show as a gift to the real families going through the same dilemma as Rainey and Ashley.
“Mass incarceration does exactly what it’s supposed to do: tear people apart,” she told The News. “This is a musical comedy about people resisting that and crawling on their bellies toward each other.”
Not all is dreary in “Blindspotting.” The show takes great care to showcase Oakland at its finest, with its dance and its art and its soul. Its heart, though, comes from Ashley.
“When we talked about what Miles and Ashley’s relationship was going to be like. We don’t want to have some terribly dysfunctional relationship. We don’t want to have something that we’re just waiting for it to fall apart. ... We do want hope at the center of it. We want to watch them try to endure a villain that is not some villain between the two of them, but is an external industry of the prison industrial complex and that’s the thing that they have to weather,” Casal told The News.
“We’re watching a community of family and friends rally around somebody to endure that and weather the storm of that is an inherently hopeful thing to watch. Many families do endure that and come out the other end but it is a trial. It is a painful process. We wanted to not rob that of its truth as well.”
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