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Reed Between the Lines - new sitcom with homeschooling positively featured


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It's a new sitcom on BET featuring Malcolm Jamal Warner (aka Theo from the Cosby Show, but all grown up) and Tracy Ellis Ross (Diana Ross's daughter). They play the parents of three children, two older high schoolers and a 7 year old that is... homeschooled! The older ones are in a brick and mortar high school (maybe they were homeschooled through middle school - unclear so far).

 

It's a cute show (I'm watched 3 episodes), not stellar but not horrible. Apparently, it's getting good reviews. Homeschooling is shown in a positive light, and 2 of the 3 episodes made some direct reference to homeschooling. In one, the daughter receives results back from the NY board of ed that she's passed or exceeded the requirements to move up to 2nd grade and her siblings high five her. In another, the dad - who is the primary homeschooling parent - has given her spelling words to study. When she finishes, she says something like, "If my school is here, why do we call it homework? Shouldn't it just be called work?" It was cute.

 

The family is definitely "Cosby-esque" - positive values, no put downs, showing African American families in a normative light, etc... Makes sense, Malcolm Jamal Warner is the Executive Producer, and I'm sure his years on the Cosby show were a great influence.

 

I'm hearing through my networks (Mocha Moms organization) that the lead writer for the show is a dad in a homeschooling family (though, IRL, the mom must be the homeschooling parent).

 

Just wondering if anyone else has seen it, and what you think?

Edited by Slojo's Homeschool
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I haven't seen it, but I like Malcolm Jamal Warner (I really liked him in Jeremiah), so I'll have to check it out.

 

Would kids like it?

 

My kids are too young to watch anything other than Nick Jr or PBS, so I'm still figuring out when they get to move up to other types of shows. I think it is comparable to the Cosby Show in terms of content/basic message, though I do think they've made the parents' characters a bit too "love muffiny" now that I think about it. Nothing inappropriate in the context of a committed married couple, but there is occasional flirteaous banter between the husband and wife about "later" - nothing explicit, and one scene where the husband gave the wife a love pat on her rear. I guess it's about the same as Claire and Cliff's flirting if I remember my Cosby shows correctly.

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