12. Forever
Pain has become such an inevitability in almost all Black stories told on TV that Forever’s pure love story is refreshing. Keisha Clark (Lovie Simone) and Justin Edwards’s (Michael Cooper Jr.) young love is a lens through which the Mara Brock Akil-created drama explores the weight of generational expectations, the psychological effects of revenge porn, and the detective skills of a young woman searching for her love. What it excels at most is staying true to its authentic heart, without overt attempts to overly complicate its characters and story with unnecessary deaths and trauma that distract from what makes it great. Forever is a coming-of-age story at its best.
