“You get pulled over by a cop, he's not going to see your little ranking system,” she tells Kemi. This sparked a reaction from a black coworker. This latter point isn’t obvious if you’re white, but there’s been quite a bit of chatter online about the scene in the third episode where Kemi ranked men’s ethnic backgrounds in terms of their marriage prospects. Some critics have charged the show with dealing in “outdated stereotypes” and promoting bigotry. And a big storyline in the show’s first 11 episodes involves a competitive suitor for Abishola, a pharmacist from another Nigerian tribe who has a successful pharmacy business, big ambitions, and an ego to match. When the Nigerians quarrel, they sometimes switch from English to Yoruba, the language of their home tribe. The sitcom sets that get the most workouts on this show are the Nigerians’ apartment, Bob’s home, the sock factory, the hospital, and the bus Abishola and Kemi take to and from work. The other unusual aspect of Bob (Hearts) Abishola is that the comedy is pretty evenly split between these American and Nigerian perspectives. “Nigerians don’t do useless things,” Abishola snaps. Bob discovers this on their first date when, trying to make small talk, he asks if she has any hobbies. Long days, hard work, her struggle is real. At work Abishola leans on her best friend Kemi for support. She and the couple’s only child moved in with her Uncle Tunde and Aunt Olu. He returned to Nigeria, effectively ending their union. She emigrated years ago with her husband, but the struggle proved to be more than their marriage could stand. This is Abishola, played by Folake Olowofoyeku. And rather than looking for another large-sized soulmate, Bob has eyes for an average-sized, dark-skinned woman who speaks English as her third language and, when she’s not caring for his medical needs, appears to care not a whit about him. Only this time, he plays a middle-aged, divorced man with a family business to support, a less-than-supportive mom, and two dead-weight younger siblings. Now Gardell is back, as Bob on Bob (Hearts) Abishola. His deadpan delivery and stoic absorption of all those fat jokes lent real humanity to a role that could easily have been two-dimensional. I always thought his role on Mike & Molly was underappreciated. McCarthy would later jump to the movies, leaving Gardell at the altar of network television. That’s why Dharma and Greg got married in the pilot, and why it didn’t take long for Billy Gardell’s Mike to jump in the sack with Melissa McCarthy’s Molly. TV networks like CBS prefer fast-percolating episodes that can air in almost any order. In other words, it’s a slow build, one seemingly better suited to a streaming show like Kominsky Method. While recovering, he falls hard for his Nigerian nurse, Abishola. Seeing his name in the opening credits, to me, is like slapping a sticker on the show that says “GUARANTEED LOLS.”īut here’s the setup: Bob is a compression-sock manufacturer in Detroit. He’s the most successful comedy producer of our time. Lorre is merely responsible for The Big Bang Theory, Two And a Half Men, The Kominsky Method, Dharma & Greg, Mike & Molly, Grace Under Fire, Cybill, and Mom. That’s because I’m a sucker for any comedy produced by Chuck Lorre - you know, the guy who flashes little messages to the audience on his vanity cards. So, a disclaimer at the outset: I’m pretty much the target audience for Bob (Hearts) Abishola.
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