Stream It Or Skip It: ‘South Side’ On Comedy Central, Where Two Friends Try To Make It In Their Chicago Neighborhood

Shows about working-class neighborhoods are as old as TV, but it seems that there’s a whole bunch of shows about working class people in previously marginalized neighborhoods. What they all have in common is that the people are proud to be from their neighborhood, no matter how rough, and all strive to rise above and be one of the few who do well despite growing up in such a rough environment. South Side is the latest in this genre. Read on for more…

SOUTH SIDE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A report about a tragedy near a community college in the Chicago neighborhood of Englewood. As a reporter does a live shot from the scene, two guys in graduation gowns interrupt to show all the viewers they graduated.

The Gist: The two buddies are Simon James (Sultan Salahuddin) and Kareem “K” Odom (Kareme Young), who have big plans for their associate degrees; Simon wants to work in corporate America and Kareem wants to be an astronaut. What they both want to do is stop working at the Rent-T-Own store owned by Kareem’s brother Quincy “Q” Odom (Quincy Young). But things get tough when they can’t get past things like Simon being accused of missing child support payments.

Q brings in two cops, Sargent Turner (Chandra Russell), who’s from the neighborhood, and her partner, Officer Goodnight (Bashir Salahuddin), who’s from the suburbs, as a bit of protection when the crew goes out to pick up stuff that people have stopped paying for. But Simon and K don’t want to pay into the pool for protection, and Q tells them to go get an XBox from a guy who’s so dangerous that he scared a former Marine into quitting the RTO store. They refuse and quit — well, Simon quits and K just follows his buddy.

Simon uses his skills to get a white-collar job typing things and fetching coffee. But four hours into it, his boss gets the background check report and has to fire him. When he comes back to RTO asking for his job back, Q sends Simon and K to get that XBox back. But that dude, who has no intention of giving the XBox back, instead shows Simon and Q how he gets ahead in a neighborhood that tends to keep its residents down, which gives Simon the idea of selling Viagra on the street.

Our Take: South Side is the latest entry in a trend we’re seeing; shows about the South Side of Chicago by South Siders, with the neighborhoods being one of the stars of the show. Bashir Salahuddin and Diallo Riddle, both of whom worked on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, write and produce the series with fellow Fallon alum Michael Blieden, the show’s premiere had a couple of big laughs, but more than anything started to build a world, with K, Simon and the Rent-T-Own shop being at the center of it all.

Like Lena Waithe’s The Chi, South Side gives a look at a part of Chicago that people coming to visit Wrigley Field and the Willis Tower never visit, where people struggle but still have a sense of pride in their neighborhood. Simon and K want to transcend the struggles everyone has there, but know that they may have to get creative in order to do so.

We already know how RTO places take advantage of people who want things like TVs and decent furniture but don’t have credit, but it’s an interesting place to serve as the center of a show, considering that K’s brother is the one running the place. It shows that business is business, even if it’s people from the neighborhood taking advantage of other people from the neighborhood. It’ll be fun to watch Simon and K try to break out of that life but keep coming back when they get thwarted. Maybe by the end of the season, one or both will be able to quit for good.

Sex and Skin: K and Simon go to a party with some strippers.

Parting Shot: Simon: “To entrepreneurship, bro!” K: “To beyond infinity” This is after they establish their new Viagra business with a friend who can get it from the VA.

Sleeper Star: Lil Rel Howery plays a suck-up employee of Rent-T-Own named Bishop. Surprised to see him playing a guest role, but in the limited time he’s on screen, he’s pretty funny, especially when he talks about a clown saving Simon’s life at a kid’s party because Simon can’t swim. “He came out with his regular face and scared the kids!”

Most Pilot-y Line: It’s a funny line, but when Turner gets out of her cop car to say hi to a hot dad she sees cross the street, she says “I’m got to get mines, and I’m gonna go get this dick.” Maybe it’s just a way to say that Turner’s a good cop, but she’s still from Ridgewood. But it felt a bit extreme.

Our Call: STREAM IT. South Side is a funny look at people who love their neighborhood but know it’s going to keep them down if they don’t do something about it.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream South Side on Comedy Central