Queen Sugar
“The love between all the characters of Queen Sugar is uniquely palpable.”
Title: Queen Sugar
Episodes Reviewed: Season 1, Episodes 1-6
Creator: Ava DuVernay 👩🏾🇺🇸
Writers: Screenplays by Ava DuVernay 👩🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), Tina Mabry 👩🏾🇺🇸🌈 (1 ep), Jason Wilborn 👨🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), Kay Oyegun 👩🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), Anthony Sparks 👨🏾🇺🇸 (1 ep), and Melissa Carter 👩🏼🇺🇸 (1 ep), based on the novel by Natalie Baszille 👩🏾🇺🇸
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻 🇺🇸
Technical: 4/5
Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar is well-written, beautifully shot, and relatable. It uses earthy textures and muted color palettes to convey a rich world that reflects deep roots between characters, plus meaningful relationships with the land that they farm. While the writing has a melodramatic quality that won’t work for everyone, and as of the first six episodes it's revealing a habit of starting plot devices that aren’t seen through, I still find myself deeply invested. The love between all the flawed, complicated, and beautiful characters of the Bordelon family is uniquely palpable, and it warms the heart to watch.
Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
Most of the main characters are women, so they get a lot of air time. Meanwhile, the male characters are equally round. Originally airing on Oprah’s OWN network, Queen Sugar knows its target demographic and serves them well, without pandering.
* I kept track of female vs male voices for S01E03 and the spread was 48% Female vs 52% Male (13:11mins vs 14:19mins)–impressively close to the United States ratio of 50.4% females to 49.6% males.
Race: 5/5
Queen Sugar focuses on an African American family who display a range of personalities, body shapes, and skin tones. In recurring roles, we also meet a Latina and a white man. And a quick flash of East Asian fishmongers are portrayed warmly and non-stereotypically, demonstrating the series’ overall commitment to humanizing characters across underrepresented communities.
LGBTQ: 4.5/5
In a deft move, writers have a young boy, Blue Bordelon (Ethan Hutchison), carry around a doll as his favorite toy. His subtle crossing of gender norms is treated with easy acceptance by his extended family, who voice no concern over it. Yet later, we see Blue’s father, Ralph Angel Bordelon (Kofi Siriboe), gently discourage his son from bringing the doll to school, showing complexity in what it means to be a good parent. Do you let your child be himself, or do you try and protect him from the outside world by preemptively adjusting his behavior, teaching him how to code switch from a young age?
In addition to its portrayal of inclusive parenting, Queen Sugar stars an openly bisexual character, Nova Bordelon (Rutina Wesley). Queer storylines have yet to be fleshed out though; as of Episode 6, there have only been a couple of references to her sexuality.
Mediaversity Grade: A- 4.63/5
Queen Sugar is such a compelling show. It isn’t perfect, with the writing veering a bit heavy-handed, but strong performances and inclusive storytelling will draw you right in.
Like Queen Sugar? Try these other family-focused dramas.
The Devil You Know (2022)
Good Trouble - Seasons 1-3
This Is Us - Season 1