I'm reading so many comments on how folks are disappointed with the direction of #TheChi. On the one hand, I get it. The show started as this daring, prestige, drama on the level of an HBO show, and n

ow it's not that...AT ALL!

On the other hand, some of y'all really need to stop watching if you hate it THAT much! 😂

But for real, the reason the show isn't what it should be is because Black people don't get any respect. Or as Kenya Barris put it...because of slavery.

In my estimation, the last really good season of the show was Season 3, the pandemic season of 2020. That was also the last season that had any proximity to the show's origins at Fox Entertainment. In

2019, Fox Corp sold all of its entertainment assets, including this show, to Disney. Almost the entire time since, Disney has been trying to get its house in order, figuring out costs, brand, new app

s, old apps, buying Hulu, selling ESPN, etc.

It's been a mess.

But one of the things they have appeared to figure out is that investing in The Chi, when the main benefactor is another network (Paramount/ShowTime), is not something they're interested in. They want

all the money, all the subs, all the awards on the shows they put out to be in service of Hulu and Disney+. They're not trying to help out Shari Redstone, especially with a Black show, given that Red

stone/Paramount also owns BET. And by the way, Paramount also doesn't care too much for promoting a show on its network that it doesn't own the IP to.

And so that's the reason the show looks like this. It's not solely because there have been a series of bad creative decisions—although, clearly there have been some—but the real issue is the show isn'

t being given the resources to be great.

I've got no evidence, but everything about this show suggests they're not getting the resources they need.

First, they're putting out new seasons every year—that's not something we see from prestige shows anymore. Really good shows with sought-after talent just can't make 10 episodes every 365 days. The st

udio knows this, so it's only a disregard for Black content and talent that lets them get away with this.

Second, they constantly put their best (or most popular) actors on the shelf and lean on what I presume are the lower-waged talent. Characters like Kevin, Ronnie, Jada, Douda, Dre, Jerrika, Dom, Tracy

, and (yes) Brandon, all saw their roles removed or reduced. I know some of those names had other issues, but for the most part, many of these decisions likely came down to money.

Lastly, you can tell from the writing they don't have the time or creative (i.e. financial) freedom to tell the best story. They know that Dre's exit was inexplicable. This finale was so vanilla it wa

s hard to watch. And the speed at which they had to hurry through Douda's timeline at the end was unforgivable. How the hell was he suicidal all of a sudden?!?!?! This is a clear sign they don't care

about you: the BLACK AUDIENCE!

Anyway, I say all of that just to give my two cents on what's going on and call it for what it is: yet another Black show not getting the resources it needs to succeed.

If Disney (and Paramount) really valued this show, they'd be throwing money at something like this that once had the opportunity to be Emmy-worthy for years to come. Instead, a change of ownership, a

disregard for the Black audience, and a lack of respect for Black content led this show down the wrong path. For that, I blame not the show, I blame the system.