The TV show All American is a very popular Netflix series with two seasons released. The show follows teenage football player, Spencer James, while he leaves his home in Crenshaw to play football for a rich Beverly Hills high school. Spencer fights to stay true to his hometown, and not change in the sight of excess and glamour, while the show also shows his friends dealing with their own battles. This series has a strong theme of identity. Spencer’s main internal battle is to maintain his hometown identity, and to always look out for his people back home. Other characters struggle with identity issues like living in a shadow in their parents eye, their sexuality, being biracial, and becoming poor after being rich their whole life. Spencer’s determination to not change into his Hollywood classmates focuses mostly on the social and economic class of his new town vs. his old one. The characters from Crenshaw are shown to be less wealthy, looked down upon, and have gangs in their town. The Beverly Hills kids have huge homes, nice cars, and crazy parties. While many of the other characters issues like dealing with their sexuality, parents, and being biracial, are more relatable identity problems to many teenagers watching. In this way the show can address and help many of its viewers.
The shows creator definitely wanted to play on some stereotypes- to help break them in the end. While the Beverly hills kids are rich and spoiled, they struggle with finding a sense of self, as well as dealing with drug problems. The wealthy family’s in Beverly Hills who appear perfect, dealt with deep issues and were far from having perfect relationships. Spencer being from “the hood”, is also the character with the strong moral compass and good head on his shoulders. The Crenshaw kids often intertwined with the Beverly hill high schoolers and formed relationships, and they would help each other with their problems. These were all ways the shows creator tried to fight what people would subconsciously believe about these characters, prior to seeing their plot line. This show also displays many examples of racism and injustice against the black characters. For example the main character Spencer gets frozen yogurt with his wealthy and white friends, and the store owner specifically addresses Spencer asking him to leave. The police are then called, and they side with the store owner. This was a great and subtle example of what an issue injustice is in our society, when even the authorities won’t always help. The school in Spencer’s hometown Crenshaw is also gentrified, with all of the lower income families being placed in that school’s zone. Gentrification is an extremely common way the black community experiences injustice in areas throughout the United States. Overall All American is a great show with a lot of relevant messages that relate to our society today.
