“The Vince Staples Show” review: The rapper makes magic with this dark, offbeat comedy
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"Norf Norf" rapper Vince Staples plays a version of himself in the new Netflix series.
Vince Staples is a rapper, and now he plays one on TV — barely. In Netflix’s The Vince Staples Show, the 30-year-old stars as himself — the performer behind hip-hop hits like "Big Fish" and "Magic" — but this scripted comedy isn’t really interested in the music industry. Dubbed a “limited series of satirical tales” by the streamer, The Vince Staples Show is a dark, hilarious, intriguingly frank, and kinda-sorta-autobiographical story of a guy from Long Beach, Calif., who just wants to make it through the day without incident.
The brief season — an expansion of the digital series Staples released online in 2019 — consists of five episodes, none longer than 26 minutes. Fittingly, Staples and showrunner Ian Edelman waste little time with exposition in the premiere, which simply drops viewers into a holding cell with Vince after he’s picked up for an illegal U-turn. Whether he’s dealing with law enforcement, trying to get a small business loan, or attending a family reunion with his temperamental mother, Anita (Vanessa Bell Calloway), Staples’ celebrity is always in the background. One cop (Bryan Greenberg) sarcastically greets the rapper with his own verse: “I ain’t never run from nothin’ but the police.” But fictional Vince, much like his real-life counterpart, seems to view his music career with a pragmatism that borders on detachment. “It’s just my job, for real,” he tells a cellmate. “You know, I’ve never even had an iPod.”
Courtesy of Netflix
For those who don’t know much about Vince Staples (as I didn’t), the basics are easy to glean from the premiere: Growing up in Long Beach, he had regular run-ins with the law, but that’s behind him now — or so he hopes. Vince longs for a quiet-ish life, one where he can earn a living and come home to his nurse girlfriend, Deja (Andrea Ellsworth), for dinner and a night of TV on the couch. But the world fights against him. The Vince Staples Show depicts a Long Beach where threats are ubiquitous, and danger is routine to the point of mundane. (“Remember, beach buddies, report violence before you retaliate!” a chipper voice announces over the PA during Vince and Deja’s visit to Surf City amusement park.)
Though each episode is self-contained, one theme is consistent: Your past is always present. For Vince, sometimes this can be fortuitous. In “Black Business,” already one of the best episodes of this very young year, the rapper finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery — but it turns out that one of the armed assailants is his old friend from the neighborhood. “How you livin’, dawg?” asks the bank robber (scene-stealer Myles Bullock). He and Vince have a friendly catch-up chat as the other gunmen round up customers in the lobby. While the terrified hostages wait for rescue, Vince uses his relationship with the thieves as leverage to strike a deal with the snooty bank manager (Matt Oberg).
Sometimes, the past leads to explosive family discord. When Anita learns that cousin Paulette (Staci Lynn Fletcher) also brought mac and cheese to the barbecue, she spends the entire afternoon trying to avenge the betrayal. “That bitch done had it out for me since ’88,” she growls. (If exec producer Kenya Barris is looking for spinoff options, I’d watch a whole season of Calloway’s fierce and uproarious Anita doing pretty much anything.)
Ser Baffo/Netflix
Vince Staples and Myles Bullock in 'The Vince Staples Show'The Vince Staples Show is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, but there’s a hardness to it — and the series’ protagonist — that feels both unexpected and authentic. Staples, who oozed mellow charm as Maurice on Abbott Elementary, brings a resigned stoicism to this fictionalized version of himself. The rapper doesn't allow the show to idealize his alter ego. TV Vince can be a jerk, and he doesn’t always do the right thing when presented with a choice — he does what’s best for him.
The season is too short to allow for a fully fleshed-out character arc, but it successfully conveys Vince’s realization that while the way he sees the world has changed, the way others see him probably won’t. The cops in Long Beach want tickets to his next show, but they also confuse him for another Black man who’s got a warrant for assault. And after Vince is invited to speak to high schoolers at his alma mater, a decades-old grudge with the dad of a current student sends his afternoon into life-or-death chaos. The finale ends on a bleak note, which is in keeping with the comedy’s undercurrent of fatalism.
Staples is creatively restless, and he regularly explores outlets beyond music. (In addition to acting, he also published a graphic novel, Limbo Beach, in 2022.) There’s a decent chance The Vince Staples Show will be a one-and-done project for the artist, which would be a shame. But to paraphrase one of his catchiest singles, we should just be glad that he did it; it was magic. Grade: A
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The Vince Staples Show premieres Thursday, Feb. 15, on Netflix.
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