W. Kamau Bell's 'We Need to Talk About Cosby' can be hard to watch. But it's worth it

It stands to reason that a documentary about Bill Cosby would leave viewers angry, repulsed, sickened.

That is certainly the case with “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” W. Kamau Bell’s powerful four-part Showtime documentary series about the comedian, television star, cultural icon and accused serial sex offender.

It disappoints on none of those fronts.

But there’s more to it than that. This is a look at the Cosby saga from a Black perspective, which is crucial. We hear of his influence on the Black community, Bell included. Cosby was the first Black lead in a TV series (“I Spy,” which ran from 1965-68). This after his stunning success as a stand-up comedian, appearing on late-night talk shows where Black people were typically scarce. He gave tens of millions of dollars to historically Black colleges and universities.

He mattered. He mattered a lot. In the Black community, he was a genuine hero.

And yet.

The series gets at the dichotomy of Cosby's life and work

Through nearly four hours of clips, archival footage and interviews, including people who worked with and for Cosby, and more crucially several women who say he drugged and raped them, Bell gets at the dichotomy of Cosby’s life and work.

We often talk about trying to separate the art from the artist. Woody Allen, Roman Polanski — plenty of people come immediately to mind when the dilemma comes up. “Annie Hall” and “Chinatown,” to name only two, are great movies. But how do we see them now? Do we allow ourselves to see them at all?

So it is with Cosby. The gulf between his public persona — and his genuine good works — and what he has been accused of doing is enormous. “America’s Dad” on the one hand, an accused sexual predator on the other.

As one of his accusers tells Bell, “Bill Cosby is a master of his craft, whether it be acting, comedy or raping. He is a master at it.”

Cosby's accusers tell compelling, harrowing stories

Bell uses an on-screen timeline to chart Cosby’s career, but punctuates it with interviews in which women relate harrowing stories. As a filmmaking technique, it becomes somewhat repetitive at times. But their stories are so compelling, so horrifying, that their impact is never lessened.

An uneven power dynamic in almost any situation — Cosby was for a time the biggest star in the world — gave him unlimited power in the world he moved in.

That’s what is so maddening and tragic — the women who accuse Cosby contend that a lot of people knew what was going on, and did nothing to stop it. Indeed, there were rumors for years of at least Cosby’s infidelity, which certainly flew in the face of his public reputation. There were also whispers of much worse.

It wasn’t until comedian Hannibal Buress, in a 2014 stand-up set, called Cosby a rapist, that the dam broke. (Buress is seen only in archival interviews, alas.) The grainy cellphone footage went viral, and the outcry began.

Sort of. It may be remembered differently now, but at the time there was some outrage in the Black community because many of the accusers were white. Not all, though. Eventually, the tide of public sentiment turned against Cosby. He would be convicted of sex crimes in 2018, but in 2021 the convictions were overturned on constitutional grounds.

There’s a clip of the late Norm Macdonald doing a bit onstage where he says a friend told him he thinks the worst part about Cosby is the hypocrisy.

"And I said, 'I don’t think that’s the worst part.'"

Exactly. Sometimes, the whole big-picture aspect gets in the way of our recognition that these are women who say their lives were forever altered. We have to be careful to avoid a forest-for-the-trees situation, and Bell’s film does a welcome job of keeping our focus on their lives without ignoring Cosby’s impact on the culture.

Bell acknowledges the dilemma caused by Cosby

Which was, of course, enormous. Later, Cosby would go off on Black dialect and clothing, chastising Eddie Murphy, for one, for his language onstage (Murphy addressed it in his stand-up act, profanely and effectively.) Jerry Seinfeld tells Stephen Colbert on the latter’s show that Cosby has the best body of work in the history of comedy.

Colbert tells Seinfeld in the clip that he can no longer watch or listen to Cosby. Seinfeld seems surprised and flummoxed. And that’s the dilemma.

Bell knows it. He acknowledges it. As a Black man working in stand-up, he loved Cosby.

“This is hard,” he says near the end of the series. “Honestly, there were times when I was making it when I wanted to quit.”

Thankfully, he didn’t. “We Need to Talk About Cosby” tells a story we think we know from a different perspective. It’s tough to watch sometimes, but it’s worth it.

'We Need to Talk About Cosby'

Premieres 11 p.m. Jan. 30 on Showtime.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: W. Kamau Bell's film 'We Need to Talk About Cosby' never flinches