Recently, CBS dropped a bombshell by revealing that they did a remake of the classic 1980s television show that was also on CBS called “The Equalizer” by airing the pilot episode right after the football game.
Even though I normally dislike remakes of old TV shows and movies because of the fact that most remakes nowadays aren’t well received by the viewers which in turn flops badly. And much like modern day wrestling, the entertainment industry nowadays has also been heavily bit by The Nostalgia Bug which is why there are so many remakes of old TV shows and movies. However, the remake of “The Equalizer” TV series in 2021 format is one of the very few remakes that I can actually get behind.
In the 1980s, most of the viewing demographic were old middle class white men & women, but nowadays many young viewers from different ethnic backgrounds want genuine representation and diversity in the entertainment industry. The 2021 Equalizer Remake not only makes it cool again for a black female character to be badass, but also raising her daughter while seeking out her own personal redemption even though I don’t like the continuation of the “single black mother” stereotype that’s been shown in many TV shows and movies over the past several decades.
“The Equalizer” 2021 TV remake stars one of the most well known and beloved figures in the black community today in Queen Latifah who plays Robyn McCall, a former covert ops agent who’s not only a single mother to a rebellious fictional black teenage daughter named Delilah, but also suffers from a neurological condition called PTSD aka Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after a horrible operation in Venezuela went totally awry.
I personally say that Queen Latifah is absolutely perfect for the role of Robyn McCall because in the past, she has taken kickboxing classes and also rides motorcycles in real life. Her badass Robyn McCall character heavily reminds me of another badass black female character that she played named Cleo in the 1996 classic hood film “Set It Off” which was about 4 black women who were struggling to make ends meet, so they went on a bank robbery spree as means to get out of the harsh situations the system forced them to be in.
Robyn uses her skills she learned from her time in “The Service” to help the innocent, the poor, and the powerless who can’t defend themselves while she on the other hand tries to find and pursue her own personal atonement for things she did during her time in “The Service” while trying to avoid being potentially captured by a black male police detective named Marcus Dante who’s hot on her trail trying to uncover who she really is. While she does those things, she also employs the help of a few old friends who she worked with from her time in “The Service” named Melody, an Asian woman who’s a former military sniper and a white male master hacker named Harry who faked his death with Robyn’s help.
Note: One major difference between The Denzel Washington version of “The Equalizer” movies & Queen Latifah version from The 2021 TV remakes of “The Equalizer” is that Denzel Washington’s character was a lone wolf while Queen Latifah’s character is more willing to employ the help of some old friends to accomplish the task at hand.
The Conclusion - Pam Grier started the black action heroine in the 1970s with “Coffy” & “Jackie Brown”, but they have slowly started to experience a resurgence over the past few years fromLupita Nyong’o in “The 322” to Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall in “The Equalizer” 2021 TV Remake.
By Kwame Shakir
