“Brown Girls,” released in 2017 by Fatima Assghar, tells the story of a friendship between Pakistani-American and African-American women dealing with adulthood issues. Because the writer and director are both women of color, the series wanted to capture the reality of Brown women and accurately represent them.
There are seven episodes in this comedy series and throughout them we see Leila and Patricia, the two main characters, dealing with issues such as sexual identity, self-worth and love. Both characters share a gay friend named Victor who, despite his small role, is kind of like their advisor.
The show begins with Leila fighting with her Dominican girlfriend, Miranda, because she is not ready to come out yet, so as a result they break up. Later on the episode we are briefly introduced to Patricia, but her story is further developed in the next episode. Patricia is trying to make a career as a musician and focus on herself after she broke up with her ex, Brandon, for quite awhile now.
An interesting fact is that there was no White people in the cast which is not something we are accustomed to watch on a comedy series. However, the creators intended this as they wanted to show both of these women who are trying to keep afloat with their problems, but also the importance of representation on the TV and being able to see groups that are marginalized support each other.
I really recommend this show because there is an authentic portrayal of Brown women on a platform where they are normally underrepresented. Since the episodes are very short you can watch it in less than 2 hours!