One of the underrated joys of Netflix and the 75 other streaming services out there is that you can spend a whole week just reliving your childhood. Want to watch every single Friends episode ever made? Go for it! Want to revisit Urkel and the rest of the Family Matters gang to remember a simpler time in your life? Nobody's stopping you! It's not like you have a job or anything.
And it's good to get a break from modern TV, because that shit has gotten dark. Jessica Jones is a superhero show about rape and PTSD, Breaking Bad fucking murdered a child, and Game Of Thrones has done more horrible things to princesses than Disney stepmothers. But here's the thing: When you go back to relive those innocent days of the '80s and '90s, you start to realize this stuff wasn't nearly as light-hearted as you remember. On your next binge-watching session you'll probably be surprised to find ...
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Family Matters Deals With Some Seriously Dark Racial Issues
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
The sitcom Family Matters is best remembered today because of Steve Urkel, Jaleel White's wacky, catchphrase-spewing character who drove the show's ratings way up at the expense of its credibility. Today, that's what people remember about Family Matters -- it's that wacky show in which Urkel does things like travel back in time to hang out on a pirate ship.
But Family Matters started out as a show about the Winslows, a middle-class African-American family dealing with racial issues. Those dark storylines continued to play out in the background even during the reign of Steve "constantly confused about his own culpability" Urkel. For example, in the depressingly relevant Season 5 episode "Good Cop, Bad Cop," Eddie Winslow gets pulled over and arrested by a racist cop for failing to signal. Later, his father, Carl Winslow (himself a cop), confronts the arresting officer and confirms that, yup, Eddie was arrested for being black in a white neighborhood. He then gets told that there's no way anyone can prove it, so he and his kid can piss off.
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"Now, if you'll excuse me, my order of Bag O'Dicks is getting cold, so ..."
In another episode, Carl's daughter Laura has the audacity to encourage people to learn more about black history during Black History Month. In return, she gets told to "go back to Africa" and has the N-word written on her locker.
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
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