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Posthumous work can be tricky to assess, but Clean Slate, executive produced by the late great television icon Norman Lear, radiates his signature warmth and intelligence. The creator of American TV comedies that came to define the 70s, including All in the Family, Good Times and The Jeffersons, had in the past decade returned to our living rooms. He executive produced the feisty feminist remake of his sitcom One Day at a Time, which brought the legendary Rita Moreno back to our screens, and had signed on to Clean Slate at the time of his death. Lear’s signatures of complicated family relationships, progressive politics and endless empathy is all over his final project, which is a testimony to his ability to make TV that was fun, funny and radical.
Unlike many of his previous shows, Clean Slate is a multicamera sitcom without a laugh track; it follows Desiree Slate (Orange Is the New Black’s break-out star Laverne Cox), a glamorous art gallerist who finds herself single, broke and forced to leave New York to return to her childhood home in Alabama. She moves in with her cantankerous father Harry Slate (standup legend George Wallace), who is surprised to learn that his estranged son has transitioned, although, as she points out: “I’ve always been Desiree.”
The reunited pair set out to mend their relationship, and Harry is surprised but immediately open to this new dynamic. Though he frequently slips up when it comes to pronouns and comprehending Desiree’s passion for art, he is never hateful. Harry willingly puts five bucks in a jar every time he accidentally misgenders his offspring, and is defiant in the face of anyone who questions her transition. The pair have a charming chemistry, with Cox landing pithy zingers about Beyoncé, while Wallace strikes a perfect balance between joviality and cutting people down to size with acerbic one-liners. Frequently on the receiving end of his sharp tongue is his car-wash colleague, reformed con Mack (Jay Wilkison); Harry reminds him that his recent incarceration is the only interesting thing about him. Mack, in turn, is regularly accompanied by the sitcom staple of a precocious teenage daughter, who quickly bonds with Desiree after considerately asking what pronouns she prefers. Also true to classic sitcom form, there is a simmering will-they-won’t-they between Desiree and Mack.
As sweet and cosy as this show frequently is, it stops short of Hallmark-level schmaltz. Alabama is not always “trying to roll with” its queer inhabitants as Harry does: the bigoted Pastor Hughes (Keith Arthur Bolden) meets Desiree’s and her queer friend Louis’s (DK Uzoukwu) identities with hostility. But Cox is such an enchanting presence, it’s wholly convincing that almost everyone else she encounters is charmed by her. The show doesn’t treat Desiree or her transness as a curiosity or a punchline, instead poking gentle fun at her art world pretentiousness and reliance on therapy speak and astrology.
Cox and Wallace, alongside Dan Ewen, are credited as creators of the show, and the sitcom plays to their specific strengths; their characters are very much in line with their public personae of sassy glamazon and funny truth teller, respectively. But true to Lear’s previous work, these are comedy antics grounded in a social conscience, and at times its delivery is heavy-handed. In its weakest moments this includes clunky dialogue such as: “The best thing you can do is go where you are wanted and get what you want.”
Still, even when it lacks subtlety, the show’s characters and story are just so darn lovable it’s impossible to resist its cosy delights. The combination of low-stakes comfort and little seen representation feels simultaneously like an old-school delight and a refreshing piece of progress. In a time where queer identity is increasingly politicised and under threat, Clean Slate is a welcome antidote: a charming story that allows Cox to show off her innate magnetism. Her work as an activist and as an actor has been at the forefront of trans representation, and her leading a sitcom on Prime Video executive produced by one of the greats is a testament to the cultural cachet she has built over the past two decades. Although Norman Lear passed away at the end of 2023 at the grand old age of 101, before Desiree and Harry’s antics were filmed, watching these eight episodes you can’t help feel that he would be proud of the Slate clan and his continuing legacy.
