A Bittersweet Goodbye: Insecure Comes To An End

To say goodbye to a show like Insecure is so bittersweet

After five amazing seasons, Insecure has come to an end. Black femmes/womxn everywhere are grieving the loss of Issa, Molly, and Thug Yoda. Over the last five years, Issa and her team have managed to speak and connect with an entire generation. The mess-ups. Figuring out your career and love life. How difficult maintaining friendships can be, even when you value them so much. She put into words what it feels like to be a young millennial figuring out life. Her awkwardness hit home for so many. 

*Spoilers for the final season of Insecure ahead*

What the last season meant to me, and so many others

I followed Insecure since my senior year of college, binging the first two seasons in my college bedroom. This new but familiar world made me a loyal follower and I watched it all. The ups and downs. The lessons in friendship, love, and life. 

This season meant a lot to me. Every Sunday, my girlfriend and I sat in my tiny studio apartment to watch. We laughed and cried without fail every week. We saw characters we loved and identified with so much get amazing endings. 

What Insecure meant to Sombre (they/them)

“Seeing a black cast, with black topics and black issues makes me feel less alone in the world. As a black femme with ADHD, the scenes where Issa does the awkward s*** made me so happy to see because it was a representation of things I go through.”

What Insecure meant to Shae (she/her)

“Insecure left a mark in its own way. Having a Black woman on the frontline, a woman who doesn’t fit the Hollywood stereotype of what they believe a Black woman should look like. Lighter, more exotic to others. Insecure shows Black women living life, working, but also having real-life problems.”

 

The show was unafraid to tackle big issues

Throughout the seasons, Insecure brought up issues like mental health and postpartum depression. Nathan’s battle as a Black man was displayed in an honest way. He wasn’t perfect and made countless mistakes. But he also held himself accountable and I truly believe he loved and gave Issa everything he could. 

Last season Tiffany’s arc included her battling postpartum depression after she gave birth to her daughter, Symone. The episode showed how important it is to have a support system. 

The backbone of Insecure is the relationships

The backbone of Insecure is the relationships between the characters, particularly, between Molly and Issa. They’re the love story we tuned in to watch every week. When they hit a rough patch in season 4, it was so relatable. As we grow into the people we are meant to be, maintaining relationships is the hardest part of the journey. Every one of us is on a different path and sometimes those paths line up, and sometimes they don’t. The show depicted that crossroad so clearly and when the two of them finally figured things out I was relieved. I have my own friendships that go through similar ups and downs and I hope we always come out on the other side as graceful as Molly and Issa did.

Season 5 wrapped up these characters’ storylines with more of an ellipse rather than a period. Molly gets married and has the life she dreamed of since season 1, getting everything she ever wanted. Her character grew so much from that first episode. She went to therapy, did self-work, and talked to her girls. I was happy to see her get her happy ending. 

Sombre’s (they/them) perspective: 

“Seeing Molly’s growth from beginning to end was an emotional roller coaster, but one that I think a lot of black femmes relate to because we are a lot of the time, preconditioned to have our guard up at all times and it becomes so normal to us that we don’t realize when that guard is getting in the way of our own happiness/success.”

And Issa finally left behind her inner voice for a new future with Lawrence. By the way, I was team Issa. I don’t think she should have chosen either Lawrence or Nathan although I think there is a lesson in Issa choosing Lawrence. Love isn’t always a linear path. Sometimes you have to let go and grow separately in order to be together. 

We can still ask for more

Now although Insecure is an amazing show, there are still some critiques to be had. Kelli never got a real storyline. They threw her a baby and baby daddy before wrapping up, but her character was either being funny or revolved around Tiffany the entire series. I wish that we could have seen more of her as a person and partner, rather than constant comic relief.

Another critique of the show is its lack of LGBTQIA+ representation. Aside from Issa’s brother, the queer community was rarely seen on the show.

Shae’s (she/her) perspective: 

“I think sometimes it misses its mark about queerness, particularly a Black gay community. I really love this series, but as a Black trans woman, I can only relate to a piece of the show. We should be more than a homeboy or brother outside of the main circle. When it comes down to things like that it gets lost in translation. We need to have a big layout for the Black gay community in shows.”

As much as we hold this show dear to us, we still can critique it and ask for more. Queer storylines should and deserve to be told.

The show reminded me of other Black legendary classics like A Different World and Living Single. Shows where we got to see multiple Black people and perspectives. We are not a monolith and shows that show just how beautiful and expansive our culture is should be bubble wrapped and protected. 

Shows like A Different World, Living Single, and Insecure only come around once a decade it seems. Hopefully, we don’t have to wait that long to see another grace our screens. 

About Brianna Milon

Brianna is a local media professional who loves writing, watching Netflix, and playing with her dog, Weenie and her cat, Fancy. She studied Journalism and Broadcasting at SUNY Brockport and was heavily involved in the campus radio station. Brianna also co-hosts a radio show, “Fat, Black, and Femme”, on 100.9 WXIR. You can find out more on Facebook and Blogspot.