Damaged Goods
Damaged Goods (2019)
Created and directed by: Vincent Martell
Written by: Vincent Martell, Zak Payne, KB Woodson
Has Hollywood sanitized stories about young people of color?
Watching Damaged Goods (available on YouTube), you might start to think so. Creator by Vincent Martell, the drama series follows four young Chicagoans who are defying model minority stereotypes. Many studio films and series are afraid to show Black, Asian, and queer people doing/selling drugs, having casual sex, lacking ambition or direction, or pushing back on people in power.
Nominated for Webby, Streamy, and Queerty Awards, Damaged Goods exudes an unapologetic energy that is exceedingly rare for a series with its level of production value. Vincent, supported by cinematographer Hannah Welever, created a series where rich and vibrant colors stand out amid an often dark mise-en-scene. The visuals speak to the themes of how these diverse characters have so much life to give but find themselves in dark circumstances, which is only sometimes their fault.
These characters are admittedly flawed. Caleb (Chufue Yang) opens the series partying all night, showing up late for work stoned, offering to sleep with his boss to keep his job: “I would do anything to remain an employee at this establishment,” he tells his boss flatly, as if to suggest they both knew this was always a possibility. It doesn’t work.
Ezra (Nosakhere Cash O’Bannon) starts his journey as a weed dealer invited to sell meth by an Uber rider, a decision that later costs him his relationship with his roommate Marlo (Abena Boamah). Marlo, to her credit, appears to be holding the group together. She’s a yoga influencer who focuses on women of color, helping them heal from the systems that would “distract” them and throw them off balance, like financial worries, terrible bosses and jobs, and….
“White people! Yeah, they’re a distraction,” she says as they attempt tree pose.
Marlo’s wisdom benefits Sanavi (Aashvi Patel), who is sexually assaulted by her boss. Sanavi processes with Marlo and blames herself, even for what she wore. Marlo tells her to stop: “this shit happens all the time…it’s not your fault.” Sanavi eventually gains some courage.
Throughout the show the characters support each other in all kinds of ways, both in friendship and romance. In Damaged Goods there’s a feeling that anything can happen, from the shocking to the sweet.
There’s something healing in allowing people of color to be deeply flawed, somewhat immature, and yet still capable of having friendship and love, even if neither is simple. It’s a bittersweet tone that Martell shares with the work of his executive producers Sam Bailey and Fatimah Asghar (co-creators of Brown Girls) and continues in his next work, Finesse, which is similar in style and tone to Damaged Goods. Finesse sees Vincent in front of the camera with co-stars Jeez Loueez and Jaren Merrell a.k.a Shea Couleé (Lipstick City) in a series that more deeply emphasizes the healing power of friendship amid the precarious lives of young Black people.