--- title: "Insecure" year: 2016 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/insecure" fi1m_score: 81 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-17T03:22:51.587538+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T03:23:14.035065+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Insecure (2016) Created by Issa Rae, Larry Wilmore · MPA TV-MA · Comedy, Drama **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 79 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Everyone is nearly thirty and lying, and only the bathroom mirror gets the truth, in verse > Issa Rae’s comedy about two friends in their late twenties in Los Angeles is sharp, warm and exact about how people talk at work and how they talk to each other. The office scenes are broader than the rest; the friendship is the point. ## Synopsis Los Angeles, now. Issa Dee (Issa Rae) is about to turn 29. She works at a non-profit where she is the only Black person on the staff and colleagues such as Frieda (Lisa Joyce) look to her to explain things she would rather not. At home her boyfriend Lawrence (Jay Ellis) has spent months on the sofa with an idea for an app. Her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji) is a lawyer, good at her job and tired of her dating life. Issa says the things she cannot say aloud by rapping at her bathroom mirror, and on her birthday she takes one of those raps to an open-mic night. ## Review *Insecure*, which Issa Rae created with Larry Wilmore, is a half-hour comedy about a Black woman in Los Angeles who is not a mess, exactly, but is not sorted either. It ran for five seasons from 9 October 2016, and across forty-four episodes it turned from a sharp comedy into something closer to a drama with jokes. We think it is one of the better things the half-hour form has produced, and we recommend it with a caveat about its office. The set-up is small. Issa Dee (Rae) is turning 29, works at a non-profit where she is the only Black person on staff, and lives with Lawrence (Jay Ellis), who has been out of work long enough for the sofa to have a shape. Her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji) is a lawyer who can charm a partners’ lunch and cannot get a second date. What Issa cannot say to any of them she says to her bathroom mirror, in rhyme. Rae’s raps are the show’s best running joke, and they are also its method: everyone in *Insecure* has a public voice and a private one, and the comedy lives in the gap. Melina Matsoukas directs the opening episode and sets the look. Ava Berkofsky, one of the show’s cinematographers, lights faces so that dark skin reads warm and detailed instead of falling into shadow, which sounds like a basic requirement and is, on television, rarer than it should be. Night scenes run to orange streetlight and blue car interiors. Christopher Brown and Kay Lee give Issa and Lawrence a flat that looks rented and Molly a flat that looks paid for. Ayanna James Kimani and Shiona Turini dress Issa in oversized shirts and Molly in dresses that fit like a job description. Raphael Saadiq’s score is bass and warm keys, and the songs under the closing credits have been chosen by someone who has watched the episode. Orji is the find. Molly could have been the sensible friend and is instead the one whose competence is the problem: she runs her love life like a case and keeps losing. Ellis plays Lawrence as a decent man who has stopped noticing how long he has been on the sofa, which is harder than playing a bad one. Natasha Rothwell’s Kelli gets the filthiest lines in the show and delivers them as though reading the weather; Rothwell also writes and directs episodes, and you can tell which ones. Amanda Seales’s Tiffany is the married friend, the one who arrived early and is waiting for everyone else to catch up. We laughed a great deal, at Kelli mostly, and then, some way into the first season, an argument between Issa and Molly in a car made us go quiet. It was Orji’s face. She lets it close before the sentence is finished, the way people do with friends they have known too long to perform for, and the show, which has been buzzing along, stops and watches her do it. That scene told us what the show is about, and it is not the jokes. The caveat. The office scenes, particularly in the first season, are written in a broader hand than anything else in the show. Frieda (Lisa Joyce) and the rest of Issa’s colleagues are well-meaning white people drawn to be winced at, and the wincing gets repetitive. Lawrence’s story is given a weight early on that it takes a season to earn. And the later years, which we will not describe, spend more time than they need moving the same six people between the same few beds. Nena Erb and Daysha Broadway cut the episodes tight, but a tight episode can still go nowhere. Set against the other Los Angeles comedies about being nearly thirty, this one is the most patient with its people and the least interested in punishing them. Most critics liked it about as much as we do. Watch it two episodes at a time, with someone you have known long enough to argue with in a car. *Fi1m score 81, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are unanimously positive. Most critics take Insecure as a confident debut that arrives already knowing what it is, and the praise clusters on Issa Rae’s voice: the dialogue, the mirror raps, and the way ordinary days in the life of a Black professional woman are shown without a lecture attached. The friendship between Issa and Molly is singled out more than once, as is the detailed picture of Los Angeles around the pair. The spread is narrow, and nobody is unhappy. The cooler notices, from IndieWire and The Hollywood Reporter, find the LA relationship-comedy shape familiar and locate the freshness in who is telling the story rather than in what happens. The warmer ones, led by The AV Club, argue that the plainness is the point and that showing this life matter-of-factly is itself radical. The Ringer adds that the ensemble keeps it from being a one-woman show. It is a difference of temperature, not of verdict. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The AV Club**, Danette Chavez (A-): The critic praises the series as a joyous and confident debut that is profound in its simplicity, centering on relatable experiences with incisive, poignant, and hilarious results. It singles out the matter-of-fact portrayal of a Black woman's life as revolutionary without heavy messaging. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/issa-rae-makes-a-joyous-and-confident-debut-with-insecu-1798189164) - **The Guardian** (85/100, inferred): The critic finds Insecure a smart, fresh and funny portrait of regular black twentysomethings in LA, more down-to-earth than Sex and the City or Girls. They single out the brilliant characterisation, dialogue and monologues, especially Issa’s mirror raps, and the lovely portrait of friendship between Issa and Molly. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/oct/12/insecure-review-issa-rae) - **Vulture** (85/100, inferred): The review calls the series an insightful reflection of Black women's lives and an excellent new comedy that confirms the strength of half-hour comedy. It singles out the visual and performative conveyance of the multiple roles Black professional women must play, along with lyrical filmmaking touches. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2016/10/hbos-insecure-is-an-insightful-new-comedy.html) - **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (70/100, inferred): The review finds the HBO debut familiar in some ways yet adventurous in others, with Rae upending convention while embracing it. It highlights the show's balance of relatable everyday experiences for a Black woman with sharp, insightful humor. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/insecure-review-hbo-issa-rae-awkward-black-girl-1201733603/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (70/100, inferred): The critic highlights the show's fresh perspective on familiar LA relationship comedy tropes through a distinctive African-American voice, making it stand out. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/insecure-review-935486/) - **Variety**, Sonia Saraiya (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the show's distinctive dialogue and voice, noting how it blends specific cultural issues with universal themes through Issa Rae's character. [Read](https://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/insecure-review-hbo-issa-rae-1201872693/) - **The Ringer**, Alison Herman (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the series for arriving fully formed after a long development process, with Rae's voice remaining central and amplified. It singles out the show's ensemble and detailed Los Angeles milieu as strengths that broaden its appeal beyond a single protagonist. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2016/10/06/tv/issa-rae-insecure-hbo-3def396aed80) ## Details - **Created by:** Issa Rae, Larry Wilmore - **Creator:** Issa Rae, Larry Wilmore - **Director:** Melina Matsoukas, Kevin Bray, Prentice Penny, Maurice Marable, Ava Berkofsky, Stella Meghie, Kerry Washington, Liesl Tommy, Pete Chatmon, Thembi Banks, Jay Ellis, Nijla Mu'min, Marta Cunningham, Mark Sadlek, Debbie Allen, Lacey Duke, Tina Mabry, Regina King, Natasha Rothwell, Cecile Emeke, Amy Aniobi, Millicent Shelton - **Writer:** Issa Rae, Laura Kittrell, Amy Aniobi, Prentice Penny, Dayna Lynne North, Ben Dougan, Natasha Rothwell, Eli Wilson Pelton, Syreeta Singleton, Fran Richter, Regina Hicks, Jason Lew, Phil Augusta Jackson, Larry Wilmore, Grace Edwards, Ben Cory Jones - **Cinematography:** Ava Berkofsky, Anette Haellmigk, Carolina Costa, Michelle Lawler, Paula Huidobro, Patrick Cady, Kira Kelly, Autumn Eakin, Matthew J. Lloyd - **Editor:** Mark Sadlek, Nena Erb, Christian Kinnard, Jamie Nelsen, Daysha Broadway, Lynarion Hubbard - **Music:** Raphael Saadiq, Matthew Newman Dunne - **Production design:** Kay Lee, Christopher Brown - **Costume design:** Shiona Turini, Ayanna James Kimani - **Producer:** Julie Camino, Amy Aniobi, Deniese Davis - **Cast:** Issa Rae as Issa Dee; Yvonne Orji as Molly; Jay Ellis as Lawrence; Amanda Seales as Tiffany DuBois; Lisa Joyce as Frieda; Maya Erskine as Diane Nakamura; Natasha Rothwell as Kelli; Ivan Shaw as Justin - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 9 October 2016 - **Genres:** Comedy, Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdKqUMZi5-I ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Atlanta* (2016): Donald Glover’s stranger, sadder cousin to this, with the same ear for how people actually talk. - *Chewing Gum* (2015): Michaela Coel on a Tower Hamlets estate, louder and ruder, and just as honest about wanting things. - *Fleabag* (2016), Fi1m 90: Another woman who tells the audience what she cannot tell anyone she actually knows. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/fleabag.md) - *Living Single* (1993): The nineties Brooklyn flat-share this show grew up watching; the friendships still hold. - *Master of None* (2015): Aziz Ansari’s New York comedy, similarly unhurried about dating, work and parents who do not get it. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/insecure