10 Biggest TV Controversies Of 2023
3. Black Cleopatra - Queen Cleopatra
The second season of Netflix's Jada Pinkett Smith-produced African Queens series caught a ton of flak the moment it was announced that it would focus on Queen Cleopatra, who would be portrayed as Black by Jamaican-English actress Adele James.
Many felt that categorising the series as a "documentary" was inaccurate and misleading given the academic consensus that Cleopatra, a Macedonian Greek, was not Black, and that Netflix could've sidestepped much of the controversy by reframing the series as a work of speculative fiction.
Others meanwhile accused Smith of cultural appropriation, of taking one of the most statuesque figures in Egyptian history and shoehorning her into a series called African Queens.
Director Tina Gharavi nevertheless defended her artistic decision, calling James' casting a "political act," while asserting that Cleopatra likely looked more like James than the white Elizabeth Taylor, who played her in the iconic 1963 film.
There would've of course been many of the usual suspects with their teeth out for the show regardless of its categorisation, but Netflix did themselves no favours at all here.
Beyond this, critics panned the show for just not being very good.