Truth Be Told (2015)

The principal cast members are appealing enough, providing perhaps some hope that the material will mature and measure up to them in future episodes. For now, though, it’s mostly hammer-over-the-head time.

Truth Be Told is probably not worth your time. While it tries to be edgy, most of its humor is fairly tame.

The first episode's reflexive need to be topical quickly feels more like running through a hot topic checklist than situations generated by actual characters.

Setting aside the producers’ aspirationally post-racial pitch, Truth Be Told looks and moves very much like another ho-hum sitcom; there are a few laughs here and there, performed by a likable assemblage of actors--but the same could be said about almost any sitcom in any season. Even if you factor in some skin tone and conversational pitfalls, nothing here seems all that groundbreaking.

Black people and white people can be best friends, and that's the truth. Apparently, however, that friendship can't be funny, or so Truth Be Told easily convinces us.

Truth be told, this show is terrible.

Not a single scene feels authentic, even if we excuse the overexplanations we often see in comedy pilots. This show is not provocative. It is not a conversation-starter, it is not thoughtful, it is not sharp, it is not enlightening.