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After more than a year-long wait, Harlem is finally back. This season of the Prime Video comedy, from Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver, picks back up with our beloved—and stylish—quartet of girlfriends shortly after the season 1 finale.
Camille (Meagan Good) is finding her footing after sabotaging her career and derailing her ex Ian’s wedding. Can these two former lovers make it work for good? Quinn (Grace Byers) is exploring her sexuality; Tye (Jerrie Johnson) is trying to move forward with her life despite her estranged husband getting in her way; and, after her hopes of starring in Get Out: The Musical were squashed by a cease-and-desist, Angie (Shoniqua Shandai) is wriggling herself free from a bad luck streak and dating some beautiful men while she’s at it.
Along with boasting a dynamic cast, funny one-liners, and enviable wardrobes, the Sex and the City-like Harlem gets real about love and sex in your 30s, but it also explores social issues like gentrification, discrimination in the workplace, and dating as a queer woman of color.
“I wrote Harlem years ago, before Girls Trip came out,” Oliver told ELLE.com when the show first premiered in 2021. “I was trying to make sense of my life and my friends and what we were going through at that moment. I had this idea that I was going to have a fairy-tale ending, and it was going to happen on the brink of 30. Then as I was rapidly approaching 30, I was like, ‘Oh my god, nothing is working out the way I thought.’”
She added, “I was also frustrated, because I loved my time in New York, and it was so influential for me, but I didn’t see any New York-set shows that had people that looked like me in them. I thought, how are we getting gentrified out of everything? New York has such a robust, culturally rich Black and brown world that I was like, well, maybe you should write that.”
When she sent the script to her team, she recalled them saying, “This is your most personal piece. It feels the most like you, except I don’t know where we can sell it right now.” At the time, it seemed the TV world wasn’t ready for Harlem yet. “It was too early in the marketplace for that,” Oliver said. “Then, I would say, because of Girls Trip, it set in motion a way for me to bring Harlem back.”
And we hope it keeps coming back. There are eight episodes in Harlem season 2, which premiered on Friday. Here’s when to tune in for the rest of the season:
- Episode 1: “Takesie Backsies” streaming February 3 Watch Now
- Episode 2: “If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…” streaming February 3 Watch Now
- Episode 3: streaming on February 10
- Episode 4: streaming on February 10
- Episode 5: streaming on February 17
- Episode 6: streaming on February 17
- Episode 7: streaming on February 24
- Episode 8: streaming on February 24
If you need to catch up, the entire first season is on the platform too.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.