Bounce TV’s hit series, Johnson, created by, produced by, and starring Black men is BACK for a fourth season and BOSSIP’s got exclusive deets on what’s to come.
Source: Johnson / Bounce TV
As previously reported, the American comedy-drama television series created by Deji LaRay and executive produced by Cedric The Entertainer that returned Saturday, August 3 at 8 is following four friends with the same last name as they navigate life, love, and the hardships and hijinks in between.
The series shot in Atlanta stars LaRay, Thomas Q. Jones, Philip Smithey, and Derrex Brady as well as D.L. Hughley and Earthquake, and touches on hot-button topics including race, mental health, classism, and the ever-evolving relationship dynamics between men and women.
Ahead of the show’s premiere, Deji LaRay told BOSSIP’s Managing Editor Dani Canada that season 4 is staying true to its roots and blending comedy with the drama of relatable situations that Black men face.
Source: Cindy Ord / Getty
“The genre of this show is real life,” said LaRay. “People go through things and they can be serious, they can be heartbreaking, or out of the blue something’s funny and you just start cracking up, you start laughing.
“Life is like that, it’s unpredictable. And so, we didn’t want to just kind of put the show in a box of one particular genre, we wanted every scene to feel different to have the different emotional tone, and I think we’ve been pretty successful at that, but we also want to make sure we leave the audience with something.
It could be something that’s just genuinely funny, it can be information that they didn’t know, it can leave you feeling inspired, we talk about so many issues that face black men and black women on the show; divorce, mental health, pursuing a particular occupation, we have classism topics on the show, generational conflicts on the show.”
He also made sure to give props to the comedians/ Hollywood pioneers who appear on the show to provide some brevity.
“Shout out to Earthquake and DL [Hughley] and Cedric, these are three giants who have paved the way for us and blessed us with their talents, you know, on the show and we show respect to these guys. These are people that audiences know, these are people who we grew up watching and respecting and loving and to have them on the show and to be able to show sort of generational, differences, and conflicts and have them pour into us on the show; I think is a great representation of how I kind of view what’s important in real life too. It’s about learning from the people who came before you, who paved the way as well.”
He continued,
“There’s a lot of different topics, a lot more social topics that we hit on. In Johnson season four, we’re definitely going to keep that going, but it’s so entertaining at the same time that it’s not preachy. We deal with it in very clever ways but the objective is always to leave the audience feeling something and taking something from the show or the characters.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, Phillip Smithey dished on his character Keith’s evolution.
Source: Cindy Ord / Getty
Keith who’s known for being the more humorous of the Johnsons is evolving into a more serious character as he prepares for marriage and other milestones in his life.
According to Smithey, it’s an honor to play someone whose grown significantly from season to season and he believes that his own life mirrors that of the character.
“Keith definitely has experienced an incredible evolution from season one up to season four,” Smithey told Managing Editor Dani Canada. “Once again, I said that art imitates life in a sense in this show. When this show started, we started filming season one during the pandemic and for myself, this was a very God-sent opportunity to take part in an incredible storyline to portray an incredible character, and to grow myself as an actor and an artist.”
“I’ve noticed that growth reflected in Keith’s character as the seasons progress, as I get better as an actor, as an artist, as a partner,” he added.”I’m seeing these things reflected in the storyline and so I felt my own personal evolution inside of the evolution of Keith as a character, and I do think Keith has so much more agency. Now, he has so much more confidence, he’s found this partner who he’s grown to love. And I think with that love he’s really deciding that he wants other things. You want to create a legacy, you want to create security, you want to create a future. And I think that’s a lot of what Johnson, as a story talks about, is, how do these, how do these portray Black men as they create future and legacy and success for themselves. And what does that mean in these individual ways?”
He continued,
“That’s something that obviously everybody wants to understand for themselves and explore, and it’s really cool to see how Keith has grown and started to take control. Of his life of the things he wants to have and to bring voice to those things that matter to him. And I feel myself doing the same just watching this story progress and evolve, and it’s fun to do. And so, I hope that in the future seasons, we create a narrative where Keith becomes a multi-millionaire because I would love to see that also reflected and mirrored in life as well.”
New episodes of Johnson air on Saturdays at 8/7 c on Bounce TV.
Watch our exclusive with the cast!
Johnson is produced in partnership with Eric C. Rhone and Cedric The Entertainer’s A Bird & A Bear Entertainment as well as Deji LaRay (the show’s creator), and Thomas Q. Jones’ Midnight Train Productions. LaRay and Jones serve as showrunners and executive producers; Rhone, Cedric The Entertainer, and Reesha L. Archibald serve as executive producers.