We Need to Talk about Cosby TV review — a thorny subject handled sensitively

“Who is Bill Cosby?” The question that opens an outstanding Showtime documentary series elicits hesitation and visible discomfort from all those it is put to — which is precisely why comedian-turned-filmmaker W Kamau Bell asks it.

To attempt an answer is to reconcile the beloved stand-up and actor with the man who has, since 2014, faced about 60 allegations of sexual assault — one of which resulted in a conviction (controversially overturned in 2021). And it means confronting the no-less challenging idea that someone so monstrous was also a pioneering black cultural icon, an on-screen role model, a generous philanthropist and a gifted comic.

We Need to Talk about Cosby handles this sensitive, thorny subject with conversational intimacy as well as rigour, scope and nuance. Over four parts, it provides a thorough overview of his 50-year career — placed within a broader context of African American representation — and a grimly absorbing character study of a complex narcissist. Bell and the contributing comedians, journalists and academics provide thoughtful reflections on what Cosby’s work meant to them personally. These testaments to Cosby’s significance only amplify the anger and disappointment that runs through the series.

Yet Bell knows that in order to talk about Cosby, it is imperative to listen to the women who have come forward with allegations of abuse. Several appear here, sharing their allegations of being drugged, assaulted and gaslighted by the man once known as “America’s Dad”. While collectively these recollections suggest a chilling methodology on Cosby’s part, each complainant is given the space to tell her own story, uninterrupted and at length. In this way, the show remains grounded in awful reality as it broaches a more abstract debate about whether achievements can be separated from a disgraced individual.

In Cosby’s case the problem was that people were unable, or unwilling, to distinguish between the sweater-wearing father-figure and the real man. He may have carefully cultivated and exploited the image of himself as a paragon of decency, but Cosby also occasionally, as we see in archive clips, engaged freely in “jokes” about drugging women on a comedy record, a talk show and even in his sitcom, The Cosby Show.

Why were warning signs missed? Why did some people remain in denial despite the waves of allegations? One of Bell’s series’ great strengths is that it’s able to shift focus from Cosby to the viewer, interrogating how we respond when those we admire are not who we believed them to be.

From that very first question to these later moments of introspection, We Need to Talk About Cosby refuses to present clear-cut or prescriptive answers. What it does is thoughtfully talk through a difficult, upsetting subject. That may sound simple, but it’s an approach that feels daring.

★★★★★

On BBC2 in the UK from March 5 at 9pm and iPlayer thereafter; on Showtime in the US