August 14, 2019 (2019-08-14) – August 24, 2021 (2021-08-24)
David Makes Man is an American coming-of-agedrama television series that premiered on August 14, 2019, on OWN. In December 2019, OWN renewed the series for a second season which premiered on June 22, 2021.
Premise
David Makes Man follows a 14-year-old named David "from the projects who is haunted by the death of his friend and relied on by his hardworking mother to find a way out of poverty."[1]
An introduction to David's world. At school, David acts out and jokes around, but all is not what it seems. At the Ville, he acts as a protector to his brother JG and has to navigate the more dangerous aspects of his living situation. Throughout all of this, he's haunted by a person from his past.
2
2
"Dai Out"
Kiel Adrian Scott
Tarell Alvin McCraney & Lucien Christian Adderley & Richard "Byrd" Wilson
David takes JG to JG's grandfather's house, but is joined by an unwanted guest. David has to make up for his failure as lookout by delivering a package all while trying to beat his mother home from her shift. On his journey home, he meets Femi and Star. Star is on his way to the Ville to stay with Mx. Elijah.
3
3
"MJB"
Kiel Adrian Scott
Teleplay by : Tarell Alvin McCraney Story by : Tarell Alvin McCraney & Lucien Christian Adderley & Richard "Byrd" Wilson
David meets with the school counselor. Dr. Woods-Trap tasks David with incorporating Seren into his "Where I came from presentation," and tells him he will have to present the next day or lose 50 points on his grade. Seren will only help if David spends the night. David gets a glimpse into Seren's seemingly picturesque home life as well as a glimpse into his parents' behavior.
Gloria starts the day hopeful about a job promotion, but her day gets progressively worse, with rude customers, sexual harassment, a bad fall leaving her left side bruised, and then getting fired. When she arrives at home, JG has caused issues with the landlord after he set his bed sheets on fire after having another accident. Mx. Elijah tries to cheer Gloria up by taking her to the Gala, but, after a fantasy of a fun night, Gloria declines.
Gloria is at home full-time and discovers David's school is throwing a school dance and tells him he is attending and has to ask a girl. He initially asks Marissa, who looks shocked and excited, but when he tells her he's only asking because he had to ask someone, she declines and asks Seren instead. David asks a girl from the Ville, Tare. At the dance, she's able to easily feel comfortable, but David is constantly guarded. Frustrated, Tare leaves. David follows her home on the bus where they start to bond.
Gloria struggles with the bureaucracy associated with unemployment, as well as her sobriety. JG sells the sneakers his grandfather gave him to pay the rent, but put cash into the dropbox, not realizing it can easily be stolen. David attends an informational session for Hurston, and plays up his situation, to the dismay of Dr. Woods-Trap, whose recommendation he is desperately seeking. David and Gloria both make questionable decisions in order to get the rent paid.
It's Halloween! And also the day of Seren's big church solo. David accompanies the Kelly's to church, and sees more evidence of the turmoil Seren deals with at home. The Kelly's drop David off at the Ville and Gloria invites Seren to stay for Halloween, and Mx. Elijah helps Seren and David with their costumes. David, meanwhile, is also working to make his prescription pad theft worth the risk, and starts to formulate a plan on how to get pills to sell without getting caught, with Mx. Elijah even in on the scheme. Seren leaves the Ville, but hands David a note before he departs.
A hurricane is coming, but there are bigger issues in David's world. Seren is missing, and his parents think David had something to do with it. Dr. Bree suspects David of stealing his prescription pad. Dr. Woods-Trap scolds David for how he uses his situation to his advantage again and David calls her out on it, and may have cost himself a recommendation letter. Meanwhile, in the Ville, the prescription drug scheme results in a raid, a loss of life, and David finding out Raynan's involvement in Sky's murder. One bright spot, Mx. Elijah lets David know one plan of his was actually a success as the "package" arrived in Tampa.
The residents of the Ville deal with the loss of one of their own while preparing for the oncoming hurricane. Raynan has to hunker down with the people he wants to avoid most. Gloria reluctantly takes David and JG to her mother's where both their past mistakes are dredge up. David and Gloria have a heart to heart.
10
10
"3 Sons' Sky"
Cheryl Dunye
Teleplay by : Tarell Alvin McCraney Story by : Lucien Christian Adderley & Richard "Byrd" Wilson
The hurricane has passed and residents return to the Ville, but they are still not safe. David realizes he must end the prescription pad scheme and find a way to rid the Ville of Desmond, Shinobi, and Teo for good. Mrs. Kelly returns to the Ville looking for Seren and continues to accuse David of knowing something. Gloria struggles. David and Tare continue to connect.
Years have passed. David is now a strategic marketer for urban planning, JG is a cop now married with a teenage daughter, and Gloria is 15 years sober running a home for foster children. David is working toward becoming a partner at his firm and taking big swings with a new client. JG and Gloria haven't forgotten the ville, and JG still visits Mx. Elijiah to bring groceries. While making a trip, JG tries to break apart a fight and is accidentally shot. He makes it to the hospital and is breathing on his own, but the doctors say there is internal bleeding that will require surgery.
A flashback to David's sophomore year at Hurston. At first, David appears to be well acclimated to the school and has several friends, but he is constantly reminded of how he is different from the other boys at his school. He eventually gets suspended for fighting after his "friend" repeatedly uses a racial slur. When he returns, his friends continue to provoke him resulting in a swimming race where David gets a leg cramp and almost drowns. It is revealed to be the dream of an adult David. When he wakes up, he gets a phone call from his mom urging him to come to the hospital.
JG's condition improves, but the doctors find more damage once they operate and recommend inducing a coma. David has trouble coping and walks out of a therapy session. At work, Joe Padilla is less than pleased with opposition coming from the environmentalist so he assigns Elan to be David's assistant. JG is released from the hospital after being in a coma for 5 days and goes back to his mother's house for a welcome home party. Sheela stops by and reconnects with JG. David goes back to therapyp, ostensibly to quit, but his therapist tells him why he needs to continue, resulting in him seeing more visions of people from his past.
Many things are happening in the Ville. Sheela is trying to get payment from delinquent renters. David stops by to do some more reconnaissance for his development project and runs into Marissa doing environmental work. Sheela confronts David to find out whats going on and reaches out to Gloria to get some help in stopping David's plan. David spends some time with Mx. Elijah at their home for the first time in 15 years and sees how difficult things have become for them. JG stops by the Ville to drop off groceries for Mx. Elijah and connects with Sheela.
David tries to think positively but he ends up making a bigger mess of things. At work, Joe realizes David lied by omission about JG and feels he cannot work with him until David comes up with a plan that hinges on JG's help, which JG is reluctant to give. JG and Trish are fighting and their daughter hears everything, leading her to consider running away. David also messes things up with Nicole by telling her too much information. Aside from all things going on in David's life he runs into Tare and the two catch up.
David finally reunites with Seren on the night of the charity event, and there are more surprise visitors abound. Shella feels uncomfortable in more ways than one. David stages a plea at the event to get Joe to change his mind about the mall and develop homes instead, which Joe accepts, as planned. David come to terms that he needs an escape so he turns to Seren for help.
David spends the night at Seren's as he and JG both deal with fallout from the charity event. Seren reveals the real reason why he stayed away from Miami all these years. JG goes looking for comfort and may have created a bigger problem. David returns to the Ville and gets a much needed pep talk from Mx. Elijah.
David goes to therapy hoping his therapist can be used as a strategy session, but he ends up spending an intense hour working on his inner demons and realizing why his life is so filled with chaos.
David allows his inner child to express himself with surprising results, including a realization. JG is struggling with the fallout of the shooting, but, to complicate matters, his daughter Trenise goes missing. Gloria, JG, and David look for her in the Ville, but each end up leaving with a new perspective of their behavior. David gets a surprise when he goes into his apartment: he finds Trenise sitting there.
Trenise shows up at David's, informing JG. He later, with her help, finds a way to solve the problems with the Ville and Joe Padilla with a new perspective so, he, Shella, and Mx. Elijah along with the rest of the Ville residents, team up for a major turnaround with the board meeting, which turns into a success. David reconnects with Nicole and has a heart to heart with Gloria about her upcoming move. JG and Shella are honest with each other.
Production
Development
On August 16, 2017, it was reported that Oprah Winfrey Network had given the production a straight-to-series order created by Tarell Alvin McCraney.[25]
On June 26, 2018, it was announced that Dee Harris-Lawrence will be the showrunner and set to serve as an executive producer along with Tarell Alvin McCraney, Mike Kelley, Melissa Loy, Michael B. Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey. Production companies involved with the series were slated to include Warner Horizon Scripted Television, Page Fright, and Outlier Productions. The series was set to premiere on August 14, 2019.[1][26][27] The pilot episode was premiered at South by Southwest on March 10, 2019.[28] On December 19, 2019, OWN renewed the series for a second season.[29] On June 29, 2020, HBO Max acquired the streaming rights for the series which was debuted on July 16, 2020.[30] The series' producer Dee Harris-Lawrence most recently signed an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Studios.[31] The second season premiered on June 22, 2021.[32]
Casting
In June 2018, it was announced that Akili McDowell, Phylicia Rashad, Nathaniel Logan McIntyre, Isaiah Johnson, Ade Chike Torbert, Jordan Bolger, Cayden K. Williams, and Travis Coles are cast as series regulars.[1] In August 2018, Alana Arenas has been cast as a series regular while Gillian Williams, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Elvis Nolasco, and Randy Gonzalez are cast in recurring roles.[33] On October 25, 2018, Lela Rochon, Trace Lysette, Liza Colón-Zayas, Juanita Jennings, Lindsey Blackwell, Solomon Valdez, Teshi Thomas, and newcomers Nick Creegan, Kimaya Naomi and Logan Rozos have joined the series in recurring roles.[34] On August 6, 2020, Kwame Patterson and Arlen Escarpeta were cast in starring roles for the second season.[2] On December 8, 2020, Tony Plana, Brittany S. Hall, Erica Luttrell, Zsané Jhé, Bobbi Baker, Patrice Arenas, Trinity Cidel, Brandi Huzzie, Rodney Gardiner, and Janmarco Santiago joined the cast in recurring roles for the second season.[3]
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 100% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 8.98/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Powerful, beautiful, and like nothing else on TV, David Makes Man blends dreamy aesthetics with an empathetically crafted story to create a truly unique viewing experience."[35] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[36]
