Aja Naomi King on 'Grosse Pointe Garden Society' and the Complexities of Black Excellence on TV
“Grosse Pointe Garden Society,” NBC’s new murder mystery series, stars Aja Naomi King as a snooty suburban gardening club member with a deadly secret. Slightly reminiscent of “Desperate Housewives” for its cheeky, darkly comedic undertones, Grosse Pointe Garden Society marks the second time King has been central in a primetime series where her character ends up way too close to a dead body; you might remember her from “How to Get Away with Murder,” where she played one of the murderin’ misfits in Viola Davis’ class, Michaela Pratt.
Death, it seems, becomes her.
“I will say, I never wanted to kill anybody,” King tells BET.com with a chuckle. “There are scenes that my character gets to play out..like, ‘Oh! This feels like therapy!’”
Not that King’s range is limited to making bodies drop. On the contrary, the Los Angeles native is a bona fide trained thespian with Master’s from the prestigious Yale School of Drama (joining the ranks of revered Black performers including Angela Bassett, Sterling K. Brown, and Brian Tyree Henry); among her rave performances was her turn as Nat Turner’s wife Cherry Turner in “Birth of a Nation,” and her Emmy-nominated role in Apple TV’s “Lessons in Chemistry,” a historical drama set in the 1960s that had King’s character challenging her white feminist friend’s narrow view of equality. She says she likes to mix up her roles, which is one of the reasons she said yes to Grosse Pointe Garden Society.
“I loved how this character felt from others that I've played,” she says. “And I really love shows that want to play with timelines.”
“Grosse Pointe Garden Society” certainly ticks both boxes for her; the first episode screened for critics hopscotches between past and present, deliberately disorienting viewers as to what exactly happened, when it went down, precisely who is taking a dirt nap––and who did it. King plays Catherine, one of a bougie foursome of folks in their close-knit community’s garden club. Just like the clan on “Desperate Housewives,” Catherine’s nosey neighbors know a little bit too much about each other's business, yet are quietly dealing with their own demons on the DL. Catherine, a high-powered real estate agent, is––on the surface anyway––the picture of success and Black excellence, in a perfect marriage to a handsome Black man named Tucker (played by Jocko Sims). Cracks fill the facade, though; Tucker seems dismissive of Catherine and uninterested i,n uh, retaining their spark if you catch the drift, leading Catherine to find sparks elsewhere. “She’s this uptight, Type-A woman who has this perfectly curated life, but underneath all that, she's really dissatisfied and discontent with the facade that she's been putting forth,” King tells BET. “The arc of her story is being able to get better in touch with her truth and her vulnerability, because she has just created this story around herself and her family that has become a little bit like a gilded cage. You know, everything looks really beautiful, but it's confining, it's a trap. And I don't think she enjoys that anymore. Because of that, the recklessness starts to bleed through.”
Representation has become loads more complex in the contemporary TV and film landscape––so much so that the mere presence of a Black character in a story is unremarkable, and even the notion of a “positive Black role model” can seem trite. As Catherine, if King represents anything, it’s a postmodern depiction of a Black woman crumbling under the weight of “Black excellence” and the expectations levied onto her as a result of her status. “She comes from a very well-to-do upbringing, which I really love diving into,” King says. “This notion of high achieving Black wealth, and her being the byproduct of that––the expectations that come along with that, and the way she would project herself onto people and her children and her husband. She's fighting against the things that she had been predisposed to believe about what a good mother or a good wife or a good woman are supposed to look like.”
It’s an exciting portrayal––an archetype not traditionally explored and just starting to appear on TV. For a long time, the Clair Huxtables and Aunt Vivs of the TV world were the gold standard for the idealized Black woman, at least in the mainstream consciousness. However, we have seen polished, gorgeous, aspirational Black women characters who are also complicated, messy bitches––Diahann Carroll’s Dominique Deveraux and Vanessa Williams on “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty” stand out––those roles are few and far between. “For me I always think it's important for us to be able to see a variety when it comes to what Black people's lives look like,” King says. “She's incredibly wealthy. Grosse Pointe is this enclave where it is predominantly white. So to have this legacy, wealthy, Black family is an important factor yet the story is not about that. It’s just kind of ‘seasoning’ to it all that makes it more interesting and a little bit more nuanced.”
“Grosse Pointe Garden Society” is a slight abnormality. Its first season is a brisk 13 episodes, a reasonable stream count but a smaller-than-normal broadcast TV, where it’ll first debut. But that means viewers can expect a slightly riskier, edgier type of series like the ones they’ve become accustomed to seeing on streaming, which means King’s character, Catherine, gets to go to some devilishly dark and unexpected places. She, of course, can’t give much away, but it’s fair to say her unfulfilling marriage takes a hit, and, as seen in the trailer, that’s just one of the secrets Catherine has to bury. In addition to an actual body, of course. “Everything that happens over the course of the season is her protecting herself, protecting her family, protecting everything that she's built. Because Catherine is not meant to do jail time.”
King promises a sexy, thrilling, often funny ride, and while her varied roles show she’s capable of a lot, she says we’d be remiss not to acknowledge reality. “Everybody loves a little bit of murder!”
