Black Lightning To Continue Taking On Socially Relevant Issues
Black Lightning debuted early this week to some great fanfare, as well as some great ratings. The show isn’t shy about showing off what the world is like nowadays, and many appreciate that. For example, one of the main cruxes of the series is the principal/superhero Jefferson Pierce taking on gang violence against a group called The 100. But as showrunner Salim Akil notes, that’s just the beginning. For Black Lightning will also be taking the fight to the drug trade:
“We’re introducing a new drug into the community called Green Light in later episodes,” Akil said to Entertainment Weekly. “It will be the crux of the season in terms of how drugs enter a community, how a community is exploited, and Black Lightning sort of working himself up the food chain of discovering where it comes from and who put it there.”
While certain other CW shows have shown how dangerous drugs can be, mainly Season 01 and 02 of Arrow, this is taking it to a whole new level, which seems to be the point. Akil wants people to see the dangers in a very real way, not the “stylized” way that some shows make it out to be. And who knows? This could still be just the beginning.