Watch “Diarra From Detroit” with your phone out and the notes app open. Here’s a sample from mine – “Not the shooter in a Renaissance mask at the BDSM party?” See? You’ll want to write down punchlines and conspiracy theories. The beloved new BET Plus mystery-wrapped-in-comedy is a show that never lets up on either front. It’s a fast-paced, funny puzzle that requires your whole brain. The only thing simple about it is the title.

Set in modern-day Detroit, the show stars Diarra (played by “American Koko” star Diarra Kilpatrick) as a recent divorcée forced to come down from the mountaintop of her perfect marriage and move back into her mama’s house in the hood. To cope – or escape – Diarra goes on a Tinder date with a man named Chris that actually turns out pretty well. That is until her almost-boyfriend ghosts her, sending Diarra on a wild-goose chase through past and present Detroit looking for the man who might’ve healed her wounds.

There’s more to it, of course. A Russian hit man, the Greek mafia, an underground sex club and a missing “milk carton” kid from the ’90s. It would all be dizzying if not for Diarra’s sarcastic voice-over guiding the audience from one madcap moment to the next as she connects the dots.

“She has so many similarities to a lot of people,” Kilpatrick said in a recent interview. “She’s doing the best she can. And she’s messy as hell as she’s stumbling through it.”

For series creator Kilpatrick, “Diarra” is a love letter to her hometown and time spent in front her grandmother’s TV, watching her favorite stories like “Murder, She Wrote.” But murder mysteries rarely feature Black women as anything other than victims. “Diarra From Detroit” is both a microscope and a shift in perspective – zooming in on the lives often relegated to the 6 o’clock news and allowing those subjects to tell their own stories.

“Normally we solve everybody’s problems, but from the comfort of our own homes. We’re armchair experts. In some ways, it’s a metaphor for that. How so often it does fall on Black women to sort of fix the problems in our communities and go above and beyond to do so,” Kilpatrick said.

So far, fans have been down for the ride, using those notes apps to cobble together theories about just who her missing boo really is and whether Diarra is being played. The adventure is anxiety-inducing and also a breath of fresh air as a Black woman in a killer leather trench coat Shafts and stumbles her way to a breakthrough.

Kilpatrick talked to The Washington Post about loving her city, taking risks and seeing the actress Phylicia Rashad like you’ve never seen her before.

(This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Let’s start with the obvious. Like the show’s main character, your name is Diarra and you’re from Detroit. Issa Rae, creator and star of “Insecure,” has said repeatedly that she regrets sharing a name with her character. Was there any hesitation on your part?

When I was naming the character this time, I was really close to my name. It was like Dara. What about Jaya? And then a voice inside was pestering me, “It’s time to just name the character after yourself.” To write with my real name felt like I could get closer to the bone. I do subscribe to the idea that when you turn in a piece of work, if you aren’t maybe just a little bit embarrassed, it’s not real enough. I felt like if I live to regret it hopefully I’ll regret it from an island vacation somewhere.

It also feels like planting your flag in a way. And why not? Why shouldn’t a Black woman in Hollywood do that unapologetically?

Sometimes I’m heart-led. People have said this is such a brilliant branding move. And I really wasn’t thinking about it like that. I thought, it’s time to say that I was ready. “Diarra from Detroit” was ready. It was go time.

Who is Diarra the character versus Diarra the person?

She’s me somewhere in the multiverse for sure. In many ways Diarra the character is the person that I was raised to be. Grow up, stay in Detroit, serve your community, and marry a handsome Black man. I took a slightly more bohemian left turn to New York. She’s discovering that what actually thrills her is a little bit of danger.

And Diarra in real life?

I like to be at home in the bathtub. A thrill for me on a Friday night is like, “Oh, maybe I’ll have a margarita.” I don’t really get down into the underworld of Detroit.

The show puts Black people squarely at the center of the true crime genre. They are the victims, the villains and the heroes. Why did that feel so unexpected?

It’s almost the kind of genre that kicks Black women out of it, by nature of the fact that we don’t do stuff like this. If America catches the cold, the Black woman gets pneumonia. We know that the blowback for anything is going to be harsher on us. So walking into a crack house – even with the best of intentions – it’s usually not our jam. If we can help it.

Speaking of walking into a crack house and what Black women won’t do. We have to talk about Phylicia Rashad, who plays Vonda, a mama bear who could hug you and also eat you alive. Did you always have the woman who famously played Clair Huxtable in mind for that kind of turnabout role?

Well, two things. I want to answer that but it’s so funny when you were saying we don’t walk into crack houses. I also remember that my grandmother did walk into a crack house.

Oh yes, so did mine. She had to get a family member out.

My grandmother went in for a more hilarious reason. Someone in our family had stolen her television and sold it over there and she was not trying to miss “Walker, Texas Ranger.” She had her appointment television.

And Phylicia?

She wasn’t the first person that came to mind. Because you do tend to think of her in such a graceful way. But it turned out to be the perfect casting. The way that we were able to subvert what people would expect from her has been really thrilling. Also I just love actors so much. I know that the way that the business works, you get categorized as one thing and sometimes it can be really hard for people to stretch their imaginations. But when you have someone with such range, you really get a chance to play. And she just ate the role up.

How hard was it to get a show like “Diarra From Detroit” made?

I did not have to fight for the right to exist. They knew they were making some kind of Black show. I’m a Black woman. I’m darker than a paper bag. I’m over 35, which is when they tell us the roles are going to start to decline. And they gave me the space to make this show. I’m really proud of it because that’s very rare.

I get the term “Black show,” but I wonder what it means in 2024. How would you categorize the series?

It really is if “Insecure” crash lands into “Chinatown.” What’s driving this narrative, even with all of the twists and turns of the plot, is the experience of a Black woman. I want you to see my color. I want you to see all of me.

Why does defining the show seem loaded?

I do understand people’s reticence of classifying anything as a Black show, because what you don’t want is for your audience to then hear, not for me. I challenge the American audience on that. I really do think the ball is in your court to show up to shows that are made with love and care. Show up when the lead is female or when the lead is Black. As I say in the show, I love Tom Cruise. We all show up for Tom. We don’t go, “Is this a white movie or what?”

OK, we have to talk about the fashions, darling. Diarra’s outfits are somehow both over-the-top and completely at home. What story are her clothes telling?

You see who this woman was. You see her position in Detroit society. You see that she was married to a wealthy man and she was very well kept. You can feel through her wardrobe what she walked away from. So, yes, the clothes had a story to tell. And then the other thing is, listen, I will re-watch “Sex and the City” because I miss the outfits.

You’ve mentioned before that some teachers you had at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts were iffy on your accent. How do you survive in Hollywood without internalizing some of those negative notes?

When you go for training, you have to keep in mind, that what makes you is really valuable. You can learn all these things that will increase your toolbox, but you will never look around and go, who am I? Actually Tracy Morgan said something like that to me. He said something to me like at the end of the day, you got to do you.

The show is being lauded from every corner of the internet. What is the reaction that you’ve been most proud of?

It was definitely my people back home. Because they’ll tell you the truth, you know? Detroiters are tough for a reason. People will keep it real. I got really emotional when we premiered at Tribeca and in the whole third row of the theater were my friends from childhood who did youth theater with me. When they were so entertained by it, that was the stamp of approval that I really cherished and valued.

Then the people on YouTube who break down the episodes? And baby, they are so invested. They don’t miss a thing. This audience gets it. This audience is hanging on to every single twist and turn of the adventure. And that has been really thrilling.

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