Binge Guide: 5 Reasons Why 'White Flight' Is the Right Web Series to Watch Right Now

We’re still a few weeks away from the Feb. 17 return of the essential Comedy Central series Broad City, one of the most consistently provocative (and hilarious) comedies around. But if you’re in need of an equally politically incorrect pick me up before then, point your browser in the direction of the network’s website and stream all six five-minute episodes of White Flight, a new web series conceived by comedians Matt Braunger and Kevin Avery that takes place in the future but — like all great science fiction (laced with comedy or not) — is vitally relevant today. Here are five reasons to make a run for your computer and binge White Flight.

1. The Premise Couldn’t Be More Timely
Set in the far-off year of 2042, White Flight opens on the exact date and time that America’s white majority officially becomes a minority. (For the record, it’s Jan. 20 at exactly 8:18 a.m. So mark your calendars… or your children’s calendars.) To avoid this ignoble fate, most of the Caucasian citizens are teleported north of the border to Canada, which has been re-appropriated and rechristened as “New United States.” However, a few have been left behind to serve as emissaries to the melting pot of races that now dominate the “Original United States.” One of these emissaries is Gary (appealingly played by Braunger), who’s among the few remaining persons of (white) color in his L.A. neighborhood.

This would be a promising comic scenario in any era, but it’s especially appropriate now, amidst the ongoing debates about minority representation in media, as well as some of the racially inflammatory proposals put forth by certain presidential candidates. Because if a giant wall won’t hold back the country’s ongoing demographic shift, the only other logical option is mass teleportation… right?

2. It’s Both a Racial Satire and a Corporate Satire
We’re not told who occupies the Oval Office in 2042, but his (or her) identity doesn’t matter since America is essentially run by Dan, the eponymous — and possibly fictional? — head of the nation’s all-seeing, all-knowing Dan Corporation, the unilateral power behind this “New United States” plan. Played by True Blood’s Sam Trammell, Dan has the aw-shucks personality of George W. Bush, coupled with the “I know what’s best for you” corporate initiative of Donald Trump. The Dan seems more benign than The Donald, but don’t mistake his folksy charm for genuine humanity. The fact that he sees people as mere objects to be moved around at will or abruptly reassigned jobs — like the Chicago hotel manager who suddenly finds himself teleporting packages from L.A. to Toronto as a Dan Corporation mailman — tells you all you need to know about his corporation’s true agenda.

3. It Perfectly Sends Up #OscarsSoWhite
Speaking of diversity in media, White Flight’s fourth episode was probably filmed before #OscarsSoWhite became 2016’s leading hashtag, but it’s the ideal satire for the Academy’s recent, well-documented woes. A struggling actor before much of his competition was teleported up north, Gary now seems in the ideal position to nab the token white guy role in every movie and TV show. But when he goes in for a big audition, the black casting director says that he’s not acting white enough. “Much whiter,” he tells the flustered Gary. “Blinding-me-in-the-face white.” Gary proceeds to channel such white stereotypes as NPR, First Mate Gilligan, and John Wayne in order to land the part. It’s the inverse of a scene that almost certainly plays out daily for minority actors in Hollywood, and even echoes a moment in Aziz Ansari’s Netflix series Master of None, when his character Dev is encouraged to adopt a broad Indian accent to win a role. Only in that case, that experience sadly wasn’t fiction.

4. There Are Some Great Cameos
Aside from Trammell, other familiar faces pop up throughout White Flight. Fellow comedians Hari Kondabolu and Ian Edwards are among the diverse citizens that Gary (badly) plays emissary to. The Mindy Project’s Beth Grant is his mother, and White Flight’s co-writer Kevin Avery, an Emmy-nominated Last Week Tonight scribe, briefly appears as his agent. Avery, by the way, also co-hosts the fantastic podcast Denzel Washington Is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period, where he and comic W. Kamau Bell use the career of Hollywood’s leading black actor as a springboard to hilarious, insightful discussions about many of the same issues the series deals with, particularly minority representation in film and television. So be sure to add that to your podcast rotation as soon as you polish off White Flight.

5. Because We Want to See More
White Flight ends on a cliffhanger, with Gary seemingly finished with his tour of duty as emissary and preparing to head off to the “New United States” himself — a trip that’s put on hold, just as his exiled ex-girlfriend re-enters his life. There’s plenty of narrative and comic material left to explore: will he be able to prove his increasing suspicion that there’s no Dan? Will he finally land the breakout role that elevates him out of “token white guy” status? And what’s the currency situation in the “New United States” like anyway? Hey Comedy Central — run, don’t walk, towards greenlighting Season 2.

White Flight is currently streaming on ComedyCentral.com.