The trouble with Diarra Brickland is she can\u2019t let things go.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiarra From Detroit<\/a>\u201d presents this as the schoolteacher-turned-detective\u2019s greatest asset and her biggest flaw. If it weren\u2019t for her stubborn insistence on finding out why a great guy, Chris (Shannon Wallace), ghosted her after an incredible first date, she might be happier. Then again, nobody would have noticed that Chris had been kidnapped.<\/p>\n But Diarra\u2019s tendency to fixate on small details and slights eventually cracked the case. They also brought to light a broader conspiracy, starting with the twist that this wasn\u2019t Chris\u2019 first kidnapping.<\/p>\n As Season 2 begins, Chris and Diarra have settled into coupledom, which is precisely what Diarra thought she wanted, but nothing like she pictured it would be. Chris is a mess. Diarra would love to dump him, but her nearest and dearest friends Aja (DomiNque Perry) and Tea (Bryan Terrell Clark) warn her that would damage her reputation. The single bright spot and mixed blessing to come out of all this is that her neighbors see Diarra as the go-to person for fixing lost causes and finding lost people. Hence her latest caper, which begins with a mission to track down a vintage desk and turns on a dime into a heist tied to a cache of gold.<\/p>\n But wait, as our hard-boiled citizen investigator is fond of saying. I should go back. You see, these latest episodes of \u201cDiarra From Detroit,\u201d created by its star, Diarra Kilpatrick, have been cooking for more than two years. Three, if you count the series\u2019 debut at the 2023 Tribeca Festival before its 2024 premiere on BET+. From there, it sat in limbo until Paramount renewed it in 2025.<\/p>\n But limbo is better than canceled, which is more likely to happen if the proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery goes through.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Like Diarra and Chris\u2019 relationship status, the case of Paramount\u2019s proposed marriage to Warner Bros. is complicated. Hollywood all but accepted that the merger was a done deal until mid-July, when a dozen state attorneys general and along with the Writers Guild of America West and East<\/a>\u00a0 filed a lawsuit to stop the merger<\/a> and California U.S. District Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn issued a restraining order<\/a> to temporarily halt the proceedings. (Salon\u2019s unionized employees are represented by the WGA East.)\u00a0<\/p>\n On July 24, Paramount\u2019s legal team agreed to postpone the merger<\/a> pending the outcome of the states\u2019 antitrust case. That could potentially delay the transaction for more than a year, since the opposing sides can\u2019t agree on when they want the trial to begin. The states would prefer a 2027 start while Paramount wants to kick it off this fall. If the AGs win, Paramount\u2019s inevitable appeal could keep the $110 billion deal backburnered well into late 2027.<\/p>\n The states argue that this merger would leave consumers paying more for less diverse news and entertainment options if finalized.\u00a0<\/p>\n The continued existence of shows like \u201cDiarra From Detroit\u201d \u2014 shows by female, non-white creators about a place and people rarely depicted in the fullness of their humanity on television \u2014 is a miracle under normal circumstances.<\/p>\n What this means is that as tough as it already was for a TV series created by a Black woman to be picked up by a major platform, it could be nearly impossible in a universe in which Paramount has swallowed HBO, CNN and other prime Warner Bros. channels. Even in a scenario where BET+ still existed \u2014 it officially shut down on July 22 \u2014 making original stories like \u201cDiarra\u201d requires resources and a level of corporate will that a megacorporation\u2019s smaller brands don\u2019t tend to be afforded. In a contracted media landscape with fewer places to pitch, its odds of landing in front of audiences on a major platform decline even further. And they weren\u2019t all that high to begin with.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Paramount is urging us to pay no attention to the Ellisons<\/a> behind the curtain<\/a>. \u201cThis merger is lawful, pro-competitive, and will benefit consumers, creators, workers, and the entertainment industry,\u201d a Paramount spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n Many maintain the opposite is true, especially with regard to inclusive content. Included in that crowd are scholars working with the University of California San Diego\u2019s Media and Consolidation Research Organization (MACRO) Lab.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAll four categories of diversity\u2014ownership, representation, viewpoint, and outlet\u2014are threatened by this merger, reducing the forms of diversity the public depends upon in cinemas, over the airwaves, and across online platforms,\u201d they warn in a recently published paper.<\/a> Previous findings by the University of Southern California\u2019s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative back this conclusion.<\/p>\n Among those paying attention to The Mystery of the Media Merger, the survival of TV\u2019s Diarra Bricklands is not the top concern. All eyes are on CNN, as Sharon Waxman, the founder and editor-in-chief of The Wrap, explained in a recent New York Times column<\/a>.<\/p>\n If what\u2019s happening to CBS News under editor-in-chief Bari Weiss<\/a> is a sign of things to come, that\u2019s another assault on our already besieged democracy. A greater one, even, since CNN is a global news brand.<\/p>\n Consider that only days ago, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d announced that former New York Times Opinion columnist Ross Douthat is joining its ranks. Douthat, if you\u2019ve forgotten, is the guy who proposed in a 2018 column<\/a> that the solution to placating incel violence may be between the legs of hypothetical charitable women who feel sorry for them. Or sexbots.<\/p>\n Corporate media traded insightful journalism for ragebait like this years ago, which is what makes figures like Diarra Brickland and her creator ever more valuable. They\u2019re Black women excelling in roles not often associated with (or awarded to) people of color.<\/p>\n And to specifically bring it back to Douthat\u2019s dubious query, Diarra \u2014 either of them \u2014 is precisely the kind of woman who puts the lie to fantasies about female submissiveness. Season 2 starts with her realizing she\u2019s probably better off free of her mystery prize.<\/p>\n But for now, Chris and Diarra are in counseling. Part of their unofficial relationship homework involves field missions that spark heated conversations about masculine insecurity and Diarra\u2019s conflicted desires about motherhood.<\/p>\n One topic she\u2019s absolutely clear about, however, is being in control of every aspect of her life \u2014 including but not limited to Chris\u2019 access to the part of her body she describes as \u201cthe Cadillac of the human anatomy: Gorgeous interior, impeccable design, not to mention the portal for all of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n