tv adaptations

Issa Rae and Adam McKay Take on Nice White Parents for HBO

Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Michael Kors

Issa Rae and Adam McKay are headed to HBO, and they’re taking Nice White Parents with them. According to Variety, the Insecure star and the Don’t Look Up director are teaming up to adapt the five-part Serial Productions podcast, which premiered in July, into a half-hour scripted series, after the network purportedly outbid Netflix and the Obamas for the rights. The project currently has a pilot commitment, which will reportedly deliver “a satirical look at the conflict and comedy that arise when highly resourced white parents, who claim to have the best intentions, wield their influence over generations of black and brown students within the NY public school system.”

Nice White Parents, hosted by This American Life alum Chana Joffe-Walt, explores the outsized influence well-meaning white parents reportedly have on the functioning of New York schools, in this case Brooklyn public school I.S. 293, where, as Nicholas Quah writes in his Vulture review, they have historically been “the primary force holding back progress toward school integration and a more equitable distribution of resources.” And, with any luck, they also subscribe to HBO, or know someone who does and is willing to share their log-in.

Issa Rae and Adam McKay Take on Nice White Parents for HBO