''I'm a Virgo'' is an American absurdist comedy television series created by

Boots Riley Raymond Lawrence "Boots" Riley (born April 1, 1971), is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, rapper, and communist activist. He is the lead vocalist of The Coup and Street Sweeper Social Club. He made his feature-film directorial ...

and starring

Jharrel Jerome Jharrel Jerome (born October 9, 1997) is an American actor and rapper who is best known for appearing in Barry Jenkins's acclaimed drama film ''Moonlight'' (2016), and for portraying Korey Wise in Ava DuVernay's Netflix miniseries '' When They ...

. The first four episodes premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in March 2023. All seven episodes were released on Amazon Prime Video on June 23, 2023.

Synopsis

Cootie is a , 19-year-old Black teenager raised by his Aunt Lafrancine and Uncle Martisse in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. He is shielded from the outside world until being accidentally discovered by a group of teenage political activists.

Cast and characters

Main

as Cootie *

Mike Epps Michael Elliot Epps (born November 18, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He played Day-Day Jones in ''Next Friday'' and its sequel, ''Friday After Next'', and also appeared in ''The Hangover'' and '' The Hangover Part III'' as "Bl ...

as Martisse *

Carmen Ejogo Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973)

as Lafrancine *

Walton Goggins Walton Sanders Goggins Jr. (born November 10, 1971) is an American actor. He has starred in a number of television series, including ''The Shield'' (2002–2008), '' Justified'' (2010–2015), '' Vice Principals'' (2016–2017), ''The Righteous ...

as Jay Whittle / The Hero * Brett Gray as Felix *

Kara Young Kara Young is an American model and entrepreneur. As a model she represented several cosmetics companies and appeared three times on the cover of ''Vogue'', ''Playboy'' (Germany) and was an entertainment news correspondent for Fox News Channel, a ...

as Jones * Allius Barnes as Scat * Olivia Washington as Flora

Guest stars

Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012). Woo ...

as Studious Guy *

Joel Edgerton Joel Edgerton (born 23 June 1974) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his appearance in the ''Star Wars'' films ''Attack of the Clones'' (2002) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' (2005) as a young Owen Lars, a role he reprised i ...

as the voice of a UPS driver in the fictional ''Parking Tickets'' show * Danny Glover as the voice of a weatherman in the fictional ''Parking Tickets'' show * Juliette Lewis as the voice of Justin, a character in the fictional ''Parking Tickets'' show * Omar Miller as Damian Wallace, a man facing execution * Kendrick Sampson as Edwin Garrison, assistant to The Hero *

Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild (born Patsy Ann McClenny; February 3, 1950) is an American actress. She began acting in the early 1970s and has had roles in several television series since. Fairchild began her career on the CBS daytime soap opera ''Search for T ...

as Cressley Whittle, The Hero's mother

Episodes

Production

Development

On June 22, 2020, it was reported that Riley was creating a new series with Michael Ellenberg of Media Res, starring

, called ''I'm a Virgo''. Riley started writing in 2019. On December 14, 2020, it was reported that the half-hour series would be a co-production between Media Res and

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

. Riley and Jerome executive produce alongside Michael Ellenberg and Tze Chun. The cast also includes

Carmen Ejogo Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo (; born 22 October 1973)

, Brett Gray, Allius Barnes,

and Olivia Washington.

Filming

Principal photography took place primarily in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, with outdoor shooting on location in

. The show utilizes practical effects with miniatures and puppets for some shots.

Music

The soundtrack is provided by Riley's group

The Coup The Coup is an American hip hop band from Oakland, California. Their music is an amalgamation of influences, including funk, punk, hip hop, and soul. Frontman Boots Riley's revolutionarily-charged lyrics rank The Coup as a renowned political ...

, and

Tune-Yards Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) is the American, Oakland, California–based music project of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner. Garbus's music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and utilizes elements such as loop pedals, ukulele, voca ...

provided the score.

Release

The first four episodes premiered at the South by Southwest film festival on March 11, 2023. The seven-part series was released on

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

on June 23, 2023,

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 8.10/10, based on 61 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Boots Riley's towering imagination looms as large as his supersized hero in ''I'm a Virgo'', an uproarious satire that's given an enormous heart to match by star Jharrel Jerome."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the series a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on 26 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Ben Travers of ''

Indiewire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

'' rated the series a B+, calling it "a visually imaginative parable with a moving message." Chase Hutchinson of ''

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particl ...

'' rated the series an A and called it "big on ambition yet precisely focused." Erin Brady of '' /Film'' wrote that it is "one of the streaming era's most interesting and offbeat projects," concluding, "Riley's unique visual style and the dynamic performances from its eclectic cast make it unlike anything you'll watch this year."

References

External links

* {{Authority control English-language television shows Amazon Prime Video original programming 2020s American black television series 2020s American satirical television series 2023 American television series debuts 2020s American comedy television series American television shows featuring puppetry Television shows set in Oakland, California Television series by Amazon Studios