Lena Waithe’s The Chi series on Paramount+ with Showtime is coming to an end after eight seasons, making the popular drama the longest-running Black drama series in premium cable and streaming history, having aired for nearly a decade.
A Chicago native, Waithe created The Chi to highlight her hometown and showcase the complex and diverse experiences of Black Chicagoans, while dismantling stereotypical and harmful portrayals of the city and focusing on the power of community, positive impact, healing, and redemption.
According to its logline, the eighth and final season will be rooted in the difficult choices and fate each cast member will have to face, some life or death, but will ultimately reflect legacy, conflict, joy, and pain.
At the center of the cast and storyline are actresses Hannaha Hall, who portrays Tiffany (“Tiff”), and has been with the series and cast since the pilot, appearing in 62 episodes through Season 7. Tiffany Bryant is a steadfast mother and businesswoman, as is Birgundi Baker, who plays (“Kiesha Williams”), the dedicated mother, teacher, and emotional anchor for her family and the broader community.
Baker has also been present on the show since its inception. Both Hall and Baker express a sense of accomplishment and gratitude for the show’s eight-season run, which is rare in television. “There’s a lot of gratitude, and I feel very accomplished. We (the cast) did something huge. Many shows do not run for eight seasons. The experience on the show also applied to some things in my personal life as well,” Hall said to me during a junket interview.
It’s no secret that the series centers the diversity of Black narratives, namely highlighting the complexity, resilience, and power of Black women, something that Baker deeply respects. “There’s every type of woman on the show. You have the mother, you have the boss, you have every type of woman on the show. I think our show does a good job of celebrating every woman, every Black woman,” she stated.
Her character has tried to keep her family together for several seasons while uplifting the other women in her community, a daunting task. Still, Baker teased that Keisha may finally receive a moment of relief. “She’s always stressed, she’s always facing a challenge, climbing a mountain, crying. I was really happy that she just got a really soft girl moment this season. It didn’t last long, but we saw it,” she said.
Hall quickly followed with a response, “I think for this season, my tease would be that we’ll see Tiffany finally come into an alignment of who she is, who she wants to be, and what’s next for her. It won’t be as many impulsive decisions, but it’ll be grounded.”
Waithe purposely brought difficult decisions and endings to this season’s storyline, as the theme for season 8 is “The Coldest Winter Ever.” According to her, the harsh climate of Chicago drove the direction for the final chapter. “Well, we knew we were going to be in Chicago in February/January, which is very cold, but we knew we’d wrap up in May. That’s the interesting thing about the Chi, winters are brutal. I mean, anybody from Chicago knows that you never forget that windshield, but spring eventually comes, and that is what I love. We wanted the show to reflect that weather – how the cold is relentless and doesn’t let up until it does, it always does, which is a metaphor for life,” she said.
As Waithe and The Chi begin to close out the series, the ensemble she assembled feels most meaningful in how the story has evolved rather than how it began. “I think what feels the most meaningful is the fact that I always wanted the show to be an ensemble. That happened without me doing anything myself – the universe said this show needs to be an ensemble, so some things are going to happen, and that’s going to force you to look at all the characters, and it started to blossom,” she shared. “I think that because the show wasn’t just focused on this one straight Black man, people would say, ‘Why does everybody get to be a lead character?’ Why does everybody get to be focused on in this show?’ It’s because it doesn’t matter what walk of life you come from, how you love, how you show up in the world. You deserve to be seen as a lead character, in scenes, and in this show. That was important to me. That everybody feels seen, not only a particular group amongst us.”
Waithe hopes viewers will revisit The Chi, years after the final season. “It’s really whether or not people will talk about the show in 10 years from now or if they want to rewatch it 10 years from now… that’s the hope, but that’s the legacy of a TV show – shows that people go back and revisit. I do that all the time. I go back and look at shows that I watched in real time and see how they feel to me now that I’m older and I’ve lived more life. I hope that audiences go back and revisit The Chi in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and it’ll change what they’re relating to,” she said.
