AIRDATE 10 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15 (Showtime)
CAST Jay Pharoah, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Jacob Ming-Trent, Lonnie Chavis, Cleopatra Coleman
CREATORS Tom Kapinos, Chris Spencer and Buddy Lewis
Watchable thanks to a charismatic lead turn by Jay Pharoah, Showtime’s White Famous feels like a relic of the TV landscape three years ago, before series like Atlanta, Master of None and Better Things redefined the making-itin- entertainment small-screen comedy subgenre.
In those shows, creator-director-stars funnel familiar stories through a uniquely personal perspective; in this one, co-creator Tom Kapinos (Californication), producer Jamie Foxx and recurring director Tim Story (Ride Along) struggle to make things feel fresh.
Pharoah is Floyd, a SoCal stand-up comic content with a level of fame one character describes as “east of the 10, south of Crenshaw.” The alternative is to…