Created by Tarell Alvin McCraney, starring Akili McDowell, Alana Arenas, Isaiah Johnson, Ade Chike Torbert, and Travis Coles, “David Makes Man” is an American coming-of-age drama television series, following a young prodigy living in Florida who looks for a way out of his poor neighborhood, the first season of which aired on August 14, 2019.
Tarell McCraney serves as executive producer alongside showrunner Dee Harris-Lawrence. Mike Kelley and Melissa Loy also executive produce under their production banner Page Fright. Harpo Films, Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society, and John Strauss are also executive producers.
The Second Season premiered on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at 9:00 P.M on OWN.
Season two finds David in his 30s (played by Kwame Patterson, “Snowfall,” “The Wire”), a rising businessman facing an opportunity that will change him and his community forever. The mounting pressure forces David to choose between the instincts that helped him survive or finding a new way to truly live.
With regard to the time jump in Season two, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Dee Harris-Lawrence said, “That was something that even in the first season Tarell had discussed regarding David’s arc. He was interested in going forward from David at 15 to the David who has led this whole life, gotten into Hurston, and done everything to keep his brother (Cayden K. Williams) out of trouble.”
What does it do to a young man as you go forward in life in your 30s when you don’t deal with the trauma that you’ve been through? Especially when other people in your life have moved on, but in the present, you’re still using the same tools you did in your youth? You could either still choose those instincts that helped you survive, even though they’re outdated and you don’t need them anymore, or you can find a way, go through therapy, and try to drill down on how to truly live instead of just survive.”