PRess & Reviews gallery
Recent Press
Deadline Contenders TV: Docs + Unscripted, “We Need To Talk About Cosby”
Deadline video interview, April 2022
“As Bell and executive producer Katie King discuss during the Contenders panel, while Cosby took it upon himself to tell Black men how to live their lives, he is alleged to have spent decades assaulting over 60 women. Numerous victims tell their stories in the docuseries.” – Mike Fleming, Jr
‘We Need to Talk About Cosby’
Explores the Sickening
Double Life of ‘America’s Dad’
Rolling Stone, January 27, 2022
“W. Kamau Bell’s four-part docuseries is a deeply thoughtful, searing examination of Bill Cosby’s path from pop-cultural hero to accused serial rapist.” – Alan Sepinwall
Connie Britton, HBO Max Team for ‘All the Single Ladies’ Doc
by Rick Porter
CNN’s Premiere of Series ‘The Eighties’ Wins in Demo among News Networks
by Rick Kessel
September 20, 2019 by Troy Patterson
September 20, 2019 by Troy Patterson
Live Wire With Luke Burbank podcast
Filmmakers W. Kamau Bell & Katie King discuss their Showtime docuseries “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” which takes a look at Bill Cosby’s rise and fall from grace through the experiences of his accusers…
Reality Life with Kate Casey podcast interview
Ep 439: Katie King, Executive Producer of We Need to Talk About Cosby, a Showtime 4-part series by Comic-director W. Kamau Bell exploring Bill Cosby’s life and work, weighing his actions against his indisputable influence through interviews with comedians, cultural commentators, journalists and women who share their personal encounters with him.
W. Kamau Bell’s ‘We Need to Talk About Cosby’: TV Review | Sundance 2022
Hollywood Reporter, January 2022
“We Need to Talk About Cosby is, for the most part, exactly the right documentary for the moment and Bell is clearly the right filmmaker to have crafted it… It’s provocative and important stuff.” – Daniel Fienberg
We Need to Talk About Cosby
“Bell’s approach is smart in that he avoids much of the traditional chronological approach to true-crime series or bio-docs. One of his best decisions, and what really elevates the series, is how cleverly he eschews the “fall from grace” structure.” – Brian Tallerico
W. KAMAU BELL’S “WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT COSBY” MAKES ENGAGING WITH A DIFFICULT CONVERSATION POSSIBLE
Sundance.org, January 2022
“Bell’s series pulls back the curtain on accusations from over 60 women that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted throughout his 50+ year career, and examines why the allegations against the globally known comedian came as such a shock to the world after decades of hard-fought progress for the visibility and pride of Black Americans on and off screen.
“That’s a delicate balance that Katie A. King, Geraldine L. Porras, and I came to,” the director and stand-up comedian explains in the post-premiere conversation… “why it’s important to hear directly from survivors and not reduce them to newsclips.”
3 Valuable Lessons From Bill Maher’s 25th Anniversary Special
by S. Fairyington
Why You Can’t Miss Beyond the Reasons, 13 Reasons Why’s Companion piece
by Shannon Vestal Robson
by CNN Press Room
A Crisis of Fanhood and Faith in “We Need to Talk About Cosby”
“The series is especially strong when it dramatizes the concurrence of Cosby’s increasing prestige with accounts of his predatory behavior. Survivors dictate the narrative in these segments, but Bell does not identify the women as survivors when we meet them. They might be mistaken for cultural critics, and, in a way, that’s precisely what they are: experts on how fictional image and the power it provides can be leveraged to facilitate bad behavior.” – Doreen St. Felix
‘Cola Wars’ Review: What’s in Your Glass?
Time Shifted Ratings
Totally Rad, CNN's The Eighties
Time Shifted Ratings
Totally Rad, CNN's The Eighties
JUly 7, 2015 by Zack SeeMayer
JUly 7, 2015 by Zack SeeMayer
February 10, 2014 by Troy Patterson
February 10, 2014 by Troy Patterson