Zendaya Crashes 'black-ish's Original Holiday

Compared to some shows, black-ish isn't filled with many guest stars, so they could just rest on the surprise of seeing a famous face rather than create a compelling character. But Zendaya's guest appearance on black-ish is actually woven well into the episode's story. Fed up with Father's Day, Dre creates a new holiday called "Daddy's Day," hoping to get better gifts, breakfasts, and distinguish himself from deadbeat fathers like his own, who was more interested in drinking scotch than helping to raise his children. And Zendaya's Resheida was raised just like Dre, so she also feels that good dads deserve some extra attention. That appreciation leads Dre to cast Resheida in his "Daddy's Day" commercial, and eventually start to mentor the teen, neglecting the disinterested Zoey.

But rather than musing on how important the role fathers fill or some other social commentary route, somehow this pits Zoey and her friend against one another, which seems a little unfair. One is a rich kid living in the suburbs with both parents, while the other is a scholarship kid raised in a bad neighborhood by a single woman. It hardly seems like Zoey failing her driver's permit test for the first time is going to seriously impede her in any way — and so her jealousy of the single afternoon her dad spends giving Resheida advice seems a little petty. But then again, Zoey has always seemed a little dull compared to her madcap family members.

Dre can't stand to see his daughter disappointed, and he tanks the "Daddy's Day" pitch meeting by implying that he's been abusing Resheida instead of just helping her with her driver's test. It would be in bad taste if it didn't come out of literally nowhere — his relationship with Resheida is so purely platonic and Zendaya's performance is so confident that it feels unnecessary to laugh at Dre for trying to help her character. Actually, she's a much more entertaining character than Zoey is. I feel like Dre — why can't Resheida stick around?

The B-plot, where Junior sucks up to his mom until supposedly they are so close it resembles Dre's relationship with Ruby is irrelevant to the story in the episode and is a waste of Tracee Ellis Ross — black-ish is due for another great Bow episode.

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