By Alex Jones
Published: Jul. 17, 2019 at 4:19 PM EDT
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - A new Netflix comedy premiering just last week is set in the good, ole Fountain City, but did the Los Angeles-filmed “Family Reunion” capture the real Columbus?
The ten-episode “Family Reunion,” headlined by Tia Mowry-Hardrict and Loretta Devine, tells the story of the Seattle-based McKellan family who travel back to their roots in “small-town” Columbus, Ga. for the Family Reunion.
The McKellan family is made up of M’Dear and Jebediah, who live in Columbus throughout the series, their son Moz, his wife Cocoa and their four children: Jade, Shaka, Mazzi and Ami.
News Leader 9 watched each of the ten episodes to find the references in each episode.
*Spoiler Alert* If you read any more, you might read some plot points you don’t want to if you’re planning on watching the show.
The end of the theme song that plays in front of each episode features the McKellan family standing outside their home with a water tower in the background saying, “Welcome to Columbus, Georgia.”
Here’s a list of references, both positive and negative, to Columbus broken down by each episode
Episode 1: “Remember How This All Started?”
- 14-year-old Jade has one of the first lines of the series, calling their new setting the “boonies of Columbus, Ga.”
- The family can smell Loretta Devine’s character M’Dear’s cooking all the way from the airport.
- Jade says Columbus is “hot, like Africa hot.”
- When Jade asks for the WiFi password due to the bad reception, Grandpa Jeb says they don’t have WiFi.
- Jade asks Ava, another teenage girl, if there’s anything to do in this “boring, country town.”
- Ava tells her friends that Jade assumes that they’re all “Bamas.”
- Cocoa, played by Tia Mowry-Hardrict, says she is growing to like Columbus, saying life is slower, more community-oriented and everyone is friendly with their neighbors.
- Moz, Cocoa’s husband and M’Dear’s son, complains that it is humid and the mosquitoes are “the size of bats.”
- Moz and Cocoa decide that they want to move their family back to Columbus.
- Jade is not happy with Moz and Cocoa’s decision to move them to Georgia, saying she doesn’t want to stay in “Whoville.”
- Shaka, Mazzi and Ami, the pair’s three other children, all seem happy with the move saying the food is better in Columbus than Seattle.
Episode 2: “Remember Charlie Wilson?”
- None
Episode 3: “Remember Vacation Bible School?”
- Cocoa has a tough time dealing with Columbus’ humidity. She straightens her hair to take a new driver’s license photo, walks outside and immediately re-enters with hair frizzled out from the humidity.
Episode 4: “Remember When I Lost My Sister?”
- Jade tells her teenage crush Drew that she hasn’t quite come to peace with moving to Columbus, to which he replies, “Why? We’ve got everything Seattle’s got.”
- Drew adds that Columbus has the added bonus of having him. Jade says the jury is still out on if that’s a bonus, telling him he might be “as a country as a sugar sandwich.”
- Cocoa calls Columbus “different,” saying she feels like “Dorothy lost in a sanctified Oz.”
- With sarcasm dripping from her voice, Cocoa says everyone told her Columbus is a “wonderful place to raise our children.”
- Cocoa also makes reference to the notion of ‘small town, small mind’ after M’Dear refuses to learn about the principles of other religions aside from Christianity alone, which she eventually does.
Episode 5: “Remember Grace Under Fire?”
- None
Episode 6: “Remember That Crazy Road Trip?”
- None
Episode 7: “Remember When the First Day of School?”
- 10-year-old Mazzi gets a teacher who hands out candy during class to which he exclaims “I love Columbus! I’m so glad we moved here!”
- 12-year-old Shaka attempts to get one of his female classmates’ phone number. When she gives it to him, she replies with area code 762.
Episode 8: “Remember Macho Mazzi?”
- Jade decides to enter the Miss Columbus Teen Pageant.
- The kids’ school is revealed to be named Maya Angelou Magnet Academy with Black Panthers as its mascot, which does not exist.
Episode 9: “Remember Black Elvis?”
- M’Dear tells the four kids about their family’s history telling them that Columbus was and is “a good place to grow up.”
- M’Dear says The Columbus Museum wants her to donate a broom every married couple in their family, except Moz and Cocoa, jumped over at their wedding dating back to the time of slavery.
Episode 10: “Remember When Our Boys Became Men?”
- Moz and Cocoa are pulled over by a policeman. The patch on his uniform is close to the Columbus Police Department’s ship logo.
- Earlier in the episode, Shaka, Mazzi and their friend Elvis were held at gunpoint by two police officers, including the one who will later pull over Moz and Cocoa, on suspicion of breaking into homes. After being pulled over, Cocoa decides that she doesn’t want to live somewhere she doesn’t feel like her family can be safe and says they should move back to Seattle.
You can stream Part One of Season One of “Family Reunion” on Netflix.
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