Sidney Poitier once said Black actors carry a terrific burden. In the case of musician/actor Vince Staples, it's a series of bewildering misadventures. A kind-of-famous, mostly-rich guy in his old neighborhood, Staples navigates tense family cookouts, threatening street encounters and a bank heist — all while keeping up his cool exterior.

1. The Pilot

The pilot episode of The Vince Staples Show is a great way to introduce viewers to the show. It shows how this series will be a fusion of music and comedy. It also gives viewers a taste of what to expect from the rest of the episodes. It is a very interesting and unique show.

The first episode is a dark comedy that centers around rapper Vince Staples’ wildly chaotic life. It follows him through a night in jail, tense family cookouts, a fight with a childhood rival and even trying to find something to eat at a grungy Long Beach theme park.

Unlike other rap comedies, The Vince Staples Show is less interested in the fame game and more in capturing a larger sense of life on the margins. There is a lot of deadpan wry humor and beneath the surface, a seething fury that makes it a compelling watch. Whether it's his mooching relatives, the cops who quote his lyrics back to him or a tenacious cellmate flaunting his singing abilities, this is one of Netflix’s most entertaining new releases.

2. The First Episode

Staples is a natural on camera and his deadpan Buster Keaton persona works well with the show’s dark, off-kilter humor. This is particularly apparent in the episode centered on a family cookout, where Vince’s mother, Anita (guest star Vanessa Bell Calloway) is a prickly hostess and his elder uncle an angry ex-USC football player who has fallen out of favor with their community.

In this first episode, we see that even though Vince is a successful rapper available on flixtor  with a new house and a loving girlfriend, his fame isn’t enough to get him out of a ticket for speeding or to excite kids when he gives a class speech. His level of success is just about sufficient to impress a racist police officer and to get him into jail, where he encounters old neighborhood friends who are bank thieves.

But despite all these wild occurrences, Vince is cool as a cucumber. His calm countenance becomes a nonverbal bit in itself as the show’s chaos swirls around him, from mooching relatives to fanboy cops and disturbed costumed mascots at an amusement park. Bekon’s thoughtful music — from the grave piano playing as Vince exits the bank in “Black Business” to the upbeat, gospel-inspired score at the end of the episode “Red Door” — adds another layer of humor and poignancy to the proceedings.

3. The Second Episode

In the second episode, Staples is surrounded by the kind of pitfalls his fame brings: a black cop who knows his music, a bank heist his neighborhood friends are trying to pull, and an ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend who wants to settle a score. He's got a new home with girlfriend Deja (Andrea Ellsworth) and a houseful of kids he cares about, but he still can't quite escape the life that brought him to this place.

He tries to make the best of it in a way that doesn't alienate anyone. His deadpan delivery, a continuation of his public persona, doesn't quite ring true in moments where he interacts with his family.

The series occasionally tackles bigger issues — like mass incarceration and the difficult relationship with his mother (Coming to America's Vanessa Bell Calloway). But even when it does, these topics are never used as a soapbox, just another aspect of this very strange world. There are so many outlandish things that could happen in this setting, and the episodes often go to unexpected places.

4. The Third Episode

Whether at his neighborhood's annual block party, getting beaten by costumed mascots in an amusement park or being interrogated by police during a traffic stop, Vince Staples never seems flustered. Even when he's being heckled by a snotty bank manager or squabbling with his own family over paternal responsibilities, the rapper remains steadfastly cool as he floats above the carnage.

The series takes a number of absurd adventures and incorporates them into a narrative that touches on some integral aspects of Black life. But the show is limited to five episodes and never gets a chance to explore those issues in great depth.

Even so, it manages to snag some laughs along the way. In a scene that could have been an over-the-top comedy, the bank robbers compare themselves to George Clooney and Queen Latifah during their getaway. But the real star here is Staples himself, whose deadpan wit is in full effect as he navigates the surreal goings-on around him. The result is a fun and insightful look at what it means to be a successful rapper who never really leaves his old neighborhood behind.

5. The Final Episode

The final episode finds Vince going to his high school as an alumni speaker and telling the kids about his life. Then, he's called into the bathroom to talk with one of his former students who wanted to make some money off a marijuana deal and he helped him out. Later, he goes to a bank where the robbers are and realizes that the leader is an old friend of his. So, he decides to help them out and gets dragged into the middle of the robbery.

The surreal world of the series is what makes it so funny. It's a dark satire that touches on many important issues, like mass incarceration, gun violence and the struggles of inner-city black America. However, it never takes itself too seriously, and Staples' deadpan delivery keeps the humor in check.

The Vince Staples Show Movie Review may not have the same appeal as a self-flagellating comedy diary or a more formally ambitious exploration of its outskirts, but it is still a captivating and funny look at what it's really like to be a rapper.