Entergalactic is a love story in more ways than one — to the city of New York; to fashion, notably to the TV event’s costume designer, the late legend Virgil Abloh; to music; to being young. At the core of Scott Mescudi and Kenya Barris’s animated tale, however, are two people, Jabari (Scott Mescudi) and Meadow (Jessica Williams), and the power of their connection.

Although Entergalactic borrows elements from past New York-set rom-coms — the dream job, the downtown studio apartment, the two best friends sharing misguided advice over boxes of takeout, the random meet-cute, and so on — its focus on young Black love offers something new. “I just haven’t really seen that many [rom-coms] with any of us in them, which is what inspired me to do Entergalactic,” says Mescudi, who also wrote, produced, and composed music for the television event. “It was really important to show Black love in this way.”

His onscreen love interests agree. Laura Harrier, who plays Jabari’s ex-girlfriend Carmen, says, “It’s really nice that it felt real. It didn’t feel like this stereotypical Black love drama we’ve been so inundated with for so long.” Williams, whose character Meadow is a talented young photographer who lives across the hall from Jabari, describes how the love story enabled Entergalactic to center fresh, nuanced characters: “I like seeing people of color and Black women in this lens of someone with flaws falling in love.” 

With Jabari and Meadow, the TV event offers a powerful portrayal of a Black couple figuring out relationships, forging careers, and learning to love themselves. “Love will fix and heal everything — that’s the answer,” Mescudi emphasizes. “But it will hurt us all, it’ll let us down, it’ll beat us up. It’ll heal us all, too. Love is the answer, and that’s what Entergalatic is about: showing that the connection these two people have is the most powerful and most important thing.”