Showtime released the full length trailer for W. Kamau Bell’s docuseries on Bill Cosby, “We Need to Talk About Cosby,” which you can watch in the player above.
The series will premiere Sunday, Jan. 30, at 10 p.m. ET, with all episodes available for streaming on Showtime and VOD the same day. The docuseries will premiere at Sundance 2022 on Jan. 22.
Here’s a logline for the series: “The series explores the complex story of Cosby’s life and work, weighing his actions against his indisputable global influence through interviews with comedians, cultural commentators, journalists and women who share their most personal, harrowing encounters with Cosby. Through archival footage, Cosby reveals who he may have been all along – the antithesis of the principled, public figure who became a hero, not only to African American people but to all people.”
Cosby was convicted in 2018 of a felony sexual assault charge and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but was released after three earlier in 2021 when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned that conviction.
While a Pennsylvania appeals court last year upheld Cosby’s conviction, rejecting his legal team’s argument that he wasn’t given a fair trial, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who arrested Cosby in 2015, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby with any crimes when the comedian agreed to give potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s civil case.
The court called Cosby’s arrest and later conviction “an affront to fundamental fairness, particularly when it results in a criminal prosecution that was forgone for more than a decade” and argued that “fair play and decency” required the DA to honor his predecessor’s agreement.
Steele is appealing that decision to the Supreme Court.
“We Need to Talk About Cosby” is a Boardwalk Pictures Production in association with WKB Industries for Showtime, directed by W. Kamau Bell. The series is executive produced by Bell, Andrew Fried, Katie A. King, Dane Lillegard, Jordan Wynn and Sarina Roma. King also serves as showrunner and Geraldine Porras serves as a co-executive producer.