“Sorry brother, I just want to say you’re making some important shit.”

Terence Nance is talking about his television directorial debut Random Acts of Flyness when a man interrupts to commend him on the show. Nance thanks him before continuing the interview but the brief exchange is indicative of the moment he’s having right now. That this series — which features everything from skits where Black Thought wonders if he’s objectifying Michelle Obama to a vignette titled “Everybody Dies” where a black woman plays the grim reaper who sends black kids to their end — is, of course, resonating with HBO’s audience. But it is particularly and especially resonating with their black audience.

To accurately describe Random Acts of Flyness is difficult. Fans have taken to Twitter to offer numerous descriptions of the show but this is arguably the best one, from user @amiriboykin: “Random Acts of Flyness is a postmodern dystopian negro spiritual.” As absurd as it sounds the description is accurate — in theory anyway. Random Acts offers representations of blackness not often seen on TV. The show also plays with viewers’ expectations and ideas of blackness. When Random Acts of Flyness’ first episode culminates to a standoff with Nance and a police officer, viewers will surely expect the worst. But when Nance commits a literal act of flyness and flies to freedom, the relief is just as joyful as it is humorous, Nance reimagining a common occurrence for black people in a way that’s obviously unreal but wonderfully enchanting.

Random Acts of Flyness‘ origins date back to 2006 when a 24-year-old Nance was studying visual art at New York University. Around this time Nance’s younger brother, Nelson Nance — who goes by his music moniker Nelson Bandela and is a writer on the show — suggested that they try and get in touch with TV One to see if they could take over its block of late-night programming. The pair never acted on the idea and Nance turned his focus to directing and producing several short films instead. One of the most notable of those shorts is An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, a film that foreshadowed both themes and filming techniques that would later be presented in Random Acts of Flyness, as it shifts between animation and live-action sequences to tell the story of an artist — portrayed by Nance — who is stood up on a date by a woman.

In 2014, Nance revisited the TV show idea when Tamir Muhammad — who now serves as an Executive Producer on Random Acts — approached him about making a news show through OneFifty, a mini-studio within Time Warner. With OneFifty, Nance was able to complete a part of the show’s pilot and finished it up after HBO commissioned it. In the process, he hired people he worked with on previous projects to explore the complexities of blackness’ past, present, and future through the lens of Random Acts. Blackness isn’t a monolith, and how it’s examined, explored, and celebrated doesn’t need to be either. Which is why Random Acts is being so well-received. So much so that news of its renewal was announced before the first season’s completion.

Okayplayer spoke with Nance about how being from Dallas, Texas, influences the show, black surrealism, and getting compared to Donald Glover’s Atlanta.