Giants (web series)

Giants is an American web series created by James Bland and starring Bland, Sean Samuels, and Vanessa Baiden as the lead characters. The series premiered on Issa Rae's YouTube channel on January 25, 2017.^[1] A second season premiered on the same channel in 2018.^[2] Both seasons were financed by crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo. It has since been acquired and released for streaming on BET+.^[3]

Giants
Genre	Drama
Created by	James Bland
Written by	James Bland, Vanessa Baden, Christina Martin, J. August Richards
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	13
Production
Executive producers	Issa Rae, Jussie Smollett
Running time	16-68 minutes
Original release
Network	YouTube, BET+
Release	January 25, 2017 (2017-01-25) – April 25, 2018 (2018-04-25)

The series has won numerous accolades, including two Daytime Emmy Awards, a Streamy Award, and multiple Indie Series Awards. The series received praise from the media for its depiction of mental illness in the African American community.^[4][2][5][6]

Plot

Giants chronicles the trials and tribulations of three African American friends as they approach their thirties, each battling their own inner "giants" as they navigate adulthood.^[7]

Background

Bland worked on several other series before writing Giants, and following the success of Issa Rae's Awkward Black Girl, he felt inspired to make his own series.^{[citation needed]} After writing the first season, Bland created an Indiegogo campaign to crowdfund the series. Rae and actor Jussie Smollett subsequently came on board as executive producers.^[1]

Release

The first season was released through Issa Rae's YouTube channel in 2017, followed by the second season in 2018.^[8][9][10] The series was then picked up and re-released by BET+.^[3]

Episodes

The first season, released on January 25, 2017, consists of six episodes, while the second, which consists of seven episodes, was released on February 21, 2018. Episodes were released once a week on a weekly basis.^[a]

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	6		January 25, 2017 (2017-01-25)	March 1, 2017 (2017-03-01)
2	7		February 21, 2018 (2018-02-21)	April 25, 2018 (2018-04-25)

Accolades

Giants has won numerous accolades.^[7] In 2018, the series won the award for Best Drama Series at the 8th annual Streamy Awards.^[11] In 2019, the series received 11 Daytime Emmy Award nominations, winning two.^[12] At the 10th annual Indie Series Awards, Giants won a record-breaking seven awards,^[13] in addition to receiving the most nominations that year (19).^[14]