Next Stop

Next Stop is a Canadian comedy anthology web series created by Jabbari Weekes, Tichaona Tapambwa, and Phil Witmer. It premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel on February 26, 2019. The series is executive produced by Amar Wala, Founder, Scarborough Pictures and set in Toronto.
At the beginning of 2020, Scarborough Pictures optioned the series. In October 2020, the series was added to CBC Gem and is currently in development for a second season.
Plot.
NEXT STOP chronicles the lives of Black Torontonians struggling to stay afloat and sane in the sprawling city. The show charts a course through chaotic, surreal, and hilarious vignettes of Toronto "yutes" confronting the challenges of life in a competitive, expensive, and rapidly changing city.
History.
According to the creators, NEXT STOP was created out of necessity. Just before the show was created, Jabbari Weekes, Tichaona Tapambwa, Phil Witmer and some of the core cast were laid off from work within the same time period. This is when the team started looking for shows about black life in Toronto but saw a void. The void was a show that navigated between the over earnestness of local dramas and the heightened nature of comedy sketches. Consequently, the question that would propel the birth of the series was, “What about the people in-between who can be silly and serious?”
They decided to self-fund the first season using their savings and severance packages according to co-creators Jabbari Weekes and Tichaona Tapambwa. Due to the steady popularity of the series, Scarborough Pictures picked it up for production rights. In October 2020, the series was picked up later by CBC for their digital platform CBC Gem. 
Episodes.
Some characters appear in one or more episodes as the protagonist, and in other episodes as background characters or new characters entirely. Jordan Hayles and Vanessa Adams are the protagonists in one episode, and in another play the roles of random Uber passengers who inadvertently incite a debate with the protagonist.
Reception.
NEXT STOP has been received positively in the press. Radheyan Simonpillai, in NOW magazine, called NEXT STOP “a promising new show.” The Globe and Mail’s John Doyle wrote that it was “a small scale jewel of a series.” Kathleen Newman-Bremang praised the series in Refinery 29 comparing it to Issa Rae’s The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl saying "These 4-5 minute pops of joy are just the beginning while calling Vanessa Adams a "standout" and “formidable Black talent.”