HOLLYWOOD—I watched the first few episodes of the Netflix guilty pleasure Tyler Perry’s “Beauty in Black” last year when it premiered, and everyone was talking about it. So, when I heard the second half of the season would be dropping more episodes, I was very eager to see how things would unfold after that intense cliffhanger where Kimmie drove her vehicle into Body pinning her against another car. Yeah, safe to say Body was a goner and it was no spoiler.
The major bulk of the second half of the season was Kimmi’s mission to rescue her little sister, Sylvie and when I say I was invested in the narrative, I truly was. I literally binged the entire second half of the first season in a single day because I wanted to know how things would end. There has been plenty of talk about the series not being great in terms of character development, dialogue or story, but I didn’t care. It’s kind of like it’s so bad that it’s good, but it’s not really all that bad either.
I’ve heard a lot of people say there are no redeemable characters in the series, and I have to disagree. Are there a lot of bad people and villains? Without a doubt. However, Perry always finds a way to bring a glimmer of hope, even if it’s the absolute smallest to get the viewer invested in what is unfolding.
Yes, as a viewer you automatically connect with Kimmi, she is our protagonist who just seems to be dealt a bad hand time and time again, but after a chance meeting with a powerful man, Horace Bellarie, all changes. Secrets are exposed, plans are made, treachery is uncovered, and you don’t know who you can and cannot trust. It is a question of trust for Kimmie and the ONLY people she trusts are Angel and Rain.
Some characters are just plan evil and the members of the Bellarie family tells you that perhaps nobody is redeemable, if there is it’s Horace and that says a lot because he is the most powerful, and wicked out of the entire family because he wants to protect his father’s legacy, while preventing his spoiled, bratty useless sons from inheriting his empire. Yeah, Roy and Charles are absolute losers. I don’t want to spoil the second half of the first season because it is so exciting that I don’t want to spoil any surprises.
I don’t have the biggest hopes for Tyler Perry TV shows after being disappointed beyond words after giving almost eight years to his series “The Haves and the Have Nots” to be given a subpar, just dreadful finale that pissed me off. The same sentiment could be echoed for his series “If Loving You is Wrong” that had a terrible ending after more than five seasons.
If your audience is investing in your show, you must land the ending and I can say, this second half was a thriller. I won’t spoil how it culminates, but I will say there is plenty of death, characters you expect and don’t expect, secrets are exposed, rivalries align and even more chaos erupts before everything culminates. Tyler Perry’s “Beauty in Black” is now available for viewing on Netflix.
