Tyler Perry's The Have and Have Nots: Season 1 Review

When I first heard about Tyler Perry's The Have and the Have Nots I wasn't too thrilled about it. I have a love hate relationship with Tyler Perry. Also the African-American masses were raving about it through social media so that also steered me away from it. Following in the same steps of Scandal, I simply feel that blacks don't give a lot of shows a chance unless it is involving a strong black lead or cast. About 3-4 episodes in however I found myself at home with nothing to watch and a DVR with the first several episodes recorded. I did what any primetime junkie would do. I watched.

Needless to say it had quickly become my guilty pleasure and the number one show I loved to hate. It is sooo deliciously Tyler Perry and my African-American roots couldn't seem to refrain from the unnecessary drama that he created. Watching the show is like looking at a terrible car wreck, you can't help but to look. It has been argued that rather or not this series is a soap. I honestly have never liked soap operas but I will say that it is a soap without being completely boring. The exaggerated drama is there but the characters are so much more interesting than those you would see on a common soap. The story line always puts me in a mind of Tyler Perry's movie entitled "A Family that Prays" which is unoriginal but also a good thing since I feel that it is Perry's best movie. The resemblance is so close he might as well had called the series the same thing.

The Have and the Have Nots is about three different families whose lives intertwine. On one hand you have the Cryers whom are a wealthy white family, then you have the Harringtons who are friends of the Cryer who are also wealthy but black, then you have the Youngs that are lower class and African-American. The story plays out by these three family's interacting with one another. It all starts off with Candace Young (Tika Sumpter) sleeping with Jim Cryer (John Schneider) and then spiraling out of control from there when her mother Hannah Young (Crystal R. Fox) gets a job as a maid for Katheryn Cryer (Renee Lawless). Tika Sumpter is primarily the reason that I was soo hooked. She plays her character Candace so well and commands attention whenever she is on the screen. It is definitely a breakout role for the young star. However as the series progressed it became more evident that a lot of the other characters have just as big of personalities. Primarily Katheryn Cryer who easily got Candace together when she revealed that Jim was having an affair with her. Katheryn promptly called her "Nine" and sent Candace packing. Also, Veronica Harrington played by Angela Robinson has proved to be a force to be reckoned with. She is that black lady that NO ONE likes in real life but is a thrill to watch on screen. Tyler Perry of course doesn't stray from using stereo types in this series but most of the time it is in a way that is tasteful.

There are also other characters such as Benny Young (Tyler Leply) who Tyler Perry just seems to use as a poor scapegoat to keep the plot going. I feel so bad for him because the guy just can't seem to get a break between being framed and more recently getting hit by a car. He does however provide some good eye candy whenever he is on screen. Tyler sure knows how to cast them.

The Cryer siblings consist of Amanda Cryer (Jacyln Betham) and Wyatt Cryer (Aaron O'connor). Rich white kids with issues. Nothing original there. Tyler really doesn't do a good job incorporating them into the storyline. There was even a point where Wyatt was complete absent for two episodes back to back. Amanda is a suicidal teenager with issues and tries to kill herself after getting raped by her teacher. Wyatt is a recovering drug addict that is constantly followed by Jeffery Harrington (Gavin Houston) who is secretly in love with him. The struggle of Jeffery's character may be what I hate most about the show but more on that later.

What I love about The Have and the Have Nots are the relationships between the characters. I especially love that of Hannah and Katheryn. It just seems so genuine and special. I like how Perry gave them the common ordeal of Cancer so that they could relate to each other initially. I like that Candace can legitimately care about Amanda as a friend but totally try to ruin her father Jim. It is also fun to see the dynamic characters such as Candace, Katheryn, and Veronica go at it. Katheryn is still at the top of my list at this point. I don't think anyone can get her together. I also love the battle of the genders seen on this show. In one corner you have Jim and his friends and in the other you have Candace, Veronica, and Katheryn putting a thorn in their side. It causes for a great portrayal of the type of power woman still have in one is widely considered to be a man's world.

What I hate about the show is that it is SO Tyler Perry. The drama is ridiculous and unnecessary at times. I feel as if Perry just thinks, "Okay how can I make this situation worse"? I understand that it is a soap opera but DAMN. The show could've ended exactly how it did without Amanda getting raped and trying to kill herself or Jim having slept with the Hispanic housemaid. Also I hate when things are too coincidental in any type of narrative. I understand you have a small cast to work with but there are ways to work around that and make the story still believable. But above all I absolutely HATE how Perry dealt with Jeffery's character. Tyler Perry has been accused of being gay since he was doing plays. So I would think that he would be able to write a homosexual experience in a way that is true and not stereotypical. I was wrong. Jefferey is documented as having a crush on Wyatt earlier on and also called out by Candace. The early scenes with Jefferey however promote the idea that gay males often have secret crushes on their heterosexual friends or peers which is almost NEVER the case. I couldn't believe that Perry would write something like that. Also Jefferey acts as if he is just learning he is straight. Jefferey is way to damn old to be discovering his sexuality and way too damn smart and educated to have acted the way he did over Wyatt as well as get tricked by him. The scene was just messy and shameful. The only admirable part about Jefferey's experience is him having to deal with Veronica's reaction to his coming out. That is something that many can relate to and actually makes you feel for Jefferey. Him falling in love with Wyatt was ridiculous and not helpful to the gay black community at all.

All in all, The Have and the Have Nots is a wonderful addition to the Oprah Winfrey Network and should run for several more seasons. I will be watching with caution of course. In the next season I do hope to see more depth from the characters though. I don't feel as if the main characters have been flushed out enough to make them completely human. I mean I can totally believe I could me a person just like Candace Young but I also feel that person would have more of a story to tell than, "me and my mother just never got along." So I do feel like Tyler has great characters it is just that we are 10 episodes in/done with the first season and the characters are still not nearly developed enough. If he does that and makes the drama more believable I think we will see Perry's best work outside of his plays since A Family that Prays.

Movie Review: Lee Daniel's The Butler

When I sat down to watch Lee Daniel's The Butler, I was all but unenthusiastic. The movie had received a ton of hype and for very good reason. It had an all-star cast rich with Oscar winners and nominees as well as several household names. I was most excited for Oprah's return to the big screen. I mean come on, who can not be excited for Oprah? That woman is amazing. I waited a while into the release of this movie in order to give people time to see it as I do plan not to hold back any information. So be warned, this review contains spoilers.

In a nutshell the butler is a story that gives a historic account of a butler that served under eight presidents. The story is loosely based on real life butler. And when I say loosely I mean loosely! It is definitely a story that takes a real life experience and attempts to transform it into something compelling and interesting. From the time that Cecil's (Forest Whitaker) father is shot and his mother is raped while he was in the share cropping fields you feel an emotional connection with the character and it very easily explains how he came to be a "house nigga". I like this scene because displays how Cecil gained his skills that would help him to become established at the cost of his fathers death. It also shows how slave owners did have some kind of sympathy and compassion for their slaves. Fast forward to adult life he is married to Gloria (Winfrey) and the story morphs into one about two very different experiences during the Civil Rights movement. The contrast is between Cecil who is a subservient African-American butler and his son Louis (David Oyelowo) who is dedicated to fighting against the oppression of the civil rights era. His son joins the freedom writers as well as the black panthers in the process. Daniels does a fine job with his juxtaposition of these two themes in a way that ignites passion within his audience. The scene where Cecil is serving the White House guests during a dinner while his son is getting taunted during sit-ins in the house is both chilling and enthralling. Forest Whitaker does a phenomal job with the physical characteristics and movements for his character however I felt as though his character never really experienced a dramatic change. I think the role wasn't able to really be explored because of it's nature. He was an African-American Butler serving during the mid 20th century. Only to be seen and not heard. I simply wish he would've been more active within his domestic life. It never seemed as though it pained him to endure serving for so long and listening in on all the racism and remarks without being able to comment. In my African American literature class we learned of a character in slave narratives that was described as somewhat educated but undeniably obedient to their owner. This type of character is also portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in D'Jango unchained. Imagine if D'Jango had been a movie based around Jackson's character and Fox's character was just a catalyst at the end of that movie to bring everything to an end. How terrible would that have been? What I am trying to say is that we love stories with protagonists that do something. Precious and Monsters Ball had main characters that were iconic and memorable but I honestly walked away from The Butler not admiring much about Cecil Gaines. In Lee Daniel's The Butler we simply saw Cecil's environment occurring around him with him barely reacting to it. I understand he is a passive character but he wasn't even aggressive in his passiveness. While I understand that the story in told from Cecil's account because he ties all the characters together and gives insight into the White House I still feel as though the expert testimony that comes from his experience still isn't fully realized. A lot of the presidents aren't featured long enough to become that memorable and Cecil really doesn't have much of an influence on the decisions they make. His reactions with them only seem to reinforce how passive his character is and must be. Ironically these scenes do however work to better illustrate the struggle Cecil's son faces as he progresses in his journey to fight for equal rights.

Then there is Cecil's wife Gloria played by Winfrey. For me she stole the show. I was much more interested in her story and background than I was her husbands. I do believe Oprah is well deserving of nominations this upcoming award season as she commanded the screens attention whenever she was on it. Viewers truly saw her character deal with a lot of pain and emotion as well as react differently as her character developed and grew throughout the film. The scene in which she is asking Cecil about how many shoes does Jackie Kennedy have was absolutely priceless. Can we get a spin off movie featuring Gloria? 

All in all I give Lee Daniel's The Butler a 3.5 out of 5 stars. While Daniel does try to bring his connection of the two stories together by the end of the movie I felt it was a bit rushed and fell flat. Especially after the way Cecil treated his son when got a surprise visit in the white house kitchen only to rally with him and end up and jail in what may have been two scenes later. I think the story would've been more intriguing if son and father switched roles as main character and supporting character. That way I think we could've received that raw, darker approach that Daniel does so well. There was so much more I wanted to know about the character. The dynamic of his relationship with Carol (Yaya Alafia) to the reason why he didn't attend his brother's funeral. Maybe it would've come across as simply another civil rights drama had that been the case but it would've been a much finer story in my opinion.