Every once in a while, there’s a show that’s fun to watch despite its many flaws. Prime Video’s new series is one of several shows set on a ranch in the middle of Baltimore.
Opening Shot: As we enter a huge house, we see a father reading a book called Black Beauty to his daughter.
Gist: Years later, that girl, Jolie Dumont (Kaya Coleman), is now a teenager, a champion equestrian, and aspiring to compete in the Olympics. We see her at a tournament in her hometown of Liège, Belgium. His mother, Janelle (Sagine Semajuste), is watching over him, but his father, Cédric (Gilles Marini), is absent. He is seen leaving the palatial mansion with his luggage while Janelle texts him that he is unavailable.
A few days later, while Jolie is with her best friend Nora Verhoeven (Eben Yehemdi), she witnesses her beloved horse Clementine being sold to Janelle and taken away in a horse-drawn carriage. The next thing Jolie knew, she and her mother were in a taxi in Baltimore. For reasons she won’t tell Jolie, Janelle felt they had to leave Belgium and return to the Chambers Family Ranch, which Janelle’s family has owned for more than 100 years and where she grew up. Janelle’s sister, Yvonne Parrish (Lisa Berry), currently runs a ranch and is very excited to have her sister return to the ranch, and has an unruly black horse for her to train and ride. I bought it.
Of course, Jolie is not happy about this, and upon being reintroduced to her cousins Ronnie (Gina James) and Khalil Jr. (Justice James), she refers to the place as “the ghetto.” Khalil, nicknamed “Lil Man,” seems to take it in stride, but his older sister Ronnie is understandably angry at her “Boogie” cousin. It wasn’t long before Jolie booked a flight to Belgium using the ranch’s credit card, and of course Ronnie, who kept the ranch’s books, found out.
However, although Jolie hates it there, she communes with the unruly black horse her aunt bought her. In fact, she seems to be the only one able to calm the mare. She eventually named the horse “Beauty” after her favorite book. When Beauty breaks free from the coral and flees into the Baltimore neighborhood, Jolie is the only person who can control the horse. Yvonne wants to rehome the mare, but Jolie is confident that she can be trained.
Jolie continues to message her father, but he only responds with recorded video messages. She enlists Nora’s help in figuring out what’s going on, but when Ronnie blurts it out during a welcome party for Jolie and Janelle, her mother finally tells her the truth. I told you.
Photo: Lindsay Sarazin/Prime Video
Which show do you remember? Beyond Black Beauty continues in the tradition of the novel Black Beauty and all its iterations in film and television. But other than that, the show has the feel of series like Virgin River and Sullivan’s Crossing.
Our Take: Beyond Black Beauty is a little, well, hard to swallow. The first item is how the show’s producers took pains to show how close the Chambers Family Ranch is to downtown Baltimore, so much so that people regularly ride through the nearby cityscape on horseback. It’s about whether you’re doing it. While Baltimore does have suburban areas, you would have to be highly skeptical to think that there are entire ranches so close to the city that people regularly ride horses within city limits. yeah.
The second part that is a little harder to swallow is Kaya Coleman’s sometimes wooden lead performance as Jolie. That’s not always the case. When Jolie is supposed to be angry, Coleman delivers the lines in such a formal manner that you wonder if Jolie is really angry or just annoyed.
However, in general, the show is bland enough to be watched with tweens and tweens. There are family issues as well, such as Jolie’s oldest cousin Ashton (Ashton James) running with a gang and not being able to hang around the ranch. There are also high school issues. Jolie ends up helping another girl who is bullying Ronnie at school. There is romance. Alvin (Achiel Julien), a rancher and classmate, seems to like Jolie. And, of course, there’s the story of the girl and the horse.
Gender and Skin: None. This is definitely a show you can watch with your teenagers.
Farewell Picture: Jolie finally receives a call from her father, but a voiceover says, “He’s dead to me.”
Sleeper Star: This goes to Kid and Bubba, the horses who play Beauty.
Most Pilot-esque line: Janelle is surprised to find out that her childhood crush is now dating her religious cousin Estelle (Chantelle Riley). Did she expect him to just sit around and chase her?
Our Mission: Stream IT. Will Beyond Black Beauty delve deeper into that story? Probably not. But the shots of the ranch are beautiful, and who doesn’t want to see scenes of people riding horses?
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting, and technology, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV geek. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Salon, Rolling Stone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company, and more.
