Beauty in Black is Tyler Perry’s first series under his Netflix deal after producing several feature films. The series written, directed and produced by Perry isn’t known for its subtle dialogue or sensitive themes, but perhaps the series, in which two women’s very different lives intersect, will change that.
Opening shot: A woman walks down the hallway of a well-equipped house.
Key points: “Who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.
Which show do you remember? Kimmy (Taylor Polidor Williams) is a sex worker working in the home of a very wealthy and influential client, but that client, Calvin (Shannon Wallace), has had enough. He scolds her for not looking “classy” and threatens her.
Kimmy and her friend Rayne (Amber Rayne Smith) are forced into sex work for prostitute Jules (Charles Malik Whitfield) after being arrested for drug use at the airport. Calvin is so powerful in Chicago that he can send both men back to prison with one phone call.
They also dance in strip clubs, which is also part of sex work. One night, before going to work, Kimmy takes Layne to a hotel. There, Mallory Bellaire (Crystal Stewart), CEO of the hair product company Beauty in Black, is awarding a scholarship to her beauty school and a $1 million prize to a selected salon. is. Kimmy applied for the scholarship as a way to break out of the never-ending cycle of working for Jules. Lane thinks this is a pipe dream and says: That’s what we’re all about. ”
Mallory was born into a poor family. She tells the audience that her adoptive mother took her on a model hunt, where she was discovered by the Bellaire family. She eventually married the company, but wanted to use the money to start her now very successful hair care business.
Kimmy is late to the club, where she dresses Delinda (Ursula O. Robinson), the head of the girls, and stripper Bodhi (Tamera “Tee” Kissen), Delinda’s mood collector and enforcer. I can wear it. She is sent to a VIP room where she notices that a wealthy customer (Rico Ross) is seeing a male stripper outside the curtain, which immediately angers him.
After the talk, Mallory is faced with a lawsuit alleging that her company’s hair relaxer causes cancer. As soon as she gets into the SUV, her demeanor completely changes, berating the security guard, insulting the assistant, and complaining that the woman who won $1 million would probably spend it on crack. She kicked the staff member out of the SUV and drove herself home. On her way home, she bumps into someone in the heavy rain and eventually drives off.
Meanwhile, Bodie arranges for Reign to receive butt implants, which take place in the motel room where she and Kimmy live. They had been friends since Kimmy was kicked out of her home when she was 17, and her mother thought Kimmy was too attractive a target for the men she lived with. Lane met Kimmy in the Walmart bathroom where she was hiding.
Photo: Calvin Ashford/NETFLIX
Which show does it remind you of? Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black reminds you of the South African series Savage Beauty.
Our take: Perry wrote and directed Beauty in Black, and its progression is both pretty grim and completely predictable. Kimmy and Rayne are stuck in a vicious cycle where they will forever be in debt to Jules, so Jules will be able to traffic them into sex work for as long as she can. Kimmy seems to have ambitions beyond what she’s doing now, but she’s in debt to people like Jules and Calvin, and there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it.
And while we’ve seen Mallory be kind and generous to the audience assembled at her lectures, we quickly see her turn into someone just as abusive and rough as Jules once she’s behind closed doors. I knew it would be. Calvin, and apparently everyone at the strip club. I’ve never heard the words “bitch” and “money” as many times in 43 minutes as I did in the first episode of this show. I reviewed shows like P-Valley, which revolves around strip clubs. And sex work.
There seems to be little subtlety or nuance to this story, at least in the first episode. Williams’ performance as Kimmy is nuanced, especially in the scene where Kimmy struggles to hold back tears when she returns to Calvin’s house to please him. But most of Kimmy’s facial expressions just make her look miserable. Almost every line is about someone verbally abusing another person, so everyone else basically screams their part.
Look, I understand. This is Perry’s idea of what this world is all about. However, it is questionable whether Perry was the right person to write this kind of story. If this story had been written by a woman, or perhaps not a media mogul who became a millionaire from Madea movies and silly family sitcoms, there might have been more subtlety to the story. I don’t know.
Photo: Netflix
Sex and skin: Lots of both.
Parting Shot: As expected, the butt implant doesn’t work, and Kimmy finds Layne unconscious in a motel room, bloodstained cloth strewn everywhere.
Sleeper Star: Although the character of Mallory is predictable, we give credit to Krystle Stewart for making the behind-the-scenes version of Mallory believable and able to earn her dime.
Most Pilot-y line: There are a lot of awkward lines, but the one that sticks out to me the most is that in the flashbacks, 17-year-old Kimmy is played by a completely different actress, but Rain is played by the same actress. That’s what it means. Something like this shouldn’t have happened that long ago. Why not let Williams play young Kimmy?
Our call: Skip. Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black is a subtle slap in the face, which I’m surprised we didn’t see in the cruel and abusive first episode.
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.
