Beauty in Black Part 1 Review – Tyler Perry’s latest is certainly… something

Part 1

Part 2

 

Episode Guide

Episode 1 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 2 -| Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 3 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 4 -| Review Score – 3/5
Episode 5 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 6 -| Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 7 -| Review Score – 2/5
Episode 8 -| Review Score – 1.5/5

 

There have been some bad TV shows released this year, but don’t fret because Tyler Perry’s new show, Beauty in Black is here… to challenge that coveted spot for worst TV show of 2024. And damn is this one a stronger contender.

Despite starting out with some initial promise, this soapy melodrama quickly goes off the rails, tumbles down a cliff and bursts into flames. Only to then be crushed by a tsunami of cliches and bad writing tropes that will have you groaning all the way to the kitchen to stress eat your way to the end of this slog. But don’t worry guys, this is only part 1 so we have another part still to come. Yay?

The story takes clear inspiration from Starz’ Original series, P-Valley, but it’s like someone read the cliff notes version, and then ran it through a broken AI to craft a story with influences from Dynasty and Succession. The ensuing result? An ungodly mess.

The characters are bland, one-note and incredibly cliched, but largely center around two women with very contrasting lives. On one side of the coin we have Kimmie, a woman who’s desperate to escape her life as a hooker, while forced into this role by her pimp Jules. He has dirt on her and unfortunately, she has a big debt to pay, alongside her friend Rain.

As they struggle to make ends meet, Kimmie finds inspiration from entrepreneur Mallory Bellarie, who’s the face of Beauty in Black. However, Mallory is far from the happy, shy businesswoman you’d expect. She’s rude, bitter and desperate to get ahead no matter who stands in her way. The two women find themselves on a collision course, but don’t expect any sort of resolution here, at least not in the first half.

Instead, the show has two parallel storylines going on at once. Mallory’s story is basically a cat and mouse chase, as she tries to cover up two big crimes. The first comes from a lawsuit against her company for some pretty serious allegations. The other comes from a hit and run incident where someone within the family is responsible. We know who (I won’t spoil that here in case you watch this out of pure curiosity) but our characters don’t, so they scramble around to conceal the truth.

On top of this, Mallory has an affair, her husband has an affair, her husband’s brother has a hidden relationship, while the patriarch of the company also has a big secret he’s keeping from everyone. Oh, and the security detail for the house also have secrets they’re keeping too, naturally.

All of these secrets remain hidden, with the misunderstanding tropes and contrived scenarios popping up across the 8 episodes in abundance. This isn’t just reserved to the family though, it also happens for Kimmie too.

Kimmie’s story involves her struggles to escape the hooker life, while also keeping her little friendship with Rain in check. When an accident separates these two, Kimmie is forced to try and think quick – but she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. Flashbacks used in episodes 1 and 2 are just abandoned for the rest of the run-time, while Kimmie’s arc plays second fiddle to Mallory’s, and to be honest the entire family are awful so there really isn’t anyone to root for there.

For much of the runtime Kimmie stumbles around different narrative contrivances, and even takes the word of a patient over, y’know, medical professionals, about the wellbeing of Rain when she’s taken to the hospital.

As the episodes progress and the action picks up, logic and reason are both thrown completely out the window. Early on we see a police presence in the show, with Mallory and her husband pulled over by the cops in a rather tense scene. But then that’s the last we see of them. That’s particularly troubling given a character literally shoots a bunch of EMTs in an ambulance by the side of a busy road in the middle of the day… and nobody mentions it again.

Sure, they might bring it up in part 2 but the distinct lack of police presence is definitely noticeable. These bits of worldbreaking lore are actually really annoying because they show the writers have no idea what they’re doing and can’t even keep up with the rules within their own show. And it’s not hard guys, this isn’t Westeros or Middle Earth, we’re literally on the same planet!

But damn, none of these characters are on the same planet when it comes to being likable or relatable in their struggles. I mentioned earlier about the characters being caricatures and nowhere else is that more evident than in the strip club. Everybody here are all scantily clad in the changing rooms, cussing each other out and with dialogue that can’t help but throw another F bomb in every sentence. Note to Perry – cursing doesn’t make your show edgy. It’s just f**king annoying.

Stylistically, Beauty in Black has absolutely nothing going for it. There’s nothing noteworthy here beyond a few neon-lit scenes, and in fact, the camera work does more damage than harm. Because with so many static shots and long bouts of dialogue, it highlights the over-the-top acting from everyone… except Kimmie.

You see, when doing a melodrama like this, which plays out like an American telenovela, everybody needs to be on the same page. Kimmie clearly didn’t get the memo because while everyone is out here hamming it up, this poor girl does her best Amandla Stenberg impression, and goes into every scene with the same gormless, expressionless demeanour. I’m not sure if the message was to go for quiet, contemplative stoicism, but her acting is wooden. And unfortunately, sticks out like a sore thumb.

But then what else is there to comment on here? The show tries to dress up its narrative concerns with light bits of action, crazy drama and half-naked (or fully naked) men and women, but it’s not going to fool anybody paying attention to the story. Everything is an ungodly mess, and the longer this show goes on, the more glaring the problems become. What begins as a guilty pleasure, soon turns into a diabolical nightmare, one that doesn’t look like it’s going to improve with the second half. If it’s anything like what we’ve seen toward the end of this part, god help us all.


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  • Verdict - 3.5/10
    3.5/10
3.5/10

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