Tonight is the season finale of the hit show, Power, and I couldn’t be more anxious, sad, and stressed. However, I, like most of you, want to know exactly how this is all going to end, and who’s not going to be alive at the end of it. I would be lying if I said I didn’t believe at least two people are going to be killed on tonight’s episode.Read More
Power: Season 2 Recap
*Spoiler Alert: if you are not up to date on season 2 of Power don’t read this post*
If you are like myself, and millions of other loyal viewers, you are anxiously and nervously waiting for tomorrow night’s season finale of the Starz television series, Power. Considering episode nine completely went insane, and for lack of better wording, shit hit the fan!
I jumped on the Power bandwagon a season later than everyone else. I constantly saw Facebook statuses and tweets from my friends and followers about the show, so I decided to watch the first episode On Demand on day this past spring. Let me tell you, it was a great decision, and I realized how great of a decision it was after the first episode. Funny story: when I called the DirecTV customer service about some issues, the customer service representative and I bonded talking about this show for a good 10 minutes before we got back on topic of fixing my bill haha.
This post won’t necessarily be a season recap, it will be more of a personal opinion character break down. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels torn between loving and hating majority of the characters on the show. Seriously…I get the whole people are complex blah blah blah stuff, but these characters are just dirty and aggravating. And yes, I get it’s a show about drug dealers and drug dealing, but it’s still super dirty lol.
Ghost:
Let’s go ahead and get this out-of-the-way: HE IS SO FINE AND CAN WEAR THE HELL OUT OF A SUIT. Okay, outside of his looks, I can’t stand him about 85% of the time. I lose respect for any man who cheats on his wife, and jeopardizes his children’s home and understanding of relationships for a piece of a**. I also feel when we do wrong, wrong comes back to get us someway, somehow. Then he goes and does things like have Tommy’s back by getting him out of jail, and for the big one, letting Shawn go after he not only pulled a gun on him, but told him he was messing with his wife. Yeah, most people wouldn’t have let that scene end the way it did, but I guess it’s the only way to keep viewers like myself from hating Ghost 100% of the time.
Tommy:
He is as CRAZY as they come, but one thing I will give him is how loyal he is to Ghost. Even when I believed Ghost and Angela set him up to get arrested he refused to snitch on Ghost. He also said this directly to his own drugged out Mom in the interrogation room. As crazy and shady as he can be towards everyone else on the show, I believe he serves the perfect purpose of being the ride or die, right hand man. However, according to tomorrow’s preview, it looks like there may be some trouble in paradise for Ghost and Tommy.
Tasha:
I can’t stand her and I haven’t liked her since the beginning. Before I even new details about her, she was so whiny and not supportive towards her husband. Not only was she not supportive, she laughed in his face at the idea of him wanting to be legit and start making money legally. How dare he, right? (insert eye roll here) To make matters even worse, before Ghost even started talking to Angela, Tasha was cheating on him with all of her inappropriate gestures and tactics towards, Shawn. Then when she found out about Angela (through the man she was cheating on her husband with) she was extra dramatic like she was a faithful angel. Ummm…NO.
Angela:
She’s a user (Greg, Ghost, Nomar etc.) Oh, and she’s a home wrecking whore who deserves nothing but misery for breaking up a home. The end.
Kanan:
They didn’t have to try very hard to make us hate him did they? I mean, what is there to like about him? However, I will say that his anger is not misplaced considering he spent many years in prison thanks to Ghost and Tasha setting him up. Now, with that said, the speech Shawn gave him about being an “old bitter thug” was more than accurate. His hatred is way beyond Ghost and Tasha. He’s simply not a good person and I don’t like anything about him.
Shawn:
Poor Shawn. Poor, poor, naive and non-street smart, Shawn. I have a few questions: why would he think he had it in him to kill Ghost? Did he think this love affair with Tasha was going to work out with them being one big happy family? Why would he go talk sh*t to a man (Kanan) who he knows has no remorse for his own life let alone anyone else’s? Why didn’t he just get out of New York like Ghost told him too? Whatever the answers to these questions may be, I hope Kanan dies a slow terrible death for killing his child in cold blood.
Holly:
I think she ended up being exactly who we expected her to be from the very beginning. It was evident she did nothing but stir up trouble wherever she goes, and Tommy fell for all of it. Siiigh. I wonder if she will reappear at all next season out of hiding as “Monica?” I personally hope she stays far away before Tommy kills her himself, and because she’s annoying lol.
Dre:
I don’t quite know how I feel about him. I can’t tell if he’s playing along with Kanan in wanting to kill Ghost or if he’s pretending he agrees for other reasons? I get Kanan set it up to make Dre approach Ghost about his getting out the hood tactics, but part of me wonders if he’ll be an unexpected ally of Ghost when the craziness goes down in the season finale. Hmm…
I’m even more ready for tomorrow’s episode and will definitely go through Saturday night Power TV withdrawals until season 3 comes out. Hopefully they don’t make us wait too long for season 3! Thankfully most of my fall television shows come back next month to keep me occupied :-). How do you think tomorrow night’s season finale will end? Leave a comment with your episode 10 predictions!
To end the post on a great note, here is a picture of Ghost being the fine man he is ;-).
Happy Friday!
Brie<3
[08.14.15]
My Old School “Man Crate”
If you are like 99.9% of the world, we love the nostalgic feeling of going down memory lane in our lives. Particularly, our childhood and what made it so special and different from other generational childhood memories. I was recently contacted by the community manager for a company called, “Man Crates“, after she read my blog post from a few months ago titled “90’s TV Show Theme Songs“, to contribute ideas towards an old school create idea. Man Crates is a company who specifically concentrates on putting together “out of the box” creative gifts for men. We all know how difficult it can be to think of an anniversary, birthday, or Father’s Day gift for the special men in our lives, and this company has made life a little easier for all of us. What is even more unique about their gifts is, instead of being wrapped up or put in a decorative bag like most presents, the gifts are shipped inside actual crates with a personal crowbar to open them. Which is where the name “Man Crates” comes from.
As a person who was born in the late 80’s, 1988 to be exact, I am extremely nostalgic about the 90’s. From the TV shows, to the popular toys and food, it takes me right back to my childhood. Some of the memories are so vivid I can even remember what I wearing and/or where I was at the exact moment. If I was able to get ahold of any items from the 1990’s and I had to build my own Old School Crate from scratch, I would put these items in the crate:
1) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (movie)
I was quite the tomboy when I was younger so if there is one movie I know for sure would bring back a rush of great memories it is for sure this one. I mean what more could we want at our age that was better than turtles who happen to be ninjas, fighting bad guys in the city, who ate pizza all day long? Exactly. There is nothing better than this image when you’re a child. Not to mention they were all named after Renaissance artists, which means not only was the movie entertaining, but it was also partially educational in teaching us about artists’ names we would learn down the road in school. Go TMNT!
2) Power Rangers (seasons 1-5)
While on the topic of movies/television shows, Power Rangers was the all time classic TV show for our generation. Boys and girls rushed home after school to be sure we were in front of the TV to watch these amazing people transform into the greatest animals and dinosaurs, and kick butt to save Angel Grove from all of the bad guys. Especially those annoying putties! Okay, so I’m getting a little into it, but you get the point. The theme show music alone was enough to hype us up and want to jump off of our parents furniture doing kick splits and front flips.
3) Pokemon Cards
Fun fact: I have known my husband since before we were old enough to remember meeting each other. This information is relevant because I remember being younger and him collecting Pokemon cards in a binder to keep them organized. Or as I should say, my husband, and every other little boy in our age group. I was not a die-hard Pokemon fan as most other girls, but I did watch it here and there. However, Pokemon cards/trading sessions were seriously like a well constructed cult that demanded you know the secret password, know all 2 million names of the Pokemon off the top of your head, oh…and be a boy.
4) Surge
There were plenty of foods and drinks in the 90’s that were very specific to our generation. However, I believe Surge is the one drink nobody could forget if they tried. The advertisement for the drink alone was enough to scare parents to not buy this drink for their children. But we all know how it goes; we took a shopping trip to the grocery store with Mom, we saw Surge, we asked begged for it and we were told “NO”, we asked begged even louder (added some extra whining and borderline tears for special effects), and eventually drove Mom crazy enough for her to say “PUT IT IN THE CART ALREADY”! Once we were home and able to drink it, Mom quickly realized the mistake she had made. Ahhhh, yes, childhood memories.
5) Sock’em Boppers
I’m pretty sure ALL of my cousins and friends had these. I guarantee as soon as someone opened my crate the song from the commercial would get stuck in their head immediately. “Sock’em boppers! Sock’em boppers”! This was such a wonderful and terrible idea wrapped into one. Fighting wasn’t good unless you were fighting with big balloon like plastic bubbles wrapped around your fist as you threw several punches to someone’s stomach or possibly their eye. Either way, all that mattered was you had the time of your life while doing so. I wanted a pair very badly, but my Mother told me my Power Rangers gloves were enough. Now that I am a parent, I completely understand her thinking.
I hope this post has most of you going down memory lane and reminiscing about the 90’s. I know it definitely has me feeling quite nostalgic after thinking and typing it out. Maybe one day, if you or a loved one plans to send and/or receives an Old School Man Crate, some of these items will be in there to enjoy. If any of you order a Man Crate after reading this post, please leave a comment or send an email to me about your experience and if you recommend it to anyone else. I now know what I will be getting my husband for Christmas this year. Thanks to Alex for reaching out to me for my own personal ideas and sending me on a wonderful memory journey! 🙂
Brie <3
[07.21.15]
Why “A Different World” Still Matters
Today, the entire series of the show “A Different World” was released on Netflix. Anyone who knows me knows this is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, television show. If you have never seen “A Different World” I highly suggest watching it on Netflix and enjoy being reminded of what great television used to look like. (Also, I’ll go ahead and give you the heads up and let you know season 1 of the show when Lisa Bonet was the star, is not that great. It’s pretty boring, with random funny moments. So just push through season one and you’ll get to the good stuff.) The reason I love this show so much is because of how it portrayed young Black people, and more importantly, the very crucial and valuable messages plenty of the episodes taught me and everyone else who watched it. Although this show was originally a spin-off of the Cosby Show, following Denise’s college career, I believe “A Different World” was the more important show between the two. Not saying the “The Cosby Show” wasn’t a game changer for Black people on network television, but “A Different World” was a life changer for anyone who encountered it.
I say this show STILL matters because it has almost been 30 years since this show first aired, and it’s still just as important now as it was then. I remember watching this show with my Mom when I was younger, and although I didn’t completely understand what college was, I knew I wanted to go because of this show. (However, I would quickly learn, college wasn’t an option in my household anyway, but thanks for making it look interesting, cast of the show lol.) It was so awesome to see this group of people who looked like me, being amazingly flawed people, preparing to do great things. I wasn’t until I started watching the show again in high school and college that I then realized how important this show was to the television industry and life in general.
If you have watched this show, then you remember the “date-rape” episode of the basketball jock attempting to rape Freddie on their date, because “when girls say stop, don’t tell me you actually stop?” Do I even have to elaborate on how relevant this way of thinking is in today’s society of teaching women how to not get raped vs. teaching men to simply not rape? I didn’t think so. There was the HIV/AIDS episode where we learned the basics of always practicing safe sex in addition to how ignorant many people were to how HIV/AIDS works and what it does to the body. With today’s high STD/STI rates, I would say there is still a lot many of us could learn about practicing safe sex. There was the big game day episode which targeted racial discrimination and tension in this country. It was in this episode Dwayne Wayne delivered one of the best speeches while in the jail cell with the perpetrators. Then there was the two-part episode about the Rodney King trial and the “not-guilty” verdict that sent Los Angeles into riots all over the city (which ultimately ended up getting the show cancelled). I don’t think I have to explain how relevant both of those episodes are regarding racial tensions and police brutality with everything taking place in this country within the last few months. However, the one episode that always makes me realize how relevant this show is today, is the time capsule episode. They made a video time capsule where they shared important topics they wished to be better and for people to be better educated on in 20 years, and sadly not much has changed since that video.
I feel this show being added to Netflix, today, couldn’t have been added at a better time. With all of the trash, so-called, television taking up air time and clouding people’s minds, we need to be reminded of what great television shows look like. I’m specifically referring to the Black community too. With all of the “Love & Hip Hop” or “Real Housewives” shows portraying Black people in ways that only adds to the stereotypes of who we AREN’T, shows such as “A Different World” are missed. Thankfully, we have shows such as “Blackish” trying it’s hardest to make up for the lack of positive Black culture television, but unfortunately, “Blackish” can’t do it on its own. We need more writers, producers, actors and actresses who want to eliminate and denounce the stereotypes of the Black community instead of doing the opposite. We need more Black people who want to watch quality television instead of trashy television. We simply need more “A Different World” and “The Cosby Show” in our lives.
I’m thankful I was raised to watch and appreciate such quality television. I’m thankful shows like “A Different World” showed me what I could look forward to growing up. I’m thankful I learned at an early age through this show that the world is not just Black and White. I’m thankful I grew up in the 90’s before reality television was popular. More importantly I’m thankful “A Different World” existed and I’m thankful Netflix has brought such greatness to it’s streaming line-up.
Thank you writers and creators of “A Different World.” Your show will always matter and be the reason many young people, like myself, looked forward to receiving a college education. Thanks for creating one of my favorite shows ever! 🙂
Brie <3
[03.15.15]
“How To Get Away With Murder”
*SPOILER ALERT* if you have not watched last night’s season finale of “How To Get Away With Murder” I would not read this post. You have been warned.
Asher: His terribly corny slang talk is hilarious. Him being clueless to everything happening 99.9% of the time makes it that much funnier. He’s clearly starting to fall in love with Bonnie too. (Ugh, terrible idea) And why did the prosecutor want to talk to him? I guess we’ll find out in September.
Connor: This dude is such a sarcastic, Mr. Know-It-All, high strung, smart aleck, who apparently wasn’t smart enough to use protection every time he had sex. What everybody can learn from him and his “partner” is to WRAP IT UP.
Michaela: We got to see a first hand look at her sass and feistiness last night on both Rebecca, and her almost monster-in-law. The whole her standing up to Aiden’s Mama, and breaking out the southern country girl twang, while flat out telling her “I’m not giving the ring back” was awesome. Maybe confused ex-fiancé, Aiden will stop putting up the front of liking women.
Laurel: While talking about Michaela’s engagement ring, I’m sure NONE of us saw Laurel being the insanely smart yet conniving person she is. She’s had Michaela’s ring this ENTIRE time. I feel like she’s been underestimated the entire show (by myself as well) and will be showing us a lot more of why she deserves to be working with Annalise Keating in season 2.
Wes: Poor “Waitlist.” He’s such a lost little puppy dog. He wants to love Rebecca SO badly, but give justice to everyone in the process, that his nice boy, “I don’t want to hurt anyone” image is tarnished. Annalise was correct last night when she said they forced him to “grow-up” during all of this. I bet next season he’ll go looking for Rebecca to apologize for not trusting her. Too bad she’s dead.
Rebecca: Speaking of the devil. I personally never liked this girl. She seemed like a liar and manipulator from the very beginning. The more sneaky and shady stuff she did, the more I was convinced she was the killer. I don’t care what she’s been through. How do you live with yourself knowing you gave a guy drugs that had him committed to a psych ward, and take the Christmas money his Granny sent him in the process? I guess it doesn’t matter anymore though since someone finally killed her. It was only a matter of time. Oh, and WHO THE HELL DID SHE TEXT FROM MICHAELA’S PHONE?!
Nate: He is one very patient and forgiving man. Besides the fact that he’s a terrible human being for cheating on his terminally ill wife with Annalise. Does he really care for Annalise THAT much? He lost his job, has been accused of murdering his side piece’s husband, and got beat down in jail in the process. I would like to say this isn’t karma for being a cheating dog while married, but then I’d be lying. Oh, well.
Bonnie: I simply don’t like her. I don’t trust her and I haven’t trusted her since the beginning. I honestly thought she killed Lila considering how noticeable it was she had feelings for Sam, and was willing to act on them in her boss’s home/her place of business. I’m also enjoying the “Pot meet Kettle” storyline going on between her and Frank. Maybe next season I’ll like her. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Frank: What Huck is to Olivia Pope, Frank is to The Keatings. He is one nice bearded, good looking, female student chasing, shady GANGSTER. Because I did NOT see this one coming. And Frank, just in case you were wondering, YOU ARE A HIT MAN. A damn good one at that too seeing you had us all fooled this season.
Sam: Let’s make this clear- althought Sam did not physically kill Lila with his own hands, he ordered for her to be killed. Therefore, Lila is dead, because of Sam. With that said, karma likes to do this thing where it comes around and bites people in the ass. Sam had Lila (a student) killed, and Sam ended up getting killed (by a student). Womp womp.
Annalise: Or “Anna Mae” as we found out her real name given at birth, in the last episode, is NOT a good person. Sometimes it’s hard to see when she is so intelligent and sharp. But if we REALLY reflect on her this season, we see an extremely screwed up person who screws up the people closest to her too. Getting the back story of her childhood and being molested by a family member helped it all make sense though. Hurt people, hurt people. At the end of this episode, she was repeating the line “Sam killed Lila” with Wes to help him believe it was true. It’s quite obvious she has said this lie to herself as well to not feel bad for helping plan the disposal of Sam’s dead body, as well as, having him convicted in court of Lila’s murder. Also, if I understood the storyline correctly, Sam married Annalise after cheating on his last wife with her? And he has cheated on Annalise on multiple occasions since they’ve been married? Who in turn got a boyfriend of her own, that she has set up for Sam’s murder, to save her students, but is going to help him NOT go to jail or be convicted, by any means necessary. See what I mean about her not being a good person? Exactly. However, she is a damn good lawyer. No doubt about it.
All I want to know is; why is it not September, yet? I’m ready for the twists, turns, and stress of season 2.
Brie <3
[02.27.15]
Farewell “Parenthood”
The show Parenthood is coming to an end, tonight, after six seasons. To say I am going to miss this show is an understatement. I started watching Parenthood about two years ago on Netflix, thanks to the suggestion from my friend, Krissy. I watched the first two episodes and knew I was hooked. I was hooked for many reasons..
The main reason being I saw my own family in these characters. This huge, tight-knit, loving, easily angered, slow to forgive, boundary overstepping, mixed family. This was the first television family I have seen that seems to really demonstrate to all of us what having a large family is truly like. Growing up in a large family has its ups and downs. There are awesome moments when having a large family is the best! For example, in the show, when Drew had a baseball try-out, or when Victor got adopted, and the ENTIRE Braverman clan showed up to support them. (Whether they liked it or not) However, as with anything else in life, with the good comes the bad, and sometimes having a large family means people can overstep their boundaries of “closeness.” For example, when Kristina started the argument in the emergency room about the Luncheonette that turned into a huge blowout between Adam and Crosby. But what I really saw in these examples were how close families actually operate. There are going to be times when we absolutely adore each other, and there will be other times where we make each other SO mad or SO crazy, but in the end, an “I’m sorry and I will always love you” is all that matters. When families lose sight of the love and dwell on the anger, it makes for a lot of broken families and ultimately partially broken people.
Outside of seeing my own family in this show, I see what some would call my “ideal” immediate family. I want to have four children. Two biological and two adopted. Although none of the original four children are adopted in the show, there are four of them. I’ve always loved the idea of having a large family of my own. I’ve always loved thinking about my kids having multiple siblings to have their back and confide in if they can’t in Mom and Dad. Being the crazy lady during the holidays that I am, I even think about how Thanksgiving and Christmas will be amazing with a house full of craziness and children, or as I like to call it, a house full of LOVE :-). I even think about the future, and how our children will have their own little families, and them all bringing all of their families to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions. Sort of almost exactly like the Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes of Parenthood in season 4.
What also makes a show lovable, is whether or not it is relatable. From Max’s Asperger Syndrome to Crosby and Jasmine’s interracial marriage, everyone somewhere could relate to a character or situation on this show. Even the different marriage dynamics were skillfully and thoughtfully planned out. There are characters I love (Drew) and other characters that make me insane (Kristina).They discuss issues that make us happy (helping children with special needs, adoption, college acceptance, etc.) and they discuss issues that are hard to talk about (cancer, abortion, alcohol abuse, etc.) No matter the issue, the writers always beautifully showed the right and wrong ways to handle conflict resolution. I believe in today’s world, with all of the sensitivity and conflict taking place, we could all use a television show that shows us how to respectfully and lovingly deal with conflict and how to resolve it like adults. Because the truth of the matter is, we are human and will not always agree on everything our loved ones say or do.
The last reason I love Parenthood, is because it was a nice wholesome family show, almost everyone could relate to at some point in their lives. The first time I heard myself say “wholesome show” out loud, I realized I was definitely a Mother lol. It was nice to have a show I could watch with anyone from my Grandmother to my sister-in-law, and not have to feel uncomfortable thinking an inappropriate scene could happen at any time. It was nice to watch a show where you didn’t hear the characters calling each other disrespectful degrading names for ratings. And more than anything it was nice to watch a show that demonstrated the meaning of unconditional love and undeserving forgiveness.
Shows like Parenthood come around every once in a blue moon. It’s sad, but it’s true. After six amazing seasons, tonight will be the last time I cry on a Thursday night watching Parenthood. (If you watch this show then you know crying is a norm) I’m SO beyond sad to see this amazing television show go off the air, but I’m even happier it ever existed. Here’s to praying one day I have a large family of my own to recreate this family dynamic in real life. As for now, I will enjoy the beginning and building stages with my awesome husband, my amazing daughter, and my entertaining dog.
Farewell Parenthood. Thanks for the made-up yet beautiful memories!
Brie <3
[01.29.15]
The 1st Non-Teller Tuesday
It’s over. It’s actually been over for an entire week as of today. I’m still sad and I’m still not over it. It’s not fair that we spent so much time together, and then BAM! Just like that it’s gone. How are your fans supposed to pretend Teller Tuesday will ever be the same WITHOUT the “Teller” part? For those of you who are confused, I am talking about the show Sons of Anarchy.
Hahaha I know…I’m crazy. But seriously, what the hell, Kurt Sutter. This is the first official Tuesday since the series finale of, Sons of Anarchy, and I’m not impressed. What are we supposed to watch on Tuesday evenings, now? How am I supposed to stare at Jax in his always super white Air Force Ones, and layers of what looks like uncomfortably HOT black leather jackets and vests? Who am I supposed to take my anger issues out on now that Clay AND Gemma are dead? How am I supposed to see Chibbs’ pot belly and hear his infamous “Jackie Boy” now that the show is over? How am I going to see random violence and guest stars all while adding twisted humor in the process? And how am I going to discover amazing songs like “Make it Rain” by Ed Sheeran, if you’re not around to play them for me during increasingly dramatic scenes of Jax’s fuzzy butt and tattoos?
Well, I guess I could just re-watch the series on Netflix, and see all of this. But…you know what I mean. Either way, I miss you dearly, Sons of Anarchy. I’ll pour some ice-cold water on my frozen grass in the backyard for all of the homies we lost over 7 seasons.
Until we meet again on, Netflix.
P.S.- here go some pictures of Charlie Hunnam a.k.a Jax Teller because…SEXY. Duh.
YOU’RE WELCOME.
Brie <3
[12.16.14]