If you think about it, Greenleaf couldn't have come at a more perfect time for OWN. The ratings are still amazing for cable but creatively it seems as if the show has reached something of a slump. Even at it's peak, it's not like The Haves and the Have Nots was Emmy worthy television, but it was deliciously wicked and spunky (hopefully they can get back to that and do some course correction with Season 4B). In the meantime, we have Greenleaf debuting. Not only is the set extraordinarily gorgeous but it's just as dramatically captivating as the other OWN network dramas. The dialogue is also much less clunky and the scenes don't drag along, mostly due to the absolute powerhouse cast they have featuring Keith David, Lynn Whitfield, Merle Dandridge and the queen herself, Oprah Gail Winfrey. That's not to discredit the rest of the stellar cast but those were the standouts from last night's premiere.
I went back and forth about how to structure this but I ultimately decided to just see where the wind takes me. The story is centered around Grace "Gigi" Greenleaf who returns home after 20 years after the death of her sister, Faith. She returns with a nearly grown daughter and clearly a lot of secrets. That's one of the things that puzzle me about the premiere and that is a very strong motivater for me to keep watching. Moments such as Lady Mae (lol, girl, that name? -- Whitfield), Kerissa (Kim Hawthorne) and Charity (Deborah Joy Winans) being outright disrespectful to Grace at dinner, who's simply just sitting there minding her own business trying to get through it, have you rutting for her because we have no idea why she left. We have no idea why the family (the women in particular) has such a sour distaste for Grace. It reminds me of the first season of Gossip Girl, not that I think these two really share much of the same audience but, Serena returns after escaping her Upper East Side world and clearly she's written as the protagonist so we're rooting for her even though she did some pretty wild things before she left. Whether the family dislike Grace because she was wild, or simply because she left, remains to be seen.
The series begins with Grace and her daughter, Sophia, in some car driving back to her family's home but the second he mentions that she used to be a paster, Grace splits like a banana. She and her daughter walk to her family's estate until they catch up to some dude named Noah, who Grace used to go with, and here we go with the bullshit. Her daddy welcomes her with open arms, telling her "remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old." So either the family fucked her over, or she fucked over the family. Either way, Grace looks absolutely frightened to be back. I would be to if my mother was Lady Mae Greenleaf. Her mother coldly tells her to greet her Uncle Mac (who is most likely trash, but we'll talk about that later) and tells her that she wants absolutely no trouble.
The family (consisting of Graces two living siblings, Jacob and Charity, their respective spouses Kerissa and Kevin and Jacob/Kerissa's daughter, whose name still escapes me) mourn Faith in a cemetery before returning to the house to have dinner. After the kids go away the family gets into heated debate, spearheaded by
Let's just pause right there. I think this scene is here for many reasons. It's here to show the darker side of the what you would call "bible-thumpers". I grew up Christian and still identify as Christian, but my connection God is my business and His business. The way someone chooses to connect themselves with whoever they believe in is nobody's business but their own. I think there is no point in trying to dictate how someone else lives their life or their spirituality because whatever is going to happen is going to happen and all that should matter to someone is getting their blessings from God, staying quiet and making sure they make it to that crystal clear escalator to heaven. I'm going to try and spend less time going against everything the heavy, heavy Christians in this family and focus more on the plot but I needed to get that out there because Lady Mae, Uncle Mac and Kerissa were petty and ignorant for this entire scene. But on one final petty note, Kerissa's daughter got Grace's daughter to snort up some Riddlin in middle of night so Kerissa, listen to me and listen good. Before you go pointing out the plumbing issues in somebody else's house, make sure you take a look at your own leaky faucet first. And your man is cheating on you and no one blames him either.
One of the characters I haven't gotten a clear read on is Charity, the youngest of the Greenleaf children. I feel for her, she wants to be accepted by her father and taken seriously as a member of the church so bad. She's clearly jealous of Grace for essentially being successful and resents her for leaving and giving up everything she, herself, has wanted so badly for all these years (to give a Sermon, and I guess eventually become a preacher?). Little things like when she and her husband were watching The Bachelor and Charity telling her husband that she feels bad for Stacy G because "everybody knows he's going to pick Stacy B." Clearly The Bachelor is a metaphor for the Greenleaf family and Charity feels like the Stacy G to Grace's Stacy B. That being said, I thought it was in poor taste the way she came for Grace after Grace tried to help her out and Charity dramatically getting up to leave the table and Lady Mae blaming Grace for all of this (when home girl was just sitting down trying to finish her biscuits and greens) really sets the tone for the rest of the season.
I have no idea why we're supposed to care about Noah and his girlfriend but I guess they're going to be in a love triangle with Grace in the future? Also, homeboy Bishop James Greenleaf needs to pay up on them taxes!
And with that we come to Queen Oprah Gail Winfrey and that freshly made wash n go wig, tailored in mount Olympus by the Goddess of hair. Aunt Mavis is a hoot, and clearly more of a mother to Grace than Lady Mae ever was. (Girl, I cannot wait for my girl Lynn Whitfield to call Oprah Winfrey a "childless whore") Mavis tells Grace that Uncle Mac is at it again, presumably raping younger girls in the church, and that she needs to do something about it. This was alluded to earlier in the episode where she confronts her mother at the dinner table for not losing Faith, but giving her away to Uncle Mac (I'm guessing this means he sexually abused/raped her). Clearly Uncle Mac needs to chill and Grace is going to take care of the situation.
The final scene of the pilot takes place at church (or the Raven's stadium, dude that place was huge). The bishop gives an ironic speech about how all Christians aren't bible thumpers, when the literal day before Kerissa and his wife were throwing Christianity and church in Grace's face, but I guess we're just going to pretend like that didn't happen. Grace decides to come home and stay with her face and Jacob fucks some white woman in a closet during the service. This season is going to be fire.
EPISODE GRADE: B+
The acting was excellent, the pace was alright, the script was neat and tight and the storylines the show set up to unravel throughout the season have a lot of potential. And props to OWN for created a non-Tyler Perry black entertainment program (that isn't Empire or Power) that doesn't involve black people being portrayed as slaves or just the help.
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