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‘Little Fires Everywhere’ TV Review: Duo

Kerry Washington as Mia Warren and Jesse Williams.

The fifth episode of Little Fires Everywhere ventured into the backgrounds of two mothers in suburban Ohio at odds about who is considered a mother.

Reese Witherspoon is Elena Richardson, a white housewife/journalist raising four teens in a mansion with her husband, who finds herself investigating the woman she rented her family cottage property to. Kerry Washington is Mia Warren, a single black mother who recently moved to Shaker Heights with her teen daughter, has become an enigma for Elena. Mia is fighting for her friend, Bebe Chow played by Lu Huang, to regain custody of the baby girl she had left at a fire station due to the hardships of having no support as recent Chinese immigrant. But Elena’s friend, Linda McCullough played by Rosemarie DeWitt, is planning to adopt the baby. This causes a rift between Elena and Mia who were developing a relationship as so was their combined five kids.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

The episode opens in 1976 in Paris with Elena, the younger version played by AnnaSophia Robb, dancing in a disco with her boyfriend at the time, Jamie, played by Luke Bracey. They’re studying abroad as Denison University students until Elena starts packing her suitcase to head back to Shaker Heights. Jamie is hesitant to join in the packing and admits he doesn’t want to go back home. He wants a global life and tries to convince Elena she wants to do the same. They break up.

Fast forward to 1997 where Elena is using her journalistic skills to research Mia. Her leads end up in New York City where Mia had attended art school. After Linda comes to the newspaper office blaming Elena for the fiasco of her possibly losing baby Mirabelle aka May Ling for Bebe and her supporters, Elena heads off to NYC in a frenzy.

In NYC, Elena bribes the art school’s receptionist with cupcakes to get Mia’s files. On her way back to the hotel, she decides to take a detour to The New York Times, where Jamie works. She asks Jamie to hunt down additional information since the newspaper recently printed a story on Mia selling a photograph of herself pregnant and naked in a bathtub called “Duo.” Jamie says he’ll help and asks Elena to dinner afterward.

Their fancy dinner is going well with Jamie discussing his life as a foreign correspondent and living all over the world compared to Elena raising her four kids and only talking about those kids. When they depart, Elena confesses, when pressed, she wanted to see what Jamie’s life was like after pursuing the dream she thought she would pursue herself. She then asks Jamie to run off with her. In disbelief, Jamie calls Elena selfish and leaves.

THE ROAD TAKEN

Lexie, played by Jade Pettyjohn, is the eldest Richardson daughter who’s also a popular cheerleader dating the popular football player Brian, played by Stevonte Hart. In the last episode, Lexie brags about having sex with Brian. Now, she’s pregnant.

She only confides in Pearl, Mia’s daughter played by Lexi Underwood, who has become more of a pet than a friend. But Pearl is desperate to fit in.

In her car, Lexie wants to tell Brian she’s pregnant until she asks about  the Mirabelle/May Ling situation. Who should have the baby has become a dividing topic in the picture-perfect Ohio suburb. Trying to find an ounce about his interest in children, Brian mentions he’s leaning to Bebe’s side since she’s the biological mother. He also adds he’s not ready for kids at all and doesn’t even want to hear about it. They’re only seniors in high school. With a pained look, Lexie stares straight ahead.

Later, Lexie is at the abortion clinic. When asking for an appointment, she notices one of her mother’s doctor friends in the background. It spooks her. For support, she calls Pearl, who is the shiny example of sincere support. Lexie tells Pearl she’s the only one she’s confided in about the pregnancy, with Pearl earlier holding the pregnancy test and breaking the news to Lexie. Pearl smiles a bit. Until the nurse calls her name. Lexie gets up and quickly apologizes for registering under her friend’s name.

Pearl waits for Lexie, who refuses to go home. She asks why her name was used. Lexie explains it matters if people knew she had an abortion. So Pearl drives Lexie to her home where Mia senses what happened and comforts Lexie. After Lexie relaxes into a nap, Pearl shows her mother Lexie’s discharge papers with her name on them. Mia tells Pearl she doesn’t like how Lexie treats her. Pearl admits she had sex with the eldest Richardson son Trip, played by Jordan Elsass, and it wasn’t what she hoped for. Then Trip calls Pearl.

When Lexie wakes up, she asks Mia what decision she would have made. Perturbed by the question, Mia tells Lexie she needs to trust her decision and adds how she didn’t like the way Lexie used Pearl’s name at the clinic. Lexie complains that she had no one else to turn to. Mia counteracts that Lexie had a million places to turn to.

I think my daughter skipped school to help you and you thanked her by using her name and then demanding she take care of you. I spent two months cooking your diners, working in your house and you never so much as uttered a thank you and now you want more. Pearl may have love to give and give to you, but I do not.

Meanwhile, Pearl meets Trip at a swing set. Trip apologizes to her for being mean during her first time after his youngest sister Izzy, played by Megan Stott, pointed out his tendency to sleep with girls and not care about their feelings. Trip tells Pearl she’s different. “You read The Bell Jar for fun. I don’t even know what the fuck The Bell Jar is still,” he says. “And you’re really really pretty.”

Pearl accepts his apology, and they hold hands.

TOO MANY ROADS

After Elena can’t sleep with Jamie’s words and Joshua Jackson as her husband Bill’s voice messages in her head, she drives into Pennsylvania to meet with Mia’s parents.

They hadn’t seen Mia in fifteen years. Shocked, Elena asks if they ever met their grandchild, Pearl. They say no. They also add Pearl is not their granddaughter.

This confuses Elena. Then it’s hinted Mia was a surrogate who kidnapped the child, which is the reason why she jumps from town to town.

Additional secrets that come up around Mia includes:

  • Mia Warren is Mia Wright. She changed her last name to Warren, the name of her younger brother she lost in a car accident when he was 17.
  • When Pearl asked for the umpteenth time about her father, Mia returns to the nightmare on the subway she’s had in previous episodes where Jesse Williams is coming toward her. Who is he?
  • Mia digs into a memory box after the paternity question. She finds a roll of photos to develop. Once developed, we see Anika Noni Rose appear in the photo. Who is she?

Little Fires Everywhere is streaming now on Hulu. New episodes will arrive on Wednesdays.

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When Maya Angelou Shared Her Wisdom on ‘Moesha’

In honor of Dr. Maya Angelou’s 92nd birthday, she lit will analyze the master storyteller’s unforgettable appearance on the 1990s Black girl TV sitcom Moesha.

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928. Despite losing her voice after she was raped as a child, she eventually found her voice which led to an incredible career on the literary stage as she used her words to create brilliant memoir and poetry collections. While mute until she was twelve, she read voraciously and developed her talent from there. By the time she died in 2014 at the age of 86, she had received over 50 honorary degrees, the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

The film version of Maya Angelou’s 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings came out ten years later and was on repeat in my house along with 1984’s The Color Purple based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. When I became a teenager and realized I only knew Maya Angelou’s story via video, I started reading her memoirs including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas; The Heart of a Woman; and Gather Together in My Name.

Twenty years ago, Maya Angelou played herself in a pivotal episode on Moesha, my favorite sitcom from childhood, and changed the course of the namesake character’s life. In the fifth season’s second episode, “Fired Up,” which aired Aug, 30, 1999 according to IMDb, Moesha—played by 90s braid queen multi-hyphenate Brandy—is looking for ways to redeem herself after accusing her boss at Vibe magazine of sexual harassment.

If you’re familiar with the sitcom that ran from 1996 to 2001 on UPN, then you know Moesha, a bright Black girl coming of age in the Leimert Park section of Los Angeles, would tend to get in trouble often by thinking she was grown and later learning she was not.

Moesha’s professional misstep has not been forgiven completely as her colleagues still treat her as the lowly editorial assistant. Then a message without a name comes to her desk, so she calls the number. It turns out to be Maya Angelou’s publicist! But everyone else in the office had already gone home. Moesha, with her best friend Niecy—played by Shar Jackson—there to head out for a movie, decides to pose as a reporter and says she can interview Maya Angelou at the Vibe office. Here’s a transcript of their interview:

Maya Angelou: “I suppose Socrates said it the best, most succinctly. He said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.'”

Moesha: “Oh, that is deep.” [audience laughter]

Maya Angelou: “Deep enough to write down?” [audience laughter]

Moesha: “Next question: What is Oprah really like?”

Maya Angelou: “I think that question is best asked of Oprah herself.”

Moesha: “Of course, I’m so sorry. OK now when you first started writing how did you get people to recognize your talent so you can be published?” 

Maya Angelou: “Other people’s recognition wasn’t my first focus. My focus was on the work. Recognition comes after that.” 

Moesha: “But wouldn’t it be frustrating if you knew you had the talent and drive, but no matter how hard you try, nobody gave you the chance?” 

Maya Angelou: “Well, you certainly are not talking about yourself. I mean, obviously you’re much appreciated here at Vibe. You have this important job and you just got out of college last night.” [audience laughter] 

Moesha: “Well, actually I bypassed college, so I could plunge straight into the world of journalism.” 

Maya Angelou: “You bypassed college?” [audience laughter] And let me ask you a question. Is this your office?” [She eyes her majestically crafted cane preparing to expose Moesha]. 

Moesha: “Unh, hunh. Why do you ask?” [A look of goofy bewilderment marks her face as if she couldn’t believe she got caught]. Maya Angelou then turns around a nameplate that reads Moesha’s male boss’ name toward the alleged reporter. 

Moesha: [She accepts she just got caught] “You’re not gonna tell me to go to college? Are you? Because I’ve had this discussion with my parents.” 

Maya Angelou: “My dear, elders all over the world do their best to gain some wisdom, so they can tell you young people something wise and wonderful to do which we know you’re not going to take to.” [audience laughter] 

Moesha: “So you are gonna tell me to go to college?” 

Maya Angelou: “I’m not going to tell you, but rather I’m going to pull something for your consideration. I’m suggesting more than any other place college can offer you a chance to know human thought over human centuries by then garner some preparation for your own life.” 

Moesha: “Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Angelou. You have given me so much to think about.” 

Maya Angelou: “I’m delighted.”

They embrace. Of course, Moesha gets fired.

After showing her boss her article on Maya Angelou, he tells Moesha she should’ve called him in order to ask the right questions. Now Vibe has to use its budget to send an experienced reporter to North Carolina to interview Maya Angelou in person. Moesha tries to explain how she seized an opportunity, but her boss tells her that’s 10% of the job and the other 90% is preparation. And from that question about Oprah and the other questions about her own situation, it was obvious Moesha hadn’t even done the research to interview Maya Angelou. 

When Moesha gets home, she surprises her family by announcing she’s going to college. Little do they know, the one and only Maya Angelou was the catalyst for the decision with sharing the knowledge about the importance of college and becoming the subject of Moesha’s poorly executed article that led to her firing.

The episode ends perfectly with Maya Angelou and Moesha reciting “Still I Rise,” alternating lines in the darkened den within Moesha’s house. Then they recite together:

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise.

Maya Angelou

After they speak the last line, they rise slightly off the sofa as if to show the power they received from their ancestors. “Still I Rise” is one of Maya Angelou’s most recognizable poems published in 1978’s And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems.

The Moesha guest appearance was a multi-generational milestone for Black women on TV by having intellectual icon Maya Angelou reciting her poetry about rising above racial barriers with top Black girl singer of the time Brandy. It showed Maya Angelou’s influence spanning over time, which she lit also reflected on in the 1993 film Poetic Justice starring pop legend Janet Jackson.

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‘Little Fires Everywhere’ TV Review: The Spider Web

Gavin Lewis as Moody Richardson and Lexie Underwood as Pearl Warren in Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere.

The fourth episode of Little Fires Everywhere details the aftermath of a birthday party and the rupture of a budding relationship between two mothers and their children.

Mystery novelist Attica Locke, a producer on the Hulu series, wrote the episode based on the novel by Celeste Ng. Attica was also a TV writer on Fox’s Empire and Netflix’s When They See Us and a part of a growing cohort of women authors bringing their bookish career to the small screen.

This episode highlights the intersection between two mothers with another mother being added into the mix of drama in the real rule-abiding community of Shaker Heights. Ohio, Elena Richardson, played by Reese Witherspoon, a well-to-do white woman who’s helping her friend keep the baby she’s trying to adopt; Mia Warren, played by Kerry Washington, a single black mother with an artist daughter who spends time with Elena’s kids; and Bebe Chow, played by Lu Huang, is a Chinese immigrant who works with Mia at a Chinese restaurant and recently learned that the baby she’s been looking for is the same baby being adopting by Elena’s friend.

The motherhood angle is emphasized in a turning point scene in Bebe’s apartment where Elena, who used her investigative journalism skills from her part-time job to find the address, shows up to offer Bebe money. Not knowing Elena’s intentions, Bebe invites Elena inside and gives her a hot cup of tea. Elena explains that she represents the McCulloughs, the family who will adopt a baby they named Mirabelle. But with Mia’s assistance, Bebe discovers Mirabelle is May Ling, the baby she abandoned at a Cleveland fire station due to financial hardship.

With the check in her face, Bebe asks Elena how much she would sell her kids. Upset that her offer wasn’t taken even with the threat of turning Bebe into the authorities for illegal immigration, Elena leaves the apartment with the check on the table.

THE DINNER TABLE

At the end of the episode, after Elena and Mia blow up in the Richardson kitchen over Mia lying about her role in Bebe finding out about Mirabelle/May Ling’s whereabouts, both mothers told their children at their separate dinner tables that they cannot speak to each other anymore.

Pearl is upset at her mother, whom she believes never trusted the Richardsons or took the chance to get to know them. She heads to her bedroom but doesn’t stay there. Within minutes, she’s being welcomed by Elena at the door as Elena finds Pearl clothes to sleep in.

Meanwhile, Mia is gloomily peering at a photo of herself very pregnant in a bathtub. She puts the photo back and goes to check in on Pearl. Finding an empty room, she drives to the Richardson home. The headlights in the window wake up Pearl.

SOMEONE TO LOOK UP TO

The strong connection between Izzy, played by Megan Stott, and Mia brightened in this episode with them collaborating on Mia’s art project at her home. Izzy confides in Mia that her mother Elena believes she’s at a boy’s house for a study session. Because Elena is worried about Izzy’s sexuality with lesbian rumors flying around school, Izzy knows it’s a secret that she would rather do art at Mia’s house. They’re interrupted by a frantic phone call from Bebe. Mia cuts the session short to meet with Bebe and convince her to fight for her daughter.

Izzy later finds an article on Lilith Fair on her pillow. She asks Bill, her father played by Joshua Jackson, about it. He tries to explain how her mother meant well when thinking Izzy would be interested in Lilith Fair, the all-female concert tour that started in 1997 by Sarah Maclachlan. Teary-eyed, Izzy tells her father she didn’t like the gesture.

The connection is undeniable between Pearl, played by Lexi Underwood, and Elena. Pearl sees Elena and her eldest children, Lexie, played by Jade Pettyjohn, and Trip, played by Jordan Elsass., as the model of perfection she wants to be. Elena symbolizes stability, and since Pearl has been begging her mother for that lifestyle, she feels she can absorb it at the Richardson home.

When Mia and Elena have their spat about what it takes to be a good mother and taking the sides of their friends in the fight for Mirabelle/May Ling, Elena brings up how well-behaved Pearl is even though Mia is not a good mother because she keeps moving Pearl around from town to town, school to school.

VIRGINAL

Pearl is officially a part of the popular girl gang when she’s sitting upon Lexie’s bed with Serena Wong, played by Lisa Yamada. Plus, Lexie is bragging about her lack of breakouts due to her having sex with her boyfriend, Brian, played by Stevonte Hart.

Later, in the algebra two class Pearl fought so hard to get into, the teacher is passing out tests. Pearl did well while Trip got a D. This presents the opportunity for Trip to come over to the Warren home and study with Pearl.

On the floor. With music playing. Of course, this leads to a make-out session that Pearl suggests should move to the bedroom. Now, her virginity may be the talk of the town.

But it doesn’t happen. Even Trip has the nerve to blame Pearl for seducing him into her bed while playing with Moody’s feelings! Pearl did neglect the other Richardson brother Moody, played by Gavin Lewis, but she’s taken by surprise hearing this from Trip as he jumps into his pants.

Pearl has an awkward run-in with Moody at a Halloween party. Dressed as Scary Spice from the Spice Girls with Lexie and Serena dressed as Posh Spice, Moody comes up to Pearl and asks about the racism aspect of Pearl being the black Spice Girl. He assumes the other girls are using her as a pet project due to her race. She clarifies that she chose to dress as Scary Spice. When the other girls call her name, she excuses herself, but it shows how her friendship with Moody depreciated amid Pearl’s ascent to popularity.

LAWYER UP

As the kids are trying to figure out their social circles, the adults are trying to figure out the custody arrangements for Mirabelle/May Ling.

With Mia’s persuasion and monetary contribution, Bebe hires a lawyer to fight for May Ling. The fight quickly moves to the TV news as reporters run up to Linda McCullough, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, with Mirabelle in the baby carriage. Linda running into her home along with interviews with Bebe and the lawyer swearing they will fight for custody lights up the TVs in all of the families’ living rooms.

When Bebe says in the report she was offered $10,000, Izzy asks in shock why the McCulloughs would offer that sum. But Bill looks at Elena, sensing she is responsible for the offer.

BURN HER UP

At the very end, Mia is cutting up strips of a photo she blew up. She hangs up the shreds on a rope. Mia puts a lighter to each shred and watches them burn. As she stands back, it turns out to be an image of Elena.

Little Fires Everywhere is streaming now on Hulu. New episodes will arrive on Wednesdays.

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‘Little Fires Everywhere’ TV Review: Seeds and All

Kerry Washington as Mia Warren and Lu Huang as Bebe Chow in Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu.

The second episode of Little Fires Everywhere deepens the shaky acquaintanceship of two matriarchs trying to accept their newfound ties.

Kerry Washington is Mia Warren, a single black mother who moves to rule-abiding Shaker Heights, Ohio with her daughter Pearl, played by Lexi Underwood. Reese Witherspoon is Elena Richardson, a rich white mother with four teenage children distraught over how her youngest daughter, Izzy, played by Megan Stott, is not aspiring to be the American dream she set up for her family.

As Pearl hangs out more with the Richardson children—Izzy; Lexie, played by Jade Pettyjohn; Tripp, played by Jordan Elsass; and Moody, played by Gavin Lewis—Mia and Elena are seeing their lives collide more, whether they like it or not.

DOING THE MATH

Pearl wants to take algebra two, but the white male school counselor placed her back in geometry. The counselor claims Pearl attended too many schools and assumes she’s being bused in from Cleveland. Knowing her race is really the decision, she later tells Mia about the situation at the Chinese restaurant where her mother works. But Mia is watching her coworker, Bebe, deal with the diners, especially a baby.

Pearl picks up on the disinterest and asks Elena the next morning if she could proofread her essay to get into algebra two. Elena gladly accepts and mentions the school doesn’t like to put the students of color in the higher-level classes. In the kitchen, Elena puts the essay down on the counter to fetch Izzy for school. Lexie sees the abandoned papers and takes a peek.

BOOK CLUB

Elena’s book club is reading The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, which of course riles her conservatism as she complains she had voted for Arthur Golden’s classic Memoirs of a Geisha instead. At the book club inside her spacious living room, Elena touches on motherhood not being mentioned as much in the famous feminist play.

The moderator shoots back about the last chapter revolving around childbirth and asks if she’s less of a woman for not having children. Pouring liqueur in the background, Mia wanders into the conversation to defend Elena, who barely read the play distraught over the mention of “vaginas,” and discusses the buried motherhood theme. Elena approves Mia’s defense and introduces Mia to the book club.

After the book club, Mia and Elena are bonding on the sofa with wine. The invisible competition comes up again when Elena absentmindedly tells Mia that she helped Pearl with her letter to advocate for her upgraded math class. Mia abruptly ends the bonding session. At home, she asks Pearl about how she got into the class. Pearl said she stood up for herself without mentioning any help from Elena.

WHO IS BEBE?

Back at the restaurant where Pearl is talking to Mia about her math dilemma, Mia zeros in on Bebe Chow, the quiet Chinese immigrant working at the restaurant played by Lu Huang. Mia senses Bebe needs help after Bebe shows happiness then sadness when handling a baby for a family, so Mia gets up from the dining table on her night off and tells Bebe she will take over her shift.

Later, Bebe makes homemade noodles for Mia that she brings to Mia at home. Mia gives Bebe her tips from the night before. Her kindness touches Bebe, who admits she lost her baby daughter.

Mia tells Bebe she doesn’t have to share her story to explain her behavior; she understands as a mother. This signals another mother being brought into the equation and how her race will play a role in discovering what happened to her daughter.

still, Who is Mia?

The episode opens in a years-old flashback of Mia having sex in a cramped car. She’s only distracted by baby Pearl waking up. She kicks out her sex partner and comforts Pearl.

This accompanies the New York City subway flashbacks that Mia has been having since the first episode. She’s scared sitting on the subway and the main person she’s staring at across from her in the car is Grey’s Anatomy actor/activist Jesse Williams. At one point, his unidentified character flickers into Elena. Mia’s traumas may take a backseat to Bebe’s traumas we have yet to see.

The first three episodes of Little Fires Everywhere is streaming now on Hulu. New episodes will arrive on Wednesdays.

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‘Little Fires Everywhere’ TV Review: The Spark

Kerry Washington as Mia Warren in Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, which started streaming this week on Hulu with its first three episodes, is already establishing the racial thread between two families in an upscale Ohio suburb in 1997.

The series introduces us to two different neighbors in Shaker Heights, Ohio: Elena Richardson, played by Reese Witherspoon, the well-to-do white housewife/part-time reporter with a lawyer husband and four teenage children; and Mia Warren, played by Kerry Washington, a black single mother/mixed media artist who moved to the restrictive suburb with her teen daughter Pearl.

Below are the top threads laying out the complexities of the characters and opening the pathway to the plot.

Mia and Pearl are black

In the book, Mia and Pearl, played by Lexi Underwood, aren’t described as black. In fact, their race isn’t really identified with the socioeconomic barrier standing between them and the Richardsons.

Adding their blackness to the storyline, the show emphasized the racial tension between mothers Mia and Elena.

Mia is the black single mother barely making ends meet while Elena is the financially comfortable white homemaker who only offers Mia her rental home after seeing Mia’s car and realizing she had reported it to the police for suspicious activity. Elena eventually offers Mia a “house manager” job, which Mia interprets as a maid job and the racial connotations of domestic service.

Elena will be the white woman character not understanding her racism, like when she calls the police about Mia’s car, while convincing herself she’s not racist, like offering Mia the home to rent after seeing the car. She’s the modern-day Barbecue Becky or Permit Patty but trying to right her wrongs while still making offense, like with the job offer.

Pearl gets in trouble

Once Mia’s daughter Pearl and Elena’s son Moody, played by Gavin Lewis, get acquainted, they’re two peas in a pod. Moody introduces Pearl to a junkyard where he’s decorated a small shed he turned into an artistic sanctuary. Pearl is impressed when she sees words from a poem she had quoted to Moody earlier. But then the two get busted for trespassing.

When neighborhood watch brings the kids back to the Richardson home, Mia goes ballistic. Her black daughter is being brought home by a police officer! In a new (mostly white) neighborhood! Of course, she can’t control her emotions, telling Pearl she’s not like the Richardsons aka not white. Elena is soft on Moody for the offense and tells Mia that it was neighborhood watch, with the man’s uniform appearing like that of a police officer. Mia is visibly upset by Elena’s response and leaves with Pearl.

the mothers

How the series is juxtaposing Mia with Izzy, played by Megan Stott, and Elena with Pearl shows how the grass is greener on the other side, but in this case the teen girls see themselves in these adult women who are the opposite of their mothers.

Pearl admires Elena because she represents stability. Being a daughter of an artist, she’s been forced to believe she has to move constantly. She begs her mother that they make Shaker Heights home, at least stay a year.

After Pearl gets in trouble with the neighborhood watch, Mia feels profound guilt and lets Pearl paint the rest of her walls in her bedroom a cerulean hue, buys Pearl a bicycle, and even paints her fingernails. There’s a desperate guilt that she can’t offer her daughter stability, especially the kind the Richardsons have. With Mia’s recurring New York City subway terrors, we see this mother struggling with her past circumstances and how she’s escaping them to focus on her daughter.

In the Richardson home, Elena chastises Izzy for not playing her violin at a school concert and writing in black marker across her forehead: NOT YOUR PUPPET. A chilly distance still remains between them because Izzy is the unique child. She burns her hair, wears black clothing, and refuses to conform to the suburban life her parents had set up for her and her siblings. But this ruffles perfectionist Elena to the point they can’t connect.

When Izzy is spraying black paint on a trunk in the front yard, Mia takes notice of the art in motion. Izzy smiles at the compliment. The connection is snapped between their artistic hearts. Seeing how Izzy may be misunderstood in her ambitious household compels Mia to take on the house manager role Elena had offered previously. Though she first took offense, her motherly tendencies overruled her.

The episode ends with Elena receiving a call from one of the references Mia put down for her tenant application. It turns out the alleged former landlord never met Mia, raising suspicions about who Mia is, where she came from, and how her secrets could threaten the Richardsons and the greater Shaker Heights community.

The first three episodes of Little Fires Everywhere is streaming now on Hulu. New episodes will arrive on Wednesdays.

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Bookish TV Throwback: Maya Wilkes’ Book Launch on ‘Girlfriends’

Girlfriends fans rejoiced last month when star Tracee Ellis Ross shared on Instagram a video of her former co-stars Golden Brooks, Jill Marie Jones, and Persia White. As they all prepare for a long-awaited reunion appearance tonight on Tracee’s current TV gig, ABC’s Black-ish, fans may wonder if the book that defined Girlfriends will come up in conversation.

The reunion even produced an Entertainment Weekly first-look profile of the Black-ish episode that will revolve around Tracee’s character’s Rainbow and her feminist friends from college. But Girlfriends, a UPN sitcom that celebrated four single Black women living in 2000s Los Angeles, produced its own best-selling Oh Hell Yes! by Maya Wilkes, played by Golden.

Oh Hell Yes! is the fictional self-help book told in a “homegirl” tone. It obviously paved the way for today’s hits from mostly white women authors like Jen Sincero’s You Are a Total Badass to Rachel Hollis’ Girl, Wash Your Face.

“The Way We Were” is Maya’s book launch episode, running on Feb. 21, 2005, over a decade before TV shows that brought a book into the storyline actually worked with a real-life publisher to get the book on shelves, a newer tactic made popular by bookish shows like Younger and Jane the Virgin have done.

Maya (Golden Brooks)

To give some background, Maya is a single mom and recent divorcee who works as a paralegal for lawyer Joan Clayton, played by Tracee. Joan’s friends from UCLA includes Toni Childs, played by Jill Marie, and Lynn Searcy, played by Persia. So they’re all friends navigating the highs and lows of being professional Black women in the big city. At the time, the show was coined as a comedic Black version of Sex and the City or an updated Living Single.

Maya is nervous at the book launch inside the fictional Crenshaw Bookstore. They huddle behind a bookshelf to calm Maya before her “authoress” debut. (Maya dramatically called herself an “authoress” throughout the series).

“Don’t let fear make you its bitch,” Toni soothes Maya.

“Wow, that’s good. Who wrote that?” Maya asks.

“You.”

Maya freaks out about forgetting her own advice and heads to the podium. Joan is avoiding William, played by Reggie Hayes who’s also a lawyer and the fifth unofficial “girlfriend.” William shows up at the book-signing, after their awkward short-lived relationship.

As the event starts, each of the friends read an excerpt. “Don’t be hatin’ what your mama spent nine months creatin'” is one of Maya’s proverbs read aloud.

Joan (Tracee Ellis Ross)

Lynn (Persia White)

Toni (Jill Marie Jones)

After the readings, Maya thanks her cousin/publicist, her current boss William, and her friends.

“I also have to thank my girls,” she says. “Joan, Toni, and Lynn. You three have been my rock for these past few years, and the inspiration for my book. Because if y’all haven’t been manless, crazy heifers, there wouldn’t have been anything to write about.”

During the book-signing, Maya’s ex-husband Darnell, played by Khalil Kain, makes a surprise appearance to get his book signed. Of course, Maya takes this the wrong way, which leads to a fake cookout at Joan’s house the next day so she could wear her booty shorts for Darnell. But when Darnell, the sole attendee, shows up trying to figure out the situation, he breaks the news he’s engaged to his girlfriend.

Oh Hell Yes! played a pivotal role across seasons as Maya began writing the manuscript in her community college class as an essay. While dropping gems of wisdom at her cousin’s hair salon, customers became hooked to Maya’s no-nonsense advice to living your best life. This leads to a self-publishing adventure, where she’s even selling copies on the freeway ramp to drivers. She does finally get a big-time publishing deal, but she loses that deal once she can’t concoct a follow-up.

The show was ahead of the self-publishing wave and the self-help book wave. Books like Oh Hell Yes! are everywhere in bookstores, especially from women who have built a career through the internet and social media. As a Black female author, Maya also went the self-publishing route since it’s still hard for women of color to get book deals from top publishers.

If you’re looking for a binge, Girlfriends has eight seasons currently airing in reruns on BET and TV One and is available on streaming via CW Seed.

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‘Younger’ Season Finale TV Review: Forever

"Younger" Ep. 612 (Airs 9/04/19)

The sixth season finale starts with Kelsey (Hilary Duff) cementing her resignation at Millennial with first telling Liza (Sutton Foster), who tries to intercept the letter to Charles, then taking the letter back to hand to Charles (Peter Hermann). After being the publisher’s CEO, Kelsey admits she couldn’t return to being an editor at a place where she was a boss.

Kelsey meets Zane (Charles Michael Davis) at a park and reveals to him she’s in the market to start her own publishing company. Since Zane had started Mercury with Charles, she wants his advice. But Mercury has been absorbed by Millennial, so Zane says it’s not a good idea for Kelsey to get into the book startup business. Zane actually tells Kelsey that she shouldn’t given up her job after the cleavage social media mishap.

While Kelsey’s resignation drama is going on, the crew is preparing for Diana (Miriam Shor)’s upcoming nuptial. And Diana and Liza are unsure about their first book pitch at Millennial without Kelsey.

Kelsey pitches her business, KLP Print, to Quinn (Laura Benanti), the horrid ex-investor for Millennial. Later, Quinn drops the bomb of she and Kelsey collaborating to Charles and Liza at a restaurant. Liza meets Kelsey at another restaurant that night, and Kelsey says she trusts Quinn enough since she made Kelsey CEO.

At Diana’s wedding, the sentiment sets in. Charles begs Kelsey to come back to her job since she’s “family.” Kelsey lets her walls down with Zane, and they hold hands in the pew. Then at the reception, Charles proposes to Liza! But, of course, a ringaround dance with too many guests to count separates them. No answer until next season.

The entire season showed an evolution with the company not only falling into Kelsey’s hands but also it falling out. Once she had the power, it was always threatened by investors and authors alike skeptical about her leadership skills because she was “younger.” And she’s a woman. Though the show revolves around Liza lying about her age, it flipped to focus on Kelsey and how being a millennial can be a handicap, too. Showing how women have to be careful about every step and constantly prove themselves in the boardroom was brillinatly executed at this fictional publisher trying to stay afloat amid financial hardship.

The season finale hit a high with 1.2 million viewers on TV Land, making the series the top original ad-supported cable sitcom for women in the age demographics between 18-49 and 25-54, according to the network. The seventh season premiere date has yet to be announced. The first five seasons can be found on Hulu with subscription.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Holding Out for a SHero

"Younger" Ep. 611 (Airs 8/28/19)

Throughout the current sixth season, the age-centric Younger has emphasized the ups and downs of a millennial publisher CEO, but now that role has disappeared amid scandal, leaving characters in limbo.

Walking into the Millennial publisher’s office after losing her CEO title, Kelsey (Hilary Duff) announces to the company that she’ll become an editor with Liza (Sutton Foster) again after securing an angel investor to replace a controlling investor who dropped off over Liza’s lying-about-her-age scandal.

In the conference room, one of the publisher’s authors is presenting her book on manners for millennials. She brings up how millennials share too much of their private lives online, which Kelsey is dealing with her social media faux pas from last week, and how millennials ghost others, which Liza is dealing with by cutting her ex Josh out of her life after an unexpected promotion ad went awry.

After the author’s presentation, editor Diana (Miriam Shor) receives a bouquet of flowers from a prospective author who said she picked another publisher. Diana says she appreciates the flowers à la rejection, with the manners book in mind. At home, Liza writes a Dear John letter, an old-school alternative to ghosting, to her ex Josh (Nico Tortorella) as she focuses on her romantic relationship with Charles (Peter Hermann).

Lauren (Molly Bernard), their social media maven/publicist friend, notifies Kelsey she’s been uninvited to several literary events because of her accidental nip slip. But Lauren says a girls’ high school wants Kelsey to speak to the student body about the dangers of making mistakes in a digital world. Kelsey is not crazy about the idea since she doesn’t want to talk about the downfall.

At a meeting, current (and former) CEO Charles lets the editors know he is reviving titles that Kelsey and Liza had passed on. The books that “fell through the cracks” upsets Kelsey as she worries her decisions as the boss will be reversed under new management.

Later that night, Diana’s bachelorette party goes from the strip club to Josh’s tattoo parlor. Still biting her nails over the letter she sent to Josh, Liza worries about what will happen next. As the group wanders, Josh asks Liza why she wrote the letter. He argues with Liza about her loving Charles doesn’t mean distance for them. He accuses Liza of picking the safe choice and demands she profess more love for Charles. She does. But Josh doesn’t believe her.

Kelsey decides to speak to the high school girls about how her one mistake has endangered her career longevity. The Dear John letter bug then bites Kelsey. She starts her letter by quitting her job.

How the season started with Kelsey struggling to get her foothold as the CEO and now losing the gig shows the hardships of being a girlboss. After one scandal after another, the scandal that affects Kelsey the most is the sexist one that throws her from the helm. Now with her resgination, next week’s season finale will foreshadow what’s next for Kelsey.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Millennial’s Next Top Model

"Younger" Ep. 609 (Airs 8/14/19)

Younger‘s sixth season has finally revealed the secret that’s been the premise of the show since the first episode: Liza is 42, and not 28.

The age difference explodes on a volcanic level in last week’s episode at a literary event where Liza (Sutton Foster)’s imprint, Millennial, becomes the talk of the town. This week, Millennial loses a partnership with retailer Infinite 21 because of Liza’s lie. But Liza proclaims in a monologue how everyone in the publishing industry is altering their appearances to look younger and “millennial” is an attitude and not an age.

While playing cards with her current boyfriend and colleague Charles (Peter Hermann) and his daughters at a dessert shop, Liza gets a call from Infinite 21. The company wants to “unfreeze” the partnership and sell Millennial books in its stores.

Millennial’s boss Kelsey (Hilary Duff) phones her ex and current colleague, Zane (Charles Michael Davis). She hasn’t heard from him since Liza’s lie became public. She shows up that night at Zane’s apartment and brings a meal kit as a peace offering. They end up making out.

On the set of the Infinite 21 ad campaign starring Liza, Millennial’s main investor shows up. Quinn (Laura Benanti), the California senatorial candidate who’s also a Millennial author, tells Liza to join her on an interview for a NY1 report on corporate ageism.

While Kelsey is dealing with Zane, Liza is at a bar with the Infinite 21 brand manager when her ex, Josh (Nico Tortorella), walks in. She explains to the brand manager how Josh was the first person to know she was lying about her age. This sparks the constant reminder of Liza’s romantic relationship with Josh, which ended seasons ago, but keeps getting a revival this season.

At the interview, Liza tells the reporter behind the scenes that Quinn knew about Liza’s true age before investing in Millennial. The reporter brings it up during the interview. Quinn shakes her head no about knowing Liza’s true age. She evens adds Liza may have been confused about the off-the-record question.

Quinn later calls Kelsey to a bar over Liza’s mishap of telling the truth. She says Kelsey should’ve fired Liza before the lie destroyed Millennial’s reputation in the industry.

The next morning, Kelsey is talking to Charles about Quinn’s demands. Before they can resolve the problem, they learn authors’ advances and employees’ direct deposits are bouncing. Quinn had pulled her investment.

Age, which defines the show in the title, has wreaked havoc on Liza’s personal life at a slow pace with her friends and colleagues finding out about her lie. But now everyone knows she lied about her age to enter the publishing industry after raising her daughter and getting a divorce, so this issue is now affecting her employer. Even the adult daughter and divorce part hasn’t been revealed on a larger scale, so that has to become an issue thread at least for next season.

Also on a bookish note, a sneak preview of the latest book-related film Where’d You Go, Bernadette? highlighted a commercial break. The movie, starring Cate Blanchett, opens in theaters this Friday.

 

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‘Queen Sugar’ TV Review: Stare at the Same Fires

For Show Promotion Only
Queen Sugar -- Ep 401 Photo Credit: Skip Bolen / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

The OWN series Queen Sugar has been knee-deep this season in driving storylines around the memoir by Nova, the middle daughter of the sugar mill-owning Bordelon family in Louisiana. In this episode, Nova’s biological sister and former sister-in-law of sorts are dealing with the aftermath of Nova’s memoir with controlled substances.

Nova (Rutina Wesley) helps her real sister, Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner), off a barstool in New Orleans, miles away from their hometown of St. Josephine. Charley had been drinking throughout the night at the bar with her sunglasses on, so her potential constituents won’t notice her since she’s running for office. Nova takes her sister to the hotel room and dresses Charley in her pajamas. The tender moment shows the distance they’ve been dealing with can be reduced so quickly. Under the blankets, Charley asks why Nova wrote her book and told the Bordelon family secrets. Nova says she thought it would help the family but now realizes it only helped her career. Charley begins crying, and Nova comforts her sister.

Once Charley returns home, she notices the front page of the local newspaper with the headline, “Charley Bordelon Is My Role Model.” It’s an op-ed by Nova about why her sister would make a great city councilwoman who will defend their farmer community. Nova adds in the op-ed that she regrets what she wrote about her sister in the best-selling memoir.

Charley’s son Micah (Nicholas L. Ashe) then brings his mother out to a get-together where family, friends, and mill workers have gathered to uplift each other after the mill’s fire from last week’s episode.

As the festivities are taking place under garden lights, Darla (Bianca Lawson) is at home taunted by a bottle of alcohol. Since she’s broken up with Nova’s brother Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) and lied about their son Blue (Ethan Hutchison)’s paternity, it’s striking to see her suffering no longer a concern for the Bordelons. She’s not considered family anymore. Nobody is checking on her as she deals with the impact of Nova’s memoir.

Darla’s depression in the episode starts with her visiting the musician she is dating at a practice. He approaches Darla to let her know he’s worried about what he read in Nova’s book. Since he’s working on his sobriety, he picks up on Darla’s slip. Darla becomes hard to contact like Charley.

The contrasting moments with Charley and Darla succumbing to their vices because of Nova’s book are eye-opening to the deeper impact the book has had on the family. The storyline keeps evolving every episode, where the pivotal moments are connected to the pain caused by Nova’s book. This week, the book didn’t seem to earn more awards as it seemed to in previous episodes while a character is having a breakdown. It’d be interesting to see how these characters will keep reacting to the book and how the book will keep rising on the charts.

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‘Queen Sugar’ TV Review: Of Several Centuries + All the Borders

Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Natalie Baszile, Queen Sugar follows the Bordelons, a black family who owns a sugarcane company in Louisiana. As some of the members are experiencing a higher profile, it seems like the entire family is seeing the repercussions of their success.

The season has highlighted how middle daughter Nova (Rutina Wesley) wrote a memoir revealing family secrets—unbeknownst to her family. The tension grows by the episode.

Darla (Bianca Lawson), the ex-fiancee of Nova’s brother Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe), arrives at her job to find Nova’s book facedown on her seat. The way the book is flipped open, it looks like it’s on the pages describing Darla’s journey in and out of drug addiction. She’s embarrassed that her past life has been made public and has followed her to work.

Nova runs into her police officer ex, Calvin (Greg Vaughan), who now owns a security company, and tells him over lunch how he’s mentioned in her book. Another ex now appears on the book tour since she was sleeping with her professor-mentor for the last two episodes.

There are bookmarks of destruction: The vandalism of Aunt Violet (Tina Lifford)’s restaurant in the beginning and the family-owned mill on fire in the end.

The second episode starts with Nova running to Charley and Ralph Angel as they watch the firefighters contain the mill fire. But her siblings are still unhappy to see her. After learning the fire most likely was caused by arson, Charley and Ralph Angel storm off to approach the nemesis sugarcane business family matriarch, Frances Boudreaux (Annalee Jefferies).

“They looked at me like I wasn’t one of them. They looked like I was a stranger. Not even a stranger, like an enemy,” Nova cries into the phone to Calvin. “I lost my family.”

Calvin runs over to Nova’s house to check on her. Micah comes over at the same time. Once Calvin goes into another room to take a call, Micah questions Nova on how she’s comfortable being with a white ex-cop who could’ve beaten the black and brown residents of St. Josephine. Last season, Micah had been mistreated by a cop during a traffic stop, creating distrust for him and his family over police presence. During that time, Nova’s profile rose as a result of her coverage on cops targeting unarmed black men, which led to her book deal. Nova later asks Calvin if he ever saw another police officer “abuse black people.” He says he looked the other way and he left the force since he had lost his relationship with Nova over the racial tensions in their town.

Nova’s book alone has destroyed her relationship with her family, but as she copes with that loss, she’s been gravitating to her toxic relationships from the past. The college professor she had an affair with turned up on the tour and now it’s her married cop boyfriend returning as divorced and retired from the force.

With her tour, Nova hasn’t really had the chance to mend the relationships at home like she thinks she has. She returns home over the mill fire, but it’s reminiscent of a few weeks ago when she ran to Violet’s home after noticing her aunt’s ex-husband, whom she had interviewed for her book, terrorizing her aunt.

The impact of the memoir is weaved brilliantly into the season with Nova enjoying the success of her book but feeling the fire of burning bridges.

“Queen Sugar” has new episodes on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. on OWN.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: The Debu-taunt

"Younger" Ep. 608 (Airs 8/07/19)

Finally everyone on Younger knows Liza’s real age—and of course, there’s major backlash.

For the past six seasons, book editor Liza (Sutton Foster) has been lying that she’s in her mid-20s. She did so to get a job in publishing and eventually started working for an imprint called Millennial. But she’s actually in her early 40s. One by one, characters learned Liza’s secret over the years, but some like her former boss and current colleague Diana (Miriam Shor) still was in the dark.

The episode starts with Liza running into Pauline (Jennifer Westfeldt), the ex-wife of Liza’s boyfriend/another former boss and current colleague Charles (Peter Hermann), at Charles’ daughter’s elementary school while dropping off a book report. Liza had been the editor for Pauline’s best-selling novel, Marriage Vacation, but at the time she was hiding her affair with Charles. Now, Pauline and Charles are getting a divorce, and Charles just asked Liza to move into his townhouse.

During a work meeting, Millennial imprint heads, including Liza, Diana, and Charles, discuss which author they should choose for the Publishers Weekly debutante ball. The ball welcomes debut authors into literary society with their publishing mentors. Pauline’s name comes up as Millennial’s most successful author though the imprint lost her sophomore novel due to Charles divorcing her to be with Liza.

To cement the invitation, Liza meets with Pauline for lunch. Fresh from their awkward run-in at the school, Pauline says Liza was the best editor. She even adds she wished she had kept her second project with Millennial. Liza then asks Pauline to accompany her to the ball, and Pauline says yes.

After the lunch, Pauline returns to her daughter’s school, where she runs into the talkative secretary. The secretary overhears Pauline finishing up a call with Liza and commends Pauline for getting along with her ex’s girlfriend. Pauline makes a crack Charles running away with a millennial. The secretary laughs. She reveals that Liza is 42 since Liza had to leave a form of ID at the school.

“She’s been lying shamelessly about who she is for years,” Pauline announces on stage at the ball with Liza standing behind her.

Diana defends Liza in front of the audience as Liza admits she really is in her 40s, not in her 20s. In confusion, Diana stumbles outside in the middle of Times Square and suffers a panic attack. The group takes Diana to the hospital, where Charles gets a call from his lawyer that Pauline’s lawyer wants to revisit the custody battle over their two daughters.

The next day, Liza walks into the office and learns Diana is drafting Liza’s resignation letter. They have a heart-to-heart, and Liza stays in her job.

More secrets surrounding Liza’s age should come up in the next few weeks. Though fans felt this was the saddest outcome of Liza’s lie of a career, at least everyone stayed alive unlike when Kelsey (Hilary Duff)’s unlikeable fiance died seasons ago in that crane collapse where he confronted Liza about her age. And what happened to Liza’s college-age daughter?  There are still other factors that can add weight to the longtime lie.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Merger, She Wrote

"Younger" Ep. 509 (Airs 8/07/18)

Younger, preparing for a seventh season on TV Land, has its characters dealing with competition in the publishing industry.

Liza (Sutton Foster) is the main character who had been lying about her age to get into the industry, but most of the people close to her in and out of the office has known she’s over 40 and is not a millennial. She’s dating Charles (Peter Hermann), who still owns her imprint, Millennial, though he started a new venture, Mercury. Liza is telling her friend/roommate Maggie (Debi Mazar) about the dilemma, and Maggie suggests the imprints should have a merger.

At the office, Liza and her colleagues, Millennial CEO Kelsey (Hilary Duff) and editor Diana (Miriam Shor), are listening to a proposal for a book on microdosing. As they listen about how ingesting mushrooms in small amounts can reset your body, the author invites Liza to a medically supervised retreat.

With the promise of a book deal, the Millennial team moves onto finding someone to read the audiobook for their baby boomer erotica auditions for The Seasoned Slut. The auditions are not going well until Diana plays around with the words. Then she nabs the job, which puts a spotlight on a newer element of the publishing industry with audiobooks and finding the right voices for those books.

Later, Liza tells Charles to merge the two competing imprints. Charles doesn’t believe Mercury can merge with Millennial because Mercury hasn’t made money yet. Charles reminds Liza that she’s been invited to join Mercury to squash the competition. Liza says she has a retreat in the morning; Charles is going to the same microdosing retreat. Liza gets up to head home without sharing a cab ride with Charles.

At the retreat, Charles sees Liza at the reception desk and asks to share rooms. Liza says no after learning they’re still competing for the book deal. Josh (Nico Tortorella), Liza’s ex who’s still in the circle, soon appears, with the goal of meeting venture capitalists to expand his tattoo business.

During the audiobook recording sessions back in New York City, Kelsey and her competitive ex-lover/Mercury editor Zane (Charles Michael Davis) connect over believing the formerly accused serial killer who has a book deal with Mercury really was a killer as she puts too much emotion in her recording. Kelsey and Zane talk about the competition between Millennial and Mercury.

Meanwhile at the retreat, Liza is tripping. She keeps confusing Charles and Josh with even believing she’s making out with Josh when she’s with Charles. The trip continues until she sees a “nurse,” who tells her to dance it out. In her imagination, Liza is dancing between Charles and Josh on a Broadway stage when in actuality she’s dancing with a plant and taking selfies with it.

After the retreat, Charles visits the Millennial office with Kelsey, Diana, and Liza. Charles says he has a proposal. Kelsey asks if he’s closing Mercury, but Charles says he doesn’t want to fight with family and that he wants Millennial to buy into Mercury. He proposes one dollar and reminds them his grandfather had mortgaged everything to start the business. Charles says he would like to return as an editor, not to threaten Kelsey’s CEO status, and work alongside Liza, where their romantic relationship would not interfere with business.

Last year, TV Land said Younger would be ending its run on the channel and move to Paramount Network, but the show stayed on TV Land this season and now will see the seventh one next year. This season feels like storylines were being tied up together with Liza and Charles finally finding a way to be with each other while working in the industry. But with the show preparing for another run probably next summer, it would be interesting to see how the merger will pan out and affect the romantic and working relationship between Liza and Charles. They act like it’s an ideal situation, but it probably won’t be… again.

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‘Queen Sugar’ TV Review: By the Spit

Queen Sugar -- Ep 401 -- "TBD" -- Photo Credit: Skip Bolen / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

OWN drama Queen Sugar is focusing this season on a main character’s evolution as a memoirist and how her memoir is impacting her family.

Nova (Rutina Wesley) has written a memoir spilling many unexpected family secrets, but as her family struggles with the secrets coming out of the shadows, she’s enjoying the limelight of having a best-selling, critically acclaimed book.

After reconnecting with her former professor-mentor Dr. Octavia Laurent (Cree Summer) whom she’s also started sleeping with again, Nova learns her book is being shortlisted for the National Book Award. Octavia, who went off on Nova for a measly mention in the book, tries to convince Nova that she doesn’t need accolades to prove her voice. It’s obvious this blast from the past is a hater, but Nova doesn’t see that yet, with even inviting Octavia to an interview about the book as part of the press tour.

During the interview, Nova is told by the reporter that her sister, Charley, is running for office to stop a highway proposal that would affect their family land. The sisters haven’t been speaking to each other since Nova put in her book that Charley paid off her basketballer ex-husband’s mistresses. When the reporter drops that bomb, Octavia interjects her wisdom. “Black girl magic is a continuum,” she says to detract attention, a quotable.

Later in the hotel room, Nova brings up her family. She is still bothered that she didn’t know about Charley running for office. Octavia says family members are “biological accidents,” advice Nova doesn’t care for at the moment. “Sometimes, we have to put family in the rearview to get to where we need to go,” Octavia adds, another quotable.

At a networking soiree, Octavia goes up to a woman she knows. The woman immediately praises Nova, who is left by the hors d’oeuvre table, in front of Octavia and proposes asking Nova to edit a collection of essays on race. Octavia says she would be a better candidate for the project since she’s been looking for one. But the woman says she would prefer emerging writers for the project. Then Octavia returns to Nova and lies about singing her praises. Nova looks at her mentor fly hungrily to one person to another.

Things later come to a head in the hotel room when Nova approaches Octavia about not telling her about the editing opportunity. Octavia tells Nova that she needs 20 years of prerequisites to complete such work. That she “made” Nova. The jealousy is palpable, and Nova thanks her mentor for opening doors but she will continue to walk in her path and reminds Octavia that she invited herself on the book tour. But Octavia retorts, “Emotional labor is still work. I refuse to be treated like an afterthought,” a third quotable. They part ways. Nova later calls Charley to congratulate her on the run.

The mentor storyline stuck out in this episode. What happens when you’re a mentor to someone who reaches the pinnacle of success you always wanted? What happens if your mentor doesn’t seem happy that you found success? These questions possibly come up for writers at times when their dreams come true as some people who worked alongside them throughout their careers may not continue with them.

Other storylines still have the imprint of the memoir’s effect. Charley goes to the Latinx section of town to get votes with her boyfriend and later deals with a brick thrown into her headquarters’ window. Seven-year-old Blue (Ethan Hutchison) gets a child psychologist to deal with learning that Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe), the younger brother of Nova and Charley, is not his biological father. Violet (Tina Lifford) realizes that she may have post-traumatic stress disorder after Nova’s book brought back her violent ex-husband weeks ago.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Stiff Competition

"Younger" Ep. 605 (Airs 7/17/19)

Younger revolves around Liza (Sutton Foster), a 40-something woman working in the publishing industry who had been lying about being in her late 20s for the past five seasons. The show, in its final season, now focuses on the Millennial imprint she helped create with Kelsey (Hilary Duff), an actual millennial, and how they’re trying to build the imprint as it becomes the top one for a longtime publisher.

The episode starts with Liza and Charles (Peter Hermann) going to a literati party. Liza even spots Colson Whitehead (not really there), but they later bump into Meg Wolitzer (really there), the author of The Female Persuasion and The Wife. It turns out both Liza and Charles set up interviews with her at a later date.

They learn Mercury is highlighted as a rising star in a New York Magazine profile. But the next day Kelsey notices she gets an awkward headshot crop at the bottom of the profile in the “low-brow” section.

“Charles is hot and I’m not!” Kelsey shrieks.

A Chip and Joanna Gaines copycat couple flipping homes in New York come into the Millennial office to pitch their couple relationship/do-it-yourself book, The Third Leg. Later that night, Charles surprises Liza with dinner—at a restaurant with the Gaines-like couple.

Of course, the couple had signed with Mercury, as they rave about Charles’ raving of his romantic relationship with Liza. They connected with that piece.

After dinner, Charles tells Liza that Mercury is doing well, but it’s all “smoking mirrors,” since they have zero sales so far.

The youngest conductor for the Brooklyn Philharmonic is the next target for Millennial as Liza pitches the musical prodigy as a potential memoirist. They soon attend a show where Liza talks to the conductor before the start to let her know she brought her team to discuss the memoir. As Liza leaves the backstage room, she bumps into Charles. She knows he’s there to sign the memoir, too, though she’s taken aback since she’d been in contact with the conductor for months. Charles sits down in his orchestra seat while Liza goes back to her nosebleed-ish seat where Kelsey and their colleague Diana (Miriam Shor) saw the couple talking near the stage.

Liza breaks the news that Charles is there for the same reason they are. Diana starts reading the conductor’s bio in the program and sees Charles’ illustrious family had funded her scholarship to Julliard. Game over.

Kelsey and Diana find themselves playing an ax game with beers. Still stressed out about losing current and potential authors, Kelsey brings up that she’s worried Liza may be helping Charles snatch the deals. Diana says the relationship between Liza and Charles isn’t compatible for the business. They soon leave, but Diana pees in the street right when a police car is driving by. So she gets caught for public urination while Kelsey, in angry mode, is raging against the officer with an ax. They both are booked in jail.

Meanwhile at the show, Charles is speaking with the conductor when Liza approaches them. The conductor says she’s still making a decision though Charles’ family has been very generous with their contributions to her success over the years. Liza stresses that Millennial is helmed by history-making women like the conductor.

Kelsey and Diana are bailed out of jail by Diana’s plumber boyfriend. They had contacted Liza, but she comes too late. Outside the jail, Kelsey asks Liza if she’s feeding information to Charles.

“Are you questioning my loyalty?” Liza asks. She then goes on a rant about how she wants everyone to be a winner.

“Stop being such a Pollyanna!” Kelsey yells. “There has to be losers.”

Charles later drops by Liza’s place that she shares with Maggie (Debi Mazar) and while her ex Josh (Nico Tortorella) is visiting with his baby Gemma. While Liza bonds with Gemma, Charles takes it as her bonding with Josh instead. Liza stops Charles outside where he tells her the good news: the conductor will sign with Millennial. Then Charles says he helped Millennial get the deal. And Liza says that’s the problem: her success can’t depend on Charles.

While the episode emphasized the downturn Millennial is taking mostly due to Mercury coming on the market, it looks like it’ll segue back to the whole Charles and Josh rivalry over Liza.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: An Inside Glob

"Younger" Ep. 604 (Airs 7/10/19)

The publishing industry TV show that centers on a 40-something woman lying about her age to get a job has evolved into focusing on the imprint and her friend who runs it.

Liza (Sutton Foster) shares at the beginning of the episode with her friend Maggie (Debi Mazar) that her boyfriend Charles (Peter Hermann) may be funding a secret company, a competitor against Millennial, the imprint she works at. That secret company could be Mercury, an upstart by former Millennial associate Zane (Charles Michael Davis), that took a big book deal from Millennial.

One of the highlights of this show is the book titles it comes up. In this episode, it’s The Seasoned Slut by a longtime romance author, who’s been with the original Empirical that has now become Millennial. The author is concerned that the established Empirical became the youth-centric Millennial, when it doesn’t fit with her age and readership demographic.

Kelsey (Hilary Duff), the new CEO of Millennial and a former flame of Zane, decides to hunt down Mercury headquarters. Her GPS leads her to a crowded co-working space. Once she spots Zane, she accuses him of sleeping with Audrey, his new client, who was originally meeting with Millennial.

Liza discusses The Seasoned Slut Metrocycle marketing campaign with the author, who’s not buying the campaign. She says she built her career at Empirical when Kelsey was an assistant. She also adds that her readership doesn’t ride bikes. Her contract with Millennial is hanging on a thread.

At dinner, Charles arrives at Maggie’s apartment where Maggie’s new lover (Nicole Ari Parker! Not a lot of women of color guest stars), Kelsey, and Liza are sitting at a table full of food. Kelsey asks Charles if she heard about Mercury. Charles dodges the question.

“Younger” Ep. 604 (Airs 7/10/19)

Liza approaches Charles about being the investor of Mercury. She said she knows what a liar looks like because of her lying about being 26 when she’s 40 for the past five seasons. Charles admits he’s behind Mercury since it’s his turn to build his own company since Empirical belonged to his father. Liza argues Charles can’t be on the board of Millennial while creating a competitor. So Charles asks Liza to keep the secret. And she does.

The next day, Kelsey is chasing the romance author at the restaurant to convince the author to not sign with Mercury. Liza tries to intercept. Kelsey tells the author that Zane is a former employer with a personal vendetta against Millennial. But the author says she doesn’t know Zane; she’s there to meet Charles. Cue Charles and Zane walking up to the table. (A lot of pivotal moments this season are happening at fancy restaurant tables).

Kelsey has a WTF moment, accusing Charles of funding Mercury. She yells about the back-stabbing and blames them for her newly diagnosed alopecia (yasss for awareness).

Onlookers’ smartphones capture Kelsey’s meltdown. The video makes the rounds on the digital literary circuit that same afternoon. Liza notifies Kelsey that three other authors have just jumped ship from Millennial to Mercury to have the “gray hair in the room,” code for older white man boss. Charles, that boss, had resigned from the board an hour earlier.

A fun note is Josh (Nico Tortorella) reading the author’s erotica to his newborn to quiet her. This episode shows how when publishers change, some authors might not see the change helping them succeed, such as the bike campaign for an older adult erotica book.

The stress of being the CEO of a flailing company is getting to Kelsey, who now has severe hair loss. Her leadership is questioned in different ways each week, but the chain of events has hit the fan and is affecting her body. Next episode should show the fallout over the competing publishers and bring up another aspect of female bosshood.

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‘Queen Sugar’ TV Review: Skin Transparent

Queen Sugar -- Ep 401 -- "TBD" -- Photo Credit: Skip Bolen / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

The fallout from Nova’s (Rutina Wesley) memoir is still stirring up drama, but in this episode we get more insight on another family secret unbeknownst to most family members.

The episode starts with Nova’s nephew and her sister Charley’s (Dawn-­Lyen Gardner) son Micah (Nicholas L. Ashe) going to stay with Nova with plans to attend her upcoming book-signing. Sitting with his mother, Micah wonders how long the silent treatment will stay enforced among the Bordelons.

The family matriarch and aunt Violet (Tina Lifford) can’t sleep, claiming recipes are running through her head, but Hollywood pushes for her to talk about the situation with Jimmy Dale (guest star David Alan Grier), her abusive ex-husband who reappeared after communicating with Nova on her book.

Nova creeps around Violet’s restaurant since she had been banned from being around her aunt, but is turned away by an employee. Nova then calls her brother Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe), who doesn’t pick up. News comes about her getting a six-week book tour due to her glowing The New York Times review. That news, of course, moves her attention away from the family and back on her success.

Charley tries to team up with the other female shareholder to go against the Landrys, the sugar cane empire family that had once owned her ancestors. But the shareholder tells Charley to back off because the Landrys are too powerful. So Charley sashays into a country club to approach a Landry about a highway proposal that would gut Bordelon land. The woman tells Charley that she had read Nova’s book with Charley clapping back on the book with a comparison to “sentimental dribble.”

While Charley recovers from her business-heavy moves, she gets home only to meet her ex-husband’s daughter from an extramarital affair. These affairs are described in Nova’s book with Charley paying off another mistress, so that drama haunts her with the publicity from the book and now a breathing part of evidence from an affair is right in her home.

At the book-signing for Blessing and Blood, Nova reads from a recently added chapter called “Buried Memories” about her father being beaten by three white men at a fishing trip to protect his daughter. She read she would wander the sugarcane fields at night, and on one night, she saw her father bury something into the ground. This is an addition to the book. Her ex-girlfriend comes up to her during the book-signing session and asks about Nova’s family not being there, visible with the empty chairs in the front. She gives Nova a kiss on the lips.

Darla (Bianca Lawson), Ralph Angel’s ex-fiancee and mother of their son Blue (Ethan Hutchison), receives Nova’s book and reads the details of her drug-fueled prostituting nights with baby Blue sitting in the corner. In a flash, she bursts into Nova’s door describing her shock that her past life is in those pages. Nova tries to clean it up; Darla’s name and identifying marks have been changed. This doesn’t sit well with Darla, who keeps telling Nova that she didn’t think of Blue’s feelings since he will eventually read about his mother’s past life.

Charley tells Violet and Ralph Angel at the restaurant that Micah asked about the added chapter in Nova’s book. Violet said she doesn’t know what her brother did that night Nova recalled when she was younger, but he had been worried about Nova getting sexually assaulted by those three white men until that night. Vehemently, Violet defends her brother about him and everyone else having the right to keep a secret between themselves and God.

Darla is hysterically crying on her porch about having to tell Blue the truth while Violet is doing the same in her bathroom with Hollywood hearing the muffled cries as the bathwater runs. As the family falls apart, Nova carries her heavy suitcases out the door for her book tour.

The depth of the secrets are felt in this episode. And Nova switches from concern about the book’s aftermath on her family to excitement when she receives good news from her literary agent and publisher. She still looks bad for unveiling her family’s secrets for money and success, yet she’s torn on what to do about it since her family blocks her apologies. More secrets will be revealed, or at least, there will be more coming out of the secrets we know now.

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‘Queen Sugar’ TV Review: Where My Body Stops or Begins

Queen Sugar -- Ep 401 -- "TBD" -- Photo Credit: Skip Bolen / 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

The season so far is wrought by the impact of Nova’s (Rutina Wesley) book that the family didn’t see coming.

The episode starts with Micah (Nicholas L. Ashe) returning from vacation with Nova’s book in hand, in which his mother Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) is questioned about why she paid her ex-husband’s mistress millions to keep quiet and working for the sugarcane company ran by descendants of the owners of the Bordelon family’s ancestors. Tough questions indeed.

In the next scene, Nova is asking her agent what to wear for an interview with an audience of psychologists when she gets word of The New York Times review for book that’s called “a love letter” on race, culture, and identity. The critics love the book putting a microscope on the Bordelons.

Nova is soon sitting on a talk show similar to OWN’s Iyanla, Fix My Life with a family asking for guidance on how to mend a sisterly relationship. They want advice on how Nova and Charley became closer. Of course, that relationship is strained over the contents in the book yet the general public doesn’t know it yet…

Meanwhile, Charley is arguing over her shareholder voting status at the company. Again, the company Nova criticized her for being a part of because of their family’s slavery history. And Charley is given the how-you-should-be-grateful-to-be-in-the-room-since-you’re-a-black-woman speech by her colleague about her dividends.

Violet’s shadow-lurking surprise guest, who gave her such a fright that she fainted in her restaurant, appears to be her abusive ex-husband named Jimmy (David Alan Grier). Elsewhere, Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) tells Darla (Bianca Lawson) that the revelation of him not being Blue’s (Ethan Hutchison) biological father is in Nova’s book. “I didn’t read much after that part. I couldn’t,” he tells her as Darla gets teary about the thought of little Blue discovering the truth.

Jimmy comes back to Violet’s house later and demands to talk to her. He says he wants them to get on the right track, and Violet is hypnotized (in a bad way) by the sight of him. She shrinks, then speaks up. “You’re the last person who can talk about dignity, Jimmy Dale,” she yells. “Get out of my house!”

Nova appears and asks Jimmy why he’s there. Jimmy says it’s nice to see Nova again, which has Violet questioning if they had spoken recently.

“Whatever you did to bring this to my doorstep, it cannot be explained,” Violet tells Nova. Then Nova shoves Jimmy away from Violet until the women are pushing him out the door. But luckily Hollywood, Violet’s new husband, approaches from the driveway and repeatedly punches Jimmy on the lawn.

Nova says she had visited Jimmy for her book to get his point-of-view on his marriage to Violet. “My intention wasn’t to hurt anyone” is her pathetic excuse.

Violet tells Nova that her late parents would be ashamed and told her to leave her home. “I don’t want to look at you. I don’t want to talk to you. Not right now, not tomorrow, what I’m feeling in 10 years can’t put enough distance between us… This is the last time I let you in this house, Nova Bordelon.”

Nova leaves the house. But the greed to craft that Ta-Nehisi Coates-like memoir and using her family as a prop to fetch the fame and status as a culturally woke critic is so overpowering in this episode. Nova brought back someone who obviously was abusive to her beloved aunt. Maybe she didn’t think Jimmy would show up at Violet’s door, but the traumatizing fear a woman may have over an abusive partner returning from the grave she mentally placed him in was shown brilliantly in those scenes.

Another matter was how Blue, who’s about 7 years old, will learn maybe before he should about his true paternity that could send him into a tailspin, questioning the only family he’s ever known. While on the other hand, Micah is a teenager, so him finding out about his mother’s actions against his father’s indiscretions sure would leave a bad taste in his mouth but he’s mature enough to understand the product of the NBA world his family had been in for so long.

This season is wonderfully showing how one’s memoir could ignite a fire with the power to destroy a family. When a memoir is written, do we later see the aftermath from others who are in the story? Is there a sufficient post-memoir describing the interactions between friends and family during the memoir’s release? It’s an interesting concept that writers may not take into consideration because they own their stories, but others may feel violated by that ownership.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: The Unusual Suspect

"Younger" Ep. 603 (Airs 6/26/19)

The overarching theme of the season is Kelsey (Hilary Duff) taking over the publishing house as a millennial woman and picking up the pieces of the financially strapped company.

The episode starts with Liza (Sutton Foster) and Charles (Peter Hermann) acting in a true crime fantasy at an art museum according to the story on the popular Exonerated podcast.

From last week’s episode, investor Quinn (Laura Benanti) has been experiencing best-seller list bliss for the past three weeks to Kelsey’s dismay after the Lean In-like book, Claw, failed to reach audiences during a pre-sale experiment. Quinn notifies Kelsey about the book trending on Twitter and her plans to be interviewed for The Cut. She then requests Kelsey to interview her.

“How does the book everyone hated made it debut at No. 10 on the best-seller list and continues to rise?” Kelsey poses the question to Liza and Diana (Miriam Shor) after Quinn leaves her office. An smh moment.

They go into a meeting with Audrey Colbert (Willa Fitzgerald), the alleged murderess in the Exonerated podcast. Diana skips the meeting out of fear. “Do you think I did it?” Audrey asks an anxious Kelsey and Liza. She emphasizes she needs a publisher who trusts her and doesn’t think she committed the murders since she’s now an international supervillain. The book can clear her name. After the awkward meeting, Kelsey and Liza learn later that they weren’t the only ones being pitched Audrey’s book, but so was half the major publishers.

Audrey’s agent, the nosy Redmond (Michael Urie), later tells Kelsey that Claw has suspicious sales with bulk purchases and Chinese bots inserting the title all over social media. He lets them know that’s the real gossip on the street.

Kelsey and Liza approach Quinn at the fancy Ardmore Club, disbeliving she’s being blamed for phony sales. When they tell her they have evidence from their peers, Quinn admits she faked the best-selling novel for her senatorial campaign since that shiny New York Times best-selling sticker will be on every cover of her book. Kelsey says this will ruin the business while Quinn argues the book will pump millions into the company. Quinn then threatens Kelsey about showing up at The Cut event for the book.

“No one will work with us if we throw an author under the bus,” Liza says.

When Liza gets home, she finds papers on the dining room table listing prices for the home. She asks Charles why he’s moving money around, and he says he just needs to with his unemployment. Like in the previous two episodes, it seems like Charles and Kelsey’s sometimes beau Zane (Charles Michael Davis) are in cahoots as if they’ll create their own rival publishing house.

At The Cut event, everything seems to be going smoothly until the Q&A part of the fireside chat. One woman tells Kelsey and Quinn about the dagger next to Quinn’s best-selling status, and the dagger means suspicious bulk sales. Quinn laughingly says it’s due to colleges and universities requesting the book to use for syllabi, then she moves the spotlight to Kelsey.

Kelsey maintains her composure. She admits to the bulk sales, but they’re also due to forthcoming events as Quinn plans to throw her hat in the California Senate race. It sparks applause, when Quinn and Kelsey faux hug where Quinn threatens Kelsey about what she’s done since that type of announcement is reserved on a stage of higher magnitude. Kelsey just tells her to enjoy the applause.

The next day, Kelsey, Liza, and Diana learn Mercury nabbed the Audrey Colbert deal. They never heard of this competitor until Redmond lets them know Zane is the publisher of Mercury and the deal stands at $800,000. Their men were in cahoots building their own company! Then the episode ends with Liza’s eyes popping open because she knows Charles had something to do with it. Her boyfriend whom she got hooked onto Exonerated.

Yes, Kelsey’s and Liza’s love lives got more complicated with the clandestine creation of competitor Mercury by their men. An extra episode highlight is Nicole Ari Parker guest starring as a post-childbirth vagina support group leader who Maggie (Debi Mazar) meets after being traumatized by Josh’s (Nico Tortorella) green card wife having a baby in their Uber.

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‘Younger’ TV Review: Big Day

"Younger" Ep. 601 (Airs 6/12/19)

The sixth and final season of Younger started with Millennial Imprint boss Kelsey taking the helm as the youngest publisher in New York City from longtime editor Charles, who gave his career up for his perpetually age-lying girlfriend Liza. The episode returns to Kelsey taking over as CEO and how her struggle may be reflected in the books the company will publish.

Younger centers around 42-year-old Liza (Sutton Foster) lying about her age with subtracting almost 25 years off to make it in the publishing world when she had taken time off to raise her now-college-aged daughter. She works with Kelsey (Hilary Duff), an actual 28-year-old taking the publishing world by storm, especially in this season with taking over their storied publishing house.

After Liza gets emotional seeing a facility worker unscrewing Charles’ (Peter Hermann) name plaque from his office and placing one with Kelsey’s name, she and Kelsey learn from their chief financial officer that Page Six plans to expose why Charles abandoned the company. It says he left for a 28-year-old whom he was having an affair with (he’s in his 40s with an estranged wife), which they all knew could be interpreted as Kelsey, diminishing her meteoric rise to CEO. Liza yells to the entire office that she’s the one Charles is dating. This rubs her former boss Diana (Miriam Shor) the wrong way, as she doesn’t know Liza’s secret of her real age and sees her as an opportunity-stealing millennial. And with Kelsey now being the boss also doesn’t sit well with Diana.

Later in the day, Kelsey learns the company’s finances are in trouble with revenue slipping away every day. After that meeting, she meets with a potential author, surprisingly a black woman since the diversity in the cast reflects the real publishing industry, who pitches her book, The Glass Cliff. It focuses on boss women and how they’re set up not to win. She gives the example of women usually inheriting the CEO role of distressed companies. Kelsey gulps at the mention of this, knowing she’s living that life.

Other plots pop up in the episode with Diana threatening to quit but being lured out of the decision with a Dolly Parton 9 to 5 karaoke stint, Charles buying a bed for Liza and him now that they’re more official, and Josh (Nico Tortorella) finding out he’s going to be a father to the Irish woman he had green card marriage with. But the overarching theme focused on Kelsey and how rising to the top is not what it’s cracked up to be. This will even extend in their book decisions like with The Glass Cliff and next week’s episode preview showing Kelsey trying to explain to her CFO that her book pitch sucks.

Like other shows, Younger produced a novel, Marriage Vacation, and the book review is available.