Season 04

[tennisgurl]

Seriously, can this show please find a point soon? Every single scene is just full of awkward dialogue where people shamble around from one pointless scene to the next, with subplots just piling up on each other as they desperately try to find a purpose to exist, finding none. This episode was especially filled with nothing, it was just boring scenes with people going about their boring days having boring conversations about their boring relationships. 

I will at least take boring over Keisha's cringy story though, how nice that having this baby that was conceived via rape has been such a non issue since she decided to keep him, turns out being a teen mom is totally easy with a baby that never cries or causes any stress and leads to minimal emotional trauma. Its almost like this whole subplot is stupid and insulting or something. Her story was actually one of the more engaging ones for awhile, but now its becoming just as awkward and lifeless as everyone else's, but with a side of major discomfort. 

[Marley]

I think the show started getting shitty when Douda started getting so much screen time. They also should’ve never killed Reg.

Season 1 and 2 were great it all went to shit after that.

[tennisgurl]

What am I even watching anymore? Thank God next week is the season finale, I am running out of ways to say "this show sucks" over and over again, I'm becoming just as repetitive as the show itself, but what else can I do? What has even been the point of this season, what has actually been accomplished? I thought, based on previews, that this season would focus on police brutality towards the black community as well as triumphs within that community, overcoming adversity and finding love despite the odds, but none of that has really happened. Everything with the kids being harassed by the cops is pretty much forgotten and has been a pretty minor thing in the scope of the whole season, and Douda deciding that the police wont come into majority black neighborhoods anymore has just been a stupid and bizarre plot (which I'll get to more later) that has never been properly explored, and every triumph has been marginal at best, with every relationship being an utter mess of cheating and needless drama and professional victories being few and far between. It seems like nothing at all has happened this season, what is even happening in that writers room? Do they only know how to use copy and paste? 

So Douda continues to just be a full on comic book supervillain, I expect him to end the season installing a moat around his giant apartment, complete with sharks with laser beams on their heads. Look at him mopping the blood off of his cane while cackling about letting Gemma's dad die, is the show implying that his whole Defund The Police platform has all been a part of some evil scheme to install himself as Mayor For Life and take over Chicago so he can do whatever he wants? I have found this whole story to be really poorly thought out and a real waste of an opportunity to discuss ways to actually work on internal reform and what most activists actually mean when they chant about defunding the police, but this show has instead just given Douda ultra mayor powers where we get a bunch of randos doing things that the police might do, which has already led to one guy getting killed, the cops apparently just being alright with being kicked out of half of Chicago, and none of this getting any media attention or discussion from the other characters whatsoever. How is this not a bigger deal? How is any of this even legally happening? Why is this plot so freaking stupid? Remember when this show took place in the real world and was about normal people dealing with normal people things? 

Keisha's baby's almost adopted mom is just too perfect for words. I can buy that she wouldn't be angry at Keisha, especially after everyone's she's been through, but it seems like she would at least be more sad about getting her hopes up about having this child, only to have them dashed at the last minute. Keisha giving her the picture with the baby didn't seem heartwarming so much as heartbreaking for the poor woman. Like "here is you as a mom...for five seconds before I changed my mind and took this baby from your arms." I cant even decide if this story or the Douda story is the most stupid and offensive. 

[aghst]

Yeah I have episodes 7 and 8 on my DVR but not even looking forward to them.

Instead I find myself watching other things.  Even The End, which Showtime seems to be burning off, seems more interesting after the first two.

I think this show has a following on social media.  They must also have noticed the change s8nce the first two seasons?

[aghst]

Well it was just renewed for season 5.

Man the worst thing to happen to the show was that actor who played Brandon getting fired for sexual harassment.

The actress who played Brandon's gf also left the show and she had been harassed as well.

They had no choice but to fire him but that character anchored the show towards better stories.

Now they have to give a lot of screen time to unlikeable characters and dubious stories.

[MBayGal]

17 hours ago, aghst said:

Well it was just renewed for season 5.

Why???  This seemed like a good end to a series that has run out of anything creative to say.  

Among the many dumb plot points, the dumbest is that the mayor of chicago would just up and leave with no word to anyone, and that would not be news throughout the country.  And Marcus is going to live and knows who shot him.  But he won't say anything because his daughter's b/f  was there. Ridiculous!!!!

[tennisgurl]

Seriously? Another season? What more could this show possibly have to say? What else could happen? They even had the big ending monologue where it sounded like they were trying wrap things up and pretend that this season had some kind of point, why would they do more? More drama between Emmett and Tff? More teenage love triangles? Douda finally completes his transition into being a full supervillain and returns to Chicago with an eye patch and cybernetic arms? 

I have basically said all that can be said about how stupid this season has been and how sad it is to see a show with so much potential become a shadow of its former self, I can only end on a sorry shake of the head. What was even the point of this season? What was actually accomplished besides wasting the time of a lot of good actors and the poor suckers still watching this show? 

I'm normally a completionist with my shows, and this show has pulled me back again before after losing me, but I really do not see myself being back next season. Or if I do, it will be begrudgingly. 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

The next season starts on June 26, 2022.  And a collective exasperated cry of "Why?!?!?!?!?!?!" goes out across the land. 

[aghst]

Already deleted from my DVR.  Didn't even finish last season.

 

[One Imaginary Girl]

The promo I've seen seems like it concentrates a lot on the kids, the women, and Trig and Imani, so I would be OK with that.  Just eliminate any of the riiculous stuff about Otis, a mayor who was shot (which would be a huge thing anywhere) but then recovers enough to actually beat a man up (which would also be a crazy thing to happen in real life).  

[announcergirl]

The new season started, and in my opinion, it did not disappoint. I couldn’t stand Trig’s hair though. He is too beautiful for whatever they had going on with his lovely locks. I did not like how they are making the Imani character do him just because she’s not coming back. Is she? They seemed like a solid couple. I did enjoy seeing his friend finally come around to being a good guy. I’m scared that means he dies soon. Please no! I can’t take it!

[One Imaginary Girl]

I might be just talking to myself at this point, but... something I'm wondering about is that Trig and Jake's mother is back and they are all reveling in being together again, but no one mentions Reg, not even once.  He doesn't have to be a big plot point, but it would be realistic to show that some sadness remains.

[KingJ305]

1 hour ago, One Imaginary Girl said:

I might be just talking to myself at this point, but... something I'm wondering about is that Trig and Jake's mother is back and they are all reveling in being together again, but no one mentions Reg, not even once.  He doesn't have to be a big plot point, but it would be realistic to show that some sadness remains.

Lena "the assassin of positive male characters" Waithe wont let the writers even mention Brandon and Reg. The semi development of Emmet and Kevin was tied to the character of Brandon, yet you'd be lead to believe that it was Darnell and his re-emergance in Emmets life that was the root cause. I will say this season until this last episode has been a vast improvement over the previous two.

[Bichon]

This has turned into a stone-cold soap opera. The music is straight out of a catalog where you would order "sexy moonlight bedroom encounter" for $9.95, recorded at home by someone with their keyboard that's covered in cigarette butts and beer. Or it may just be from a box of discarded tunes from an older low budget soap that went off the air.

The dumbing down of Kevin has been a huge disappointment and I wonder if the actor is puzzled by this direction as well. At least he still is a wonderful friend to Jake. 

[One Imaginary Girl]

Agreed about it being so soapy.  It seems like all of the plotlines now are about who is going to couple up with who.  I didn't even get far into the most recent episode, so maybe there was more later, but I just turned it off when it seemed like the same old same old.

[aghst]

Stopped watching, I think partly through the season after the abduction and she’s actually raising the baby from when she was raped — BTW how does that idea look after recent court decisions and cases of raped girls who had to go out of state to get abortions?

in any event, just saw a promo for the show and they’re showing a bunch of tweets from random people, the way Movies and shows put up blurbs from reviews.

Maybe they couldn’t find reviews with even a few positive phrases?

[announcergirl]

I love this show so please keep posting. I’ll try to be more consistent in posting here. Right now I’m playing catch up on the season. 

[Rae Spellman]

Some things stood out when I rewatched the series. 

Forty-something Darnell, primarily listens to Earth Wind and Fire and made Keisha a mix tape on an 8 track. Thirty-something Shaad made Deja a mix tape on a cassette. 

Initially Darnell and Jada met when Darnell was 25 with three kids. Now they met their sophomore year of high school. Did Darnell have 3 kids by the time he was 15 or is Emmett is the oldest now? 

Tiff and Emmett had a very contentious relationship during the first couple of seasons. 

Ms. Ethel was 73. Was Ronnie supposed to be under 40? Dom is supposed to be younger than Suede. Suede is only 2 years older than Emmett.

Kevin said that Nina's partner Karen had been around since he was little. Yet, we only found out she was gone when they showed Nina marrying Dre.

Tiff asked Keisha how she would feel if Tiff wanted to be with Nuck. Nuck might have been the last guy before the abduction. But, the night Keisha was going to meet him wasn't that many episodes after things ended predatory track coach. Maybe Keisha and Tiff don't know that Nuck held those women that live at Trinity house captive, pointed a gun at Kevin, and is a generally terrible dude.

Kevin liked Maisha after she bullied and assaulted him.

Kevin said that Nina's partner Karen had been around since he was little. Yet, we only found out she was gone when they showed Nina marrying Dre.

Rich girl Jemma tried to discourage Kevin and Maisha from going to college. Maisha can rap while in college and/or after college. Everything we know about Kevin suggests that he could get a scholarship to any number of colleges or universities. 

Kevin giving Lynae something after winning seems reasonable. 20% seems like a lot. Kevin's parents provide Coach Lynae  with free food and shelter. 

Whenever this series ends, I hope they imply that Kevin has a happyish future. They've put that kid though so much.

Edited August 25, 2022 by Rae Spellman
more thoughts as I rewatched more episodes

[Crashcourse]

I recently binge watched the first five seasons, and now I'm watching season six.   I was loved the shows first two seasons, but it's too bad that Brandon had to be axed because of Jason MItchell's off-camera behavior.  

I still like the three main young'uns Kevin, Jake and Papa.  There are so many other characters that I sometimes find it difficult to remember names.   I like most of them, but Jemma and Tiff get on my nerves.

Also, I can't stand that Douda dude and his menacing stares.  And he wears his shirts too tight, LOL.

[aghst]

I gave up after the abduction season and she decides to keep the baby fathered by the guy who raped her.

Is that suppose to be representative of life in the Chicago hood?

I can see the girl being abducted from the bus stop but all the stuff afterwards, ridiculous.

[Crashcourse]

22 hours ago, aghst said:

I gave up after the abduction season and she decides to keep the baby fathered by the guy who raped her.

Is that suppose to be representative of life in the Chicago hood?

I can see the girl being abducted from the bus stop but all the stuff afterwards, ridiculous.

I knew when Keisha held the baby that she'd want to keep it.  I liked the woman who wanted to adopt the baby, and it was too bad that Keisha changed her mind.

[luckyroll3]

I know the show's about to wrap up for good, but I keep wondering how they could go this many seasons with not getting any acting lessons for the kid who plays Papa. He's so awful! And they keep trying to give him all this serious stuff to do. All the other kids are so good in comparison. 

[Crashcourse]

I think Papa was better in earlier seasons when he was younger and had those funny one-liners.  Having him older and serious doesn't work too well.  

[Crashcourse]

Too bad about Papa's daddy.  Papa's acting was much better giving that eulogy though.   

[Rae Spellman]

Hopefully, the second half of the season wraps up the series. This show is so tragic. 

• The preacher laundered money for the gangster, stopped, and then was murdered.
• The talented girl gamer hides guns for a murderer while the guy she taught a few tricks makes enough money to support himself in high school. 
• The girl who could have gone to Pepperdine on a track scholarship was exploited by her coach and a drug dealer before getting abducted. She chooses the guy with three kids over the sweet guy who works at the thrift shop.
• The rich guy works for and gets beat up by the gangster. He pays a bunch of money for his daughter to go to private school. The daughter decides that college is a scam and she'd rather be a manager for rapper with 1 song and another rapper who might be transient, is definitely shady, and apparently has $10K to spare.
• The boy gamer witnesses a murder, shoots someone, has someone hold a gun to his head while he looks for his sister, has one mentor killed, and is in love with a girl who bullied him, stole his bike, and maybe assaulted him when they were younger.
• The reporter moved in with and fell in love with the murdering politician who might have to go back to murdering because the black sheep was a terrible shot. 

That said, a show about a kid from the south side of Chicago who moves to Los Angeles to become a gamer could be interesting. If it was lighter than The Chi.

[Crashcourse]

I'll miss Kevin.  Absent all the stuff he was involved in, he would have been my high school crush.  LOL

I hope the last half of the season is the end because I think the show has run out of interesting stories. 

   

[Rae Spellman]

 

On 9/25/2023 at 11:46 AM, Crashcourse said:

I hope the last half of the season is the end because I think the show has run out of interesting stories. 

   

It was renewed. Two new episodes of the second half of season 6 are out. 

[Crashcourse]

I'm terrible with names, but now I'm wondering if the not so good female rapper who is Kevin's girlfriend will wind up with the preacher's son.  They looked like they were about to kiss before she got Kevin's text.

[Rae Spellman]

Kevin's girlfriend is Maisha. The preacher's son is Papa/Stanley, Jr. Hopefully if Maisha and Papa make their way back to each other, Kevin and Maisha break up first. Or Kevin is relieved because he found someone else in Los Angeles.

Apparently, Shaad is willing to stay with Emmett's parents but chose sleeping in his car over asking Victor to take him in again.