Now streaming on Netflix, the highly anticipated Part 2 of the second season of Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black continues to pit Kimmie and Mallory against each other as they wrestle for control of the Bellarie hair care empire.
BEAUTY IN BLACK SEASON 2 PART 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: Beauty in Black Season 2 Part 2 picks up right where the midseason finale left off—with armed assailants barging in on Varney and Charles in search of a stash of money.
The Gist: Part 1 of Season 2 centered on the Bellarie patriarch introducing a surprising heir to his empire: a stripper named Kimmie whom he married to keep his riches away from his family. In part 2, Horace (Ricco Ross) is in Italy receiving a specialized cancer treatment while Kimmie is putting out fires at home. Elsewhere, Jules’s (Charles Malik Whitfield) son Glen gets involved with Sylvie and is pushed off the balcony which lands him in dire straits at the hospital, and Roy (Julian Horton) convinces Varney (Terrell Carter) to delay Horace’s will from being filed by threatening to reveal his homosexuality. Charles is unraveling after killing intruders and being robbed at gunpoint and kicks out his lover Varney. Charles calls his mom Olivia (Debbi Morgan) for help, but we later find out she’s in kahoots with the thieves. And Mallory tries to gather evidence against Kimmie to get her out of the job she believes is hers.
Photo: QUANTRELL COLBERT/NETFLIX
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? If you’re drawn to the messiness of the wealthy Bellarie family, Beauty in Black might remind you of the 2019 series Ambitions.
Our Take: For a show that has so much going on, the Season 2 Part 2 premiere was surprisingly dull. Played like a scene setter, the midseason opener pushes a lot of chess pieces around without really setting up much intrigue for the sophomore season’s final 8 episodes. Only the reveal at the end, implicating Olivia as the mastermind of her son’s armed robbery, provides any sort of momentum for the season’s remaining episodes, which doesn’t feel like enough to hand over that much of time. And for a series billed on the head-to-head battle between women from two very different worlds, Kimmie and Mallory being kept apart does a disservice to progressing the show’s narrative.
I’ve previously pointed out that the show’s handling of class and LGBTQ+ conflicts misses an opportunity to challenge norms and rewire longheld beliefs about marginalized communities. Season 2 continues to opt out of engaging more deeply in this conversation, which is to its detriment.
Performance Worth Watching: “Toxic Vibes,” the Season 2 Part 2 premiere, centers much of its time on Carter’s Varney, who is balancing his various obligations to the different members of the Bellarie family. Carter’s presence is formidable, even when he doesn’t have the upper hand.
Sex And Skin: Despite a handful of the characters being strippers and the past episodes utilizing sex as currency, the season 2 part 2 premiere is surprisingly chaste.
Parting Shot: Charles frantically calls his mom to confess about murdering the intruders, but she surprises him with her response. “This your first time?” she asks, before the final moments reveal that she’s the one who hired the thieves in the first place.
Sleeper Star: It’s hard to call Debbi Morgan a “sleeper” star given her pedigree, but her turn as the insidious matriarch of the show gives the veteran actress a lot to chew on—and she’s eating it up.
Most Pilot-y Line: The series is well past the need for pilot-y lines to sell the show, and it’s allowed Perry to lean into the wild plot developments. So when Jules clocks Roy’s plan to get Kimmie on a private jet with the purpose of blowing it up, he calls it like he sees it: “So, you’re blowing up planes now?”
Our Call: SKIP IT. If you’re a completist, we won’t stop you. But the back half of the second season of Tyler Perry’s Netflix series lacks propulsion.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a film and TV writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, Teen Vogue, ELLE, and more. She is the co-host of the podcast PromRad with fellow Decider contributor Proma Khosla. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.
