The Review: P-Valley (Season 1 and 2)

 

P Valley 9/10

Now I know I am super late with writing this review but the show called P Valley needs to be talked about. This might be a little bit confusing since I watched season two and then went back and watch season one. I think what I'm going to try to do is talk about how the characters change between both seasons and of course whether I like these people or not. Now at first I had zero interest in watching this show. I've never been to a strip club, I've never wanted to go to a strip club, have zero interest in going to a strip club because I compare it to going to a buffet and watching other people eat. But this show is about more than just a strip club somehow. I know if you look at any photos from it or ads or anything it looks like the show is nothing but strippers dancing but it really is about more than that. I should also point out that the second season took place during the pandemic (we still in one though!) and the show portrayed it perfectly.

I'm going to start off with a character and her name is Mercedes. Now when I first started watching the show in season two she seemed to already be kind of done with her stripper career and hated her evil ass mother and was struggling to get back on the pole. But then after watching season one and seeing how evil her mother was and possibly one of the worst characters on television I could see why she was struggling so much. Her mother pimped her out as a child and then had the nerve to be upset she was a stripper! She had saved up a lot of money from stripping and was going to open up a school to teach young girls how to dance. Speaking of young girls, her daughter is the worst. I never liked her daughter from the start and going back and watching her in season one and seeing that this girl actually got worse as the show went on just pissed me off so much. Mercedes is probably one of my favorite characters and had the biggest story arc of the show. I wasn't even into Mercedes like physically or anything because as L. knows when I watch shows I always get mad that there's nobody for me to stare at but there's always like some naked man or some handsome man or something for her. But then I discovered that I was attracted to Mercedes when she dressed down meaning when she was just wearing clothes to go jogging or something and then I said “oh okay I get it.”

The next character I want to talk about is Uncle Clifford. Uncle Clifford is awesome. She owns The Pink as they call it which is the strip club and inherited from her mother. Or her aunt I'm not quite sure. She's trying to do everything to try to keep this club open making shady deals, going against her own morals such as not dealing drugs or anything inside of the place. Uncle Clifford was to me by far the funniest person on this show the most likable person on the show and I love the way Uncle Clifford described herself saying I've always been Uncle Clifford. Even as a kid Uncle Clifford said that she had a purse. She was also a great example of how I have described Black men that were gay in the community growing up. Everyone knew someone that was gay and when they owned it and just stayed true to who they were (even when there were sometimes violent repercussions) they were accepted easier. But not always.

Next up is a character I disliked and dislike even more after watching season one and that is Keyshawn Harris aka Miss Mississippi. This woman is married to and has two children with this abusive ass white dude named Derrick and he beats the shit out of her from episode one and I thought this was something that started maybe at the end of season one and continue through season two but that is not the case. This guy named Diamond even offered to take care of this guy and she said no. So ask me why at the end of season two she's in jail, Diamond's thrown in the back of a trunk, and the guy who beat her ass is out free! Pissed me off so much. I hated her character. She was a she was super annoying I could not stand her whining and the way she talked.

Next up is Hailey also known as Autumn Night also known as Lakeisha Savage. She shows up and they show flashbacks of her life before she showed up in Chucalissa and she lost her children she left during a hurricane and she's on the run from this very violent man that ends up being shot in The Pink. I was pissed off at first at how she left The Pink and took a whole bunch of money until I went back and watched season one and then I said “oh okay I understand. I get it. This makes sense. This is a good way for this character to exit the show.”

Lastly who I think I'm going to talk about is Lil Murda who's a rapper that is secretly gay. This dude became also one of my favorite characters and any scene with him and Uncle Clifford where they were just talking or cooking for each other or their multiple sex scenes these two had a really good chemistry on this show. One of my favorite things about the way that Lil Murda was portrayed was that it seemed so realistic. Like almost too realistic like he was this hard dude who was a real rapper and was actually gay and it turns out he's not a real rapper and he's not gay. At first he is with Uncle Clifford and hollering at her and then his friend gets out of prison. They used to have a thing but dude is far too shook for society after his upbringing and the things that happened in prison. He's just an incredible actor. I am very curious to see what happens next season now that he is out publicly. Oh, and he totally killed a guy.

There's a lot more I want to say about this show but I kind of don't want to spoil it for people even though I've already spoiled a lot there's still so much more to this show. I haven't touched on just how evil Mercedes mother is and how she stole all of her money and hides behind God and her church to do all kinds of wicked shit. There's also this guy that's half black and half white and he's doing some shady shit and Uncle Clifford whips him for money. There's these other two strippers who work in The Pink and one of them is whoring out the girls and also selling drugs and doing drugs and she crazy as hell. There's a mortician on standby. This is so much to this show and I just really enjoyed it. There's politics thrown in, too. This show covers everything and if it did not come back I'd be kind of upset because I like the show and I like these characters but they've been greenlit for another two seasons I believe. And I know that people are upset that they have to wait but I would much rather wait for a show and have them write and direct it well then have a show rushed and it turn out to be terrible. You can check this out on the Starz channel and I know quite a few people who only get this channel just to watch this show and then they cancel it. That should tell you just how entertaining this is.

Brandee Evans as Mercedes Woodbine

Nicco Annan as Uncle Clifford Sayles

Shannon Thornton as Keyshawn Harris/Miss Mississippi

Elarica Johnson as Hailey Colton/Autumn Nigh/Lakeisha Savage

Parker Sawyers as Andre Watkins

Harriett D. Foy as Patrice Woodbine

Dan J. Johnson as Corbin Kyle

Tyler Lepley as Diamond

Morocco Omari as Big L

Jordan M. Cox as Derrick Wright

Isaiah Washington as Mayor Tydell Ruffin

Bertram Williams Jr. as Woddy

Brandon Gilpin as DJ Neva Scared

Loretta Devine as Earnestine Sayles

Azaria Carter as Terricka

Gail Bean as Roulette

John Clarence Stewart as Thaddeus Wilks/Big Teak

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