Beauty in Black | Season 3 Review
We all have our guilty pleasures. Some of us indulge in sugary treats while other people are adrenaline junkies. Instead of doom-scrolling, girlies on BookTok fly through upwards of 10 books per month, while movie buffs rush to see every new release. For me, my binging depends on my mood. There are moments when I feel like catching up on Instagram Reels like it’s a newspaper, while other times, I get the inspiration to drown in trashy reality TV shows. Luckily for me, season 3 of Beauty in Black dropped recently, and boy, do I have thoughts.
Before we jump into my reaction of the new season, here’s a fair warning that I’ll be mentioning spoilers. If you haven’t finished it yet and hate getting storylines prematurely ruined, you might want to pause this video and come back when you’re ready to get into all of the juicy details.
Now that that’s out of the way, I gotta say…season 3 of Beauty in Black was actually written poorly. At this point, I feel like I’m being held hostage by the series because, as bad as some of the acting and plot are, I literally can’t just not see what’s going to happen. I’m almost 30 episodes in and unfortunately, I’m too invested in the characters.
My biggest gripe with season 3 was definitely finding out that Jules was the head of the mob. Like….huh?! It definitely should’ve been another character that we’ve never seen before to really invoke that fear and make you feel like there’s an even bigger, scarier, deadlier boss to be concerned with. I just couldn’t take him serious, especially since he sat in jail for six episodes acting like he didn’t have any connections to get out.
He started moaning and groaning about his dead son like Norman did about his wife in season 1 and it took me out. The son was only involved in the story for a quick second and now Jules has started some revenge tour. Every other word out this man’s mouth was “My son…”, “Who killed my son?”, or “Tell me who did it?!” Give me a break.
Switching to Horace, I hated how rude he was to Kimmie, but I get that he felt she had served her purpose since he had recovered. It was insane that someone intentionally injected him with cancer cells at the hospital, and I just know he’s going to want his get back. I also appreciated that he wasn’t messing with Angel too hot since he really went off the deep end when he thought Horace was about to croak.
One positive was that I actually enjoyed seeing the friendship bloom between Mallory and Kimmie. They found some common ground and we got a small glimpse into their new sisterhood when Kimmie consoled Mallory after she was attacked by Norman. I think they’ll be able to outsmart the rest of the group if they stick together and avoid snaking each other.
This may sound crazy, but I’m honestly glad Sylvie got written out of the story. Kimmie is going to be distraught that Jules took her to glory, but she was an insanely annoying character. Why was she so angry about Rain trying to protect her from Jules’ son? Nobody told her fast self to be trying to do some stuff she wasn’t supposed to be doing…and in the barn, for crying out loud.
She had just met buddy and you want me to believe that she was so attached and angry that he died that she called her abusive father and poor excuse of a mother to come get her? There’s just no way. She didn’t want to listen to anything Kimmie told her, didn’t want to at least try and reason with Rain, and was uncontrollable by Horace. Unfortunately, she had to go.
I will say, I think the scene of Varney encouraging and dropping Charles off at rehab could be seen as important in reducing the stigma around Black men addressing their mental health. I can do without some of the explicit scenes in their dynamic, but I thought that moment was rather wholesome. Olivia blackmailing Charles and Horace’s disapproval of the pair forced them to put their differences from earlier seasons aside and work together.
Also, somebody needs to accidentally-on-purpose gone head and take Varney’s little jump-off up out of the paint too. He was so forced and I was quick to grab my remote and mute those scenes. Maybe we’ll learn that he was a casualty of the club getting shot up. Better yet, maybe his sister is a loose end that gets some of the Bellaries caught up.
Do y’all think Norman survives all them shots Horace put in him? We didn’t get an on-screen confirmation that he finally reunited with his dead wife, so I can almost bet money that he’ll make another appearance. Neither him nor Horace are dying any time soon.
Roy not dying either, despite allegedly overdosing while in custody. Oh, and speaking of that, the fact that they gave this man a blended eye shadow look to simulate him going through withdrawals had me dead. Instead of looking like he was on the brink of a major health incident, he was giving a smokey eye that could rival a world-renowned makeup artist.
The Gina lady was super strange and was more funny and weird than intimidating. Maybe her character was written that way on purpose, but she definitely didn’t put any fear in my heart during her dialogue. And clearly, she didn’t scare Rain either since she kept popping her gums during each interaction.
I kinda lost the plot of the whole beef between Officer Trackson and Alex towards the end. I think Trackson was mad that Alex wasn’t loyal to Jules, but why was Trackson putting the cape on that hard for a man who was also extorting him like he was extorting everyone else. That didn’t make sense to me, but it was pretty cool seeing them move around each like pieces of a chess board. Neither of them was offering up any easy opportunities for the other to attack.
Overall, the writing for season 3 was really inconsistent and some of the plot lines didn’t make a lick of sense. Why were there ninjas who helped save Varney and Charles? Why was that random man written into the story as a love interest for Mallory, and why did he try to take her to bible study after she led him to the back of the club? Why was Rain so power-hungry and focused on turning the location of her trauma into something positive? So many puzzling questions, not enough sufficient answers.
Season 4 has been confirmed, so we’ll have at least a couple more episodes to close out the Beauty in Black saga. I just hope Tyler Perry takes a little more time to write, film, and edit it before he drops the next installment. There’s absolutely no rush in getting it out since the series consistently ranks as one of the number one shows on Netflix.
With all this lying, scheming, stealing, fighting, and drama, the granddaddy’s will gotta be voided by now. Horace, Norman, and Mallory all shot somebody, so their shares are dissolved…right? Knowing Tyler Perry, he’s going to write something completely off the wall to miraculously find a loophole so they keep them and continue their shenanigans.
As bad as it is, I’ll be there when new episodes drop to see what’s new with the Bellarie family. In the meantime, drop some show recs in the comments below. I need something new to hold me over until the re-up.
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Signed,
Jessica Marie
