Reilly Pulliam
Managing Editor
Starz network premiered the first episode of their new spinoff “Power Book II: Ghost” this past weekend and received mixed reviews from fans of the hit series.
The untimely death of the show’s previous star character James “Ghost” St. Patrick played Omari Hardwsick, haunts characters in the new series and forces them to adjust to new surroundings and people.
The series premiere caught viewers up on the lives of Tasha and Tariq, the wife and son of the late St. Patrick, played by “Lottery Ticket” Naturi Naughton and “LUV” star Michael Rainey Jr., also the two main people left to sabotage his legacy.
Tariq now attends Stansfield University, while he rooms with a star basketball player whom he must tutor in order to stay enrolled at the ivy league university.
Some of Tariq’s classmates are also introduced in the episode, including a young lady named Lauren and Tariq’s former roommate at Choate, Brayden.
Tariq struggles to adjust to his new college schedule and shows up tardy and unprepared for his oral entrance exam, which he fails. However his advisor Caridad Milgram, played by former “This is Us” star Melanie Liburd, agrees to give him a second chance.
Tariq’s new roommate Ezekiel also invites him to a huge family party to celebrate his admission into Stansfield. At the party, new characters are introduced including Diana and Cane who are cousins of Ezekiel and their mother Monet, who is played by Mary J. Blige. Diana and Cane also have another brother named Drew and their father is a big-time drug dealer who is currently in jail.
While Tariq tries to adjust to his new college lifestyle, Tasha attends her arraignment where her lawyer, Tameika Robinson, who is also Angela’s former boss, encourages her to claim self-defense. The lawyer is later fired when she starts to suspect Tariq was involved in the murder of his father. Tariq is then forced to find his mom’s legal counsel and beg lawyer Davis Maclean, played by Clifford “Method Man” Smith, to take Tasha’s case.
Cooper Saxe, U.S attorney for the FBI, is also reintroduced in the episode and viewers meet his family. Saxe meets with Tariq to convince him that framing Dre is a bad idea and Tariq threatens to reveal that he saw Saxe at the nightclub the night of Ghost’s death. This causes Saxe to try and push for a deal for Tasha but only if she names the shooter.
Tariq is eventually able to raise money for his mother’s legal representation after moving weight with Epiphany, who ran Tasha’s drugs through her club. After going live on social media thanking Maclean for taking the case, which he hasn’t, Maclean realizes how much publicity he could get by accepting the case.
He ultimately accepts the case and represents Tasha. In an explosive ending, Tasha exclaims Tommy Egan killed James St. Patrick after being pressured by Maclean to give a name. When asked why, she claims it’s “ Because she asked him to.” This allows Saxe to now go after Tasha for the kingpin statue. After the local charges are dropped, Saxe arrests Tasha on federal ones and she’s hauled back to jail in a shocking ending to the first episode.
While some viewers enjoyed the many different events in the first episode, others thought it was too much to keep up with.
Joel Keller, an entertainment writer at “decider.com”, felt the episode ‘strains under the weight of everything.’
“He has to start school, find a new lawyer for his mom, protect Zeke from himself and get him through college, and also make sure that anyone who knows his criminal past keeps it quiet. That’s a lot, even for a spinoff with familiar characters in it,” said Keller.
Armani Wooden, a junior business administration major from Columbus, Ohio, found the episode boring compared to the original series.
Wooden stated, “I thought the episode was below average honestly. It could be because I can’t stand Tariq but it also felt like the writing was not as good as the original series. I’m going to continue to watch it in the hopes that it gets more interesting.”
Michael Butler, a sophomore civil engineering major from Memphis,Tenn., enjoyed the episode and thought it lived up to the hype of the first series.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to see how Tasha and Tariq are gonna get out of the mess they created. I think the premiere did a good job of setting up the story for the new season. The new characters are really going to make the show more interesting and watching the premiere reminded of when the original show came out,” said Butler.
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