The trailer for Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th dropped on Netflix Monday. DuVernay directed the critically acclaimed Selma and is the creator/director of the OWN original series Queen Sugar. 13th is a documentary about the U.S.’s prison system. The trailer previews the film’s exploration of the prison industrial complex, and how mass incarceration disproportionately impacts black Americans. It identifies a “loophole” in the 13th Amendment, which excuses slavery being abolished in the cases of “punishment for crime.” DuVernay’s latest opus was chosen to open the New York Film Festival this coming Friday, the first ever nonfiction feature to earn the honor. Given the state of our nation and the bubbling climate of unrest, this documentary is a must see. For those willing to battle injustice and understand the severity of the challenge ahead, this will provide the necessary conviction to keep your eyes on the prize. For those that believe black and brown people are painting a more grim picture than what is truly happening. Or, that things can’t be “that bad” because we have a two term black President and a few millionaire athletes. This documentary will open your eyes to the systemic and systematic ways in which minorities have been oppressed for hundreds of years. Of course for those that move through life with a closed mind, and a lack of basic comprehension and intelligence you’ll just see this as some piece of propaganda. That’s an injustice and one of the great failures of this nation. Check out the trailer below.
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Each week I run out of superlatives when talking about Courtney Kemp and the way she and her team brilliantly run Power. The season finale, which aired last night, was incredible. The revelations, discoveries and new alliances leave us with so many questions as we wait until next summer’s season 4 premiere.
It’s the morning after Ruiz’s murder and Agent Knox is waiting to meet with him. He receives a call from the NYPD that Ruiz is dead and goes into full panic mode. Greg needs to recover the recording device he had Ruiz wear, with the hopes that it has not been tampered with. Upon arriving at the crime scene he is able to give the commanding officer enough of a convincing story to get close to Ruiz’s body and recover the device. Knox, looking like a man possessed, heads back to his office and immediately starts to connect the dots to his theory of Angela as the mole. But just before he gets to what’s on the device he makes a call to the Federales to confirm the legitimacy of a tip received by Mike Sandoval back in season 2. Meanwhile Ghost is observing the crime scene from nearby and sees Agent Knox. He immediately calls Angela to find out if any surprises are in store. Ghost then meets with Proctor who advises things are not looking good for Ghost unless they know what is on the device. Naturally, Ghost proceeds to break into Knox’s apartment to attempt to retrieve the device. He is unsuccessful and while in the apartment Angela comes in looking for Greg who is with his former FBI instructor listening to the material captured by the device and discussing his options given the wire was illegal and inadmissible in a court of law. The audio on the device confirms Ghost and Tommy killed Lobos, confirms Tommy killed Ruiz and that Ghost and Tommy are drug distributors for Milan. Greg, consumed by proving his theory, decides all he needs is to press Ghost and he will flip on Angela. Greg stops Ghost on his way to Truth and confronts him with the news that he knows he and Tommy killed Lobos and that Angela is their leak. Greg tries to get Ghost to flip but Ghost is too smart for that. Greg calls Sandoval to his apartment to discuss his theory and his “proof” but before they get started, he receives a call from the Federales saying there is no record of any tip by that office given to Mike Sandoval. Greg quickly connects the dots and realizes Mike was the mole all along. Mike admits to it and tries to convince Greg they should turn Angela in. She has colored outside the lines on the entire case and even though she isn’t the mole, she has done plenty of horrible things. Including almost ruining Greg’s career. Sandoval shoots and kills Greg, plants the burner cell in his drawer and leaves with no trace he was there. R.I.P. Agent Greg Knox. Greg was the closest thing to a good guy on Power. Nobody is all good or all bad usually some mixture of both but Greg appeared to be fighting the good fight. Albeit his crusade began from a place of being love scorned, he really sought justice and his good nature wound up getting him killed in the end. All season we discussed how Kemp doesn’t follow traditional story tropes and does her best to keep the audience guessing. Going into the final episode I didn’t have Greg high on the list of characters likely to get bumped off but from the opening scene I sensed this might be it for him. Greg was always teetering on the verge of mania this season. His obsession with getting back at Angela and taking down Ghost and to a lesser extent Tommy, consumed every fiber of his being. However, there is a problem when you build a theory based off an incorrect assumption. You are blinded to the possibility that your assumption is wrong, even in the face of compelling evidence. Every action you take and subsequent step has to prove your original theory correct. Unfortunately for Greg, when he realizes his assumption was incorrect, it was too late. The Tariq and Kanan show escalated just as everyone knew it would. I suspect this storyline has left many Power fans a little ambivalent. There is a segment of fans out there that was hoping Tariq would get his due, given his backtalk and the general petulance he displayed all season. But, I think holding him for ransom will add some interesting depth, particularly for Tasha, next season. The other exciting part about the continuation of the Tariq storyline in this manner is the return of Jukebox, played by the wonderful Anika Noni Rose. I’ve gushed about her brilliance before, look back at the early season recaps for more on her. The game Kanan, Jukebox and company play with Tariq was a nice plot mover. It was somewhat stereotypical but in its initial play you didn’t know which direction it was headed. But, when the camera revealed that the officer in the driver’s seat was Jukebox, you knew it had layers and wasn’t going to end quickly. Despite what you might have thought, Tariq did play it tough and didn’t snitch. As we move into season 4 it will be interesting to see how Tariq deals with being a hostage. He has spent a lot of time with Kanan, learning about the streets, etc. Will there be an additional subplot as Kanan and Jukebox wait for the payday? Will Kanan follow through and kill Tariq? We end the episode with the double double cross. Raise your hand if you knew Ghost, Tommy and Tasha would reunite kill Milan and that Tommy would be the man with the upper hand? Stop lying, none of you saw it play out like this. The show’s dynamics have been completely flipped. Ghost is no longer the man in the shadows that sees everything and has all the bases covered. He is no longer in a position of Power (pun intended, literally and figuratively). Tommy is now the man that sees and knows all. He is the man that tells everyone he’s got a plan that will get everyone what they want. He is the man working on alliances and pulling the strings. Tommy is the one that convinced Milan’s #2 to turn rogue and go against his boss, he teamed with Dre and his crew to assist in the disarming of Milan’s men. Ghost and Tommy were in lock step on the plan (at least phase one) and after they kill Milan Ghost is happy. He and his brother are reunited, his club is about to go international and everything he wanted seems like it finally happened. But, of course we are not in this for happy endings. Tommy and his new crew plan on continuing to sell drugs out of all of Ghost’s clubs, and it doesn’t look like Ghost will have a choice. His son is being held for ransom, though he doesn’t know it. Oh, and the love of his life just arrested him for the murder of Agent Greg Knox. Come on Ghost, no matter what you have to keep the gloves on, evidence, DNA, etc. Season 4 is going to be incredible. Can we get the Emmy nomination process going for this show?! A few extra thoughts:
I want to thank all of you who supported the site and read the Power recaps. I’ve engaged with many of you on Twitter and hope to do a lot more. Get at me on twitter @jshector We will definitely be back next season with recaps and possibly add a podcast segment. Let me know what else you might like to see from BSO as it relates to Power. Again, thanks for reading and visiting BSO. |