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Tommy and his lawyer, Joe Proctor, in court.

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Below is a picture of Tommy being walked to his jail cell by a guard.

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Here is a picture of Ghost and Angela arguing in his private office at his night club.

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A critique of Starz hit series Power and how it reflects real life situations and people.

Introduction

Power is a mix between a crime drama and a family drama. The hit series, Power premiered on Starz on June 7th, 2014. The series started off slow, but by the beginning of the second season, it had become a fan favorite. The second season premiere pulled in 1.4 million viewers making it the most successful season debut for an original series on Starz network. However, the best was yet to come. The season two finale had 1.5 million viewers. The shows stars are Omari Hardwick, Joseph Sikora, Lela Loren, Naturi Naughton, and 50 Cent. There are
currently three seasons of Power with a total of 28 episodes. The show has been renewed for seasons 4 and 5. To see rating for seasons 1 & 2 visit here :
http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/power-season-two-ratings-37109/

Omari Hardwick won a Vision Award for best performance in a drama series. He was also nominated for an Image Award for outstanding actor in a drama series. Naturi Naughton was nominated for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series and she was nominated for best performance in drama at the Vision Awards. In addition to that, she was nominated for an actress drama series at the WIN Awards. Lastly, Courtney Kemp Agboh was nominated for
outstanding show written by a woman at the WIN Awards. The show is very popular amongst African Americans and amongst the age range of 18-49. The show is widely discussed across all social media platforms. Full episodes can be seen on Starz network, Starz on Demand, and on
Starz.com. To get a look at all of the awards click here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3281796/awards?ref_=tt_awd

Thesis

Power is described as a male that is a wealthy night club owner that has everything in the world, but secretly lives a double life as a powerful drug lord in NYC. The show is about real life situations and problems involving friendship, marriage, sex, drugs, prison and betrayal. The show captivates viewers with action, suspense and real life urban drama. Additionally, the show offers bits of humor so every scene is not so intense.

Purpose

The purpose of this analysis is to critically examine an episode of the television program Power for its story, structure, context, analysis and the way it encourages viewer involvement in the lives of the characters through realistic events, situations, and circumstances.

Description of Power

Power is broadcast by Starz network on Sunday nights at 9. If there is a conflict with special programs or holiday shows it may skip a week and force viewers to wait in anticipation and suspense for next week’s episode. It is a crime and family drama about a powerful drug kingpin who is trying to escape the drug lifestyle and become a legitimate businessman. He has to do this while balancing spending time with his wife and kids and maintaining a secret love affair. If you want to learn more about the show and Courtney Kemp's ideas click here:

http://fusion.net/story/327202/courtney-kemp-agboh-power-interview/

Omari Hardwick is James St. Patrick, who also goes by the street name Ghost. He grew up poor, but excelled in school and worked his way up the ranks of the drug world. He is currently the NYC drug distributor for his connect. James is educated, intelligent and a shrewd businessman. His vision has always been focused on becoming successful and living a legal life. He knows he has to separate from this drug lifestyle. He already owns a laundromat and decides to open a club that he calls Truth. His only downfall is that he cannot tell the truth about anything.

Naturi Naughton plays Tasha St. Patrick. She was James ride or die girlfriend while he was going up the ranks in the drug world. They would later get married and have 3 kids together. After she becomes aware of Ghost’s infidelities, she must figure out how to keep her family together while letting go of her feelings for Ghost.

Tommy Egan is played by Joseph Sikora. He is James’ best friend and right hand business partner. He has been loyal to James since they were kids. Tommy usually takes the back seat to James’ plans, but there is one thing that they feel completely different about. James wants to leave the drug business behind and Tommy wants to keep dealing drugs because it is all he knows how to do. He needs James because he is not as clean cut and sharp as him. Their life goals often leave them at odds sometimes.

Lela Loren is Angela Valdes. She is a smart and beautiful district attorney in NYC. She grew up with James and they were childhood sweethearts. She begins an affair with James after reuniting in his club one night. She falls in love with him and his vision of owning a chain of
night clubs. The only problem is after she finds out who he really is, will she accept him or throw away everything they have built together. She has to decide whether she is willing to risk her job for love.

50 Cent plays Kanan. He mentored Ghost in the drug world and is later betrayed by him. Kanan goes to jail for a few years and soon figures out it was Ghost who set him up. While he was locked up, he hired people to secretly take out Ghost’s drug organization. When he finally gets out, he does not tell anybody and patiently waits for his chance to kill Ghost. All he wants is revenge and to take back the business that was once his. To learn more about the cast, visit this link:  https://www.starz.com/series/power/cast

Production Information

The show Power was created by Courtney Kemp Agboh. She is also the executive producer and the showrunner of Power. Courtney Kemp is one of the few black woman showrunners in television. Before the hit series Power, she was a journalist for GQ, and a writer for The Bernie Mac Show and The Good Wife. Find out more about her life and her relationship with 50 Cent here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/arts/television/courtney-kemp-agboh-runs-power-with-50-cents-input.html?_r=0
The show is produced by Mawuli Productions Incorporation, Atmosphere Television, G-Unit Film & Television Incorporation, and CBS Television Studios. The distributor is Starz. Another person that had a huge part in the show is rapper and business man 50 Cent. He is an executive producer on the show. He came up with the idea of the main character which is James St. Patrick or Ghost. Also, 50 Cent came up with the opening them song which is called “Big Rich Town.” To see a music playlist from seasons 2 & 3 click below.

https://www.starz.com/series/power/more/s2musiclist

Description of the Episode

Episode 209 aired on August 8, 2015. The episode begins with Tommy getting processed into a correctional facility. He hands the officers his property and is subject to a body cavity search. The next scene is Tommy appearing in court for his bail hearing. Angela Valdes is the prosecutor in this case and she presents a strong argument which gets Tommy’s bail denied. The camera then clips to Angela showing up to Ghost’s apartment. The first thing she wants to know is why he changed his phone number and his response is, “I don’t want my number to get into the wrong hands.” The rest of the conversation is about Tommy and how Ghost wants Angela to help Tommy as much as possible. She promises to see what she can do to help him. Next, Kanan is seen talking to his son in a corner store about killing Ghost. Kanan’s son is Ghost’s driver. The FBI begins to interrogate Tommy hoping that he will snitch on him and Ghost’s boss. Kanan’s son tries to kill Ghost while he is driving him to a meeting, but a road block ruins his chances. Back at the interrogation room, the feds bring in Tommy’s cocaine addicted mother thinking it will make him talk and yet he still refuses. After a night with Ghost, Angela meets with Tommy and tries to help cut him a deal, but he does not hear her out. At Tommy’s court date, his lawyer uses evidence that Ghost retrieved for him. The lawyer states that the prosecutor, Angela, used a sketch that was described by a 14 year old which would make it illegal in court because she is a minor. The charges against him are then dismissed by the judge. After the court hearing, Angela storms into Ghost’s private office at his night club. They get into a huge argument because Angela could possibly get fired. Ghost knew Angela bugged his phone and that is why he stole the sketch from her bag. Ghost tells her, “We have both been playing dirty, you are just mad that you lost.” Angela comes to terms with the fact that James is Ghost and storms out of his office. On one of the biggest nights in club history for James, he goes in back to the storage room to get more liquor. While he is back there, Kanan’s son confronts him with a gun but cannot go on to kill him. Ghost takes the gun from him and tells him to leave. Later that night, Tommy gets released from prison and Ghost is there to pick him up. Lastly, Kanan meets with his son and shoots him in the head. That is the last scene of this episode. Here is a review from episode 209:

https://www.tvfanatic.com/2015/08/power-season-2-episode-9-review-times-up/

Story and Genre

James or Ghost is the hero on the show. He started out in the drug game as a way to get out of Queens and make money. Once he got money, he invested it wisely. He lives in a nice condo, his kids go to private schools, and he owns a laundromat and a nightclub. James has been trying to leave the drug dealing lifestyle behind, but always seems to get dragged back in. In this episode, to prevent Tommy from going to jail for a long time, James blew his cover with Angela. That was the moment she knew he was Ghost. Kanan is the villain because he is a bitter old thug that would never have been as successful as James. His desire is to kill Ghost anytime he gets the chance. He wanted to kill Ghost so badly that he sent his son to do the job and when he did not
do it, he turned around and killed his son himself. In addition to that, there is an opposition between legal and illegal in this episode. Tommy is on the illegal side for being in a hotel room with a known drug lord, with drugs and unlicensed guns.  Angela is the legal side because she is with the FBI. She always disliked Tommy and nothing would make her happier than to put him in jail for life.

Structure of the Program

All episodes start with “Previously on Power.” Prior to episode 209, Angela bugs Ghost’s phone, Ghost gets Tommy a lawyer, Tommy is arrested, and Kanan wants his son to kill Ghost. There are many scenes throughout the hour long program, but there are not any connectives
between scenes. Most of the time, the camera just clips to a new scene. During the closing credits music is playing while cast and crew names appear across the screen. Then, previews for the next show come on after the end credits. After episode 209, previews to the season finale are shown in which Ghost and Tommy must face off with Kanan. The last thing is Courtney Kemp, the creator of Power, appears on screen and gives insight into what happened and why it happened. Here are some clips from episode 209: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ODM4Z9LZc

Context

The characters in the program reflect real people because there are millions of humans in the world with the same story as James, Angela, Kanan, and Tasha. James reflects a real life person because he does not know how to tell the truth and he has an infidelity problem. For
starters, he keeps telling Angela that he will get a divorce from Tasha when that is not true. I am sure that people who have cheated in a relationship can see a little of themselves in James. Angela reflects a real person because she grew up in Queens which is a tough neighborhood and still managed to become a district attorney. A lot of people have grown up in rough neighborhoods and still turned out to be successful adults. Kanan is an easily recognizable gangster. He is just a drug dealer that young kids idolized because he had women, nice cars and money. Real life people can relate to that because with no education, people need to find a way to make a living and they often result to drug dealing. Tasha reflects real life people because she
is a typical housewife and whenever she is not doing that, she is shopping. Tasha reflects the typical wife in a rich household. Also, the show is filmed in NYC with actual real life buildings and landmarks.

Analysis

This is the type of program that can influence its viewers. It can influence a person’s attitude and values. After Scarface came out, everyone wanted to be a drug dealer. When Tupac came out, everyone wanted to be a gangster rapper. Power works in the same way. After seeing it, one may want to become a drug dealer because they see the lifestyle they live or even become a part of law enforcement because they want to throw these criminals in jail. In addition to that, Power can influence fashion. Viewers see designer clothes, flashy jewelry, and nice shoes on their favorite character and they want to emulate them. They will buy the clothes or whatever because they can relate to the character. Power may even help you learn a few things about the
justice system and how it works. It can also teach you a few things about how to run a business. The creator does a good job with diversity on the show and I think that is why so many people can relate to it. The diversity is portrayed in a positive light and negative light. The negative side is there are 2 African-American drug dealers, 1 white drug dealer, and a gay Hispanic drug lord. The positive side of diversity is there is a female Hispanic district attorney, a Hispanic male district attorney, 2 white male district attorneys, and even 1 black head district attorney that is rarely seen. The only place it lacks diversity is in terms of age. The youngest person on the show is mid 20s except for Ghost’s three kids.

Summary

Power accomplishes everything that it sets out to do. It provides entertainment through drama and real life situations. Courtney Kemp Agboh did a great job as the creator, writer, and executive producer of the show. It is produced in a way that makes it look realistic and as a result the viewers can relate to the situations and characters. The love triangle between James, Angela, and Tasha keeps the females entertained because it is a rollercoaster. The drug war between Ghost and Kanan keeps the males interested because they want to see who the boss is. As a drama, the show leaves you in disbelief and it is impossible to predict what happens next. Every episode is easy to follow and at the end of each episode, you will be begging to see what happens on next week’s episode.

Below is a picture of Kanan right after he killed his son, Sean. But, if you want to see photos from throughout the series, visit this link: https://www.starz.com/series/power/photos