Kerry Washington of Scandal and Jada Pinkett of Hawthorne would surely agree that the small screen is where today’s woman stands to make her indelible mark in the acting world. BET’s original television series Being Mary Jane is 1990s golden girl Gabrielle Union’s prospect that she, too, will join this exclusive list of actresses with notable leading roles in television.
A successful television talk show host, Mary Jane Paul (Gabrielle Union), in Being Mary Jane, treads the lines of folks who have in one breath “made it,” but in the next breath find themselves asking: made it where?
On the surface, Mary Jane has realized the American dream. She resides in an architectural dream house with floor-to-ceiling glass windows in the hills of suburban Atlanta. With no children out of wedlock and enough disposable income to splurge on fancy pleasures, she is the exception in her family. As if to say her accomplishments have the blessings from the Lord Himself, a gospel music track hails from her car stereo.
Yet despite flaunting her luxuries, despite holding a high paying job and cruising in the driver’s seat of an expensive car, Mary Jane finds that she isn’t actually coasting in the driver’s seat of life.
At the network, her bosses intend to steer her work into a passionless direction. What little say she has on the job pales in comparison to her control over her love life.
Her sexual life is in total limbo—she accepts unsolicited after hours calls from exes, her late night companion runs on AA batteries, and she gives revived meaning to the urban adage: never trust a woman with a turkey baster.
With “never answer” numbers stored in her cell and walls of yellow post-it-notes reminding her what happiness is, we get the sense that her emotions are just as wild. Although wild was never in the plans.
For Mary Jane, there seems to be an order for things. First comes love, then comes marriage. First the job and the house, then the husband and the kids. She has the former parts of these bucket list items fulfilled, but the latter portions elude her.
Despite her imperfections, Mary Jane prides herself upon being one of those outspoken independent women who observers, often rightly, believe are so quick to criticize others. She has a mouthful of judgments for her friends and family.
Yet, even with all her advanced degrees, Mary Jane still can’t figure out her own life. In a twist, it is Mary Jane who finds herself humbled beside others who have fewer accolades. Series creator Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends, The Game) presents us with a lady who is delicately flawed, surprisingly optimistic, thankfully not a bitter, and most important, has ample room to grow.
Unlike in Deliver Us from Eva, Daddy’s Little Girls, and Good Deeds, in Being Mary Jane, Ms. Union commands the full glow of the limelight. Despite Ms. Union being a routine face in film, we have yet to have the privilege to evaluate just how enthralling or underwhelming her acting will be in the center stage without any backups–though she does keep the company of a Latina sidekick (Lisa Vidal) who can commiserate with her off-white problems.
This upcoming season, the independent black woman’s character will be scrutinized, but also viewers will have the chance to determine whether Ms. Union’s acting chops or her jersey-catching looks have gotten her recurrent roles all these years.
A few messages in the premiere come off as being too heavy handed. The show starts off with title cards of marriage statistics and posters you with messages about how black is beautiful, perhaps for all the women who missed out on the balled fisted, afro-wearing 70s. These billboard announcements plead to black women that they must relate to Mary Jane’s circumstances. The dialogue cries out—this is your show! This is your life! Tune in or else!
TV dramas exclusively about black life are nonexistent, only VH1’s Single Ladies comes close. For that reason alone, one might assume, all pleas aside, that Ms. Brock Akil already has a captive, or at least receptive, audience.
With relationship stories, there is no shortage of material. Here, I cannot say the story can make any inroads into surprising or enlightening its audience.
Where Being Mary Jane may perhaps provide insight is regarding the experiences of blacks working behind-the-scenes of mainstream media. By updating prior fictionalized accounts, such as Terrance Howard’s character on Crash (2004) and Damon Wayans as Pierre Delacroix on Bamboozled (2000), Mary Jane could potentially give us a female take on traditionally male perspectives, and also view at how what concessions are given up by contemporary television news personalities, Reverend Al Sharpton, Tamron Hall, Tavis Smiley, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Soledad O’Brien, to name a few.
Although Gabrielle Union lost the leading role on Scandal to Kerry Washington, she has a positive outlook on Being Mary Jane and its potential impact of the show, should it succeed, on her career.
Ms. Union said: “I didn’t get Scandal, but I got something better – which is my own show… It’s all about building a legacy. This new opportunity is something I feel that can grow.”
The first season of Being Mary Jane is set for an 8-episode run. Episodes will premiere on Tuesday, January 7, 2014 at 10pm EST on BET.
