This show does a great job with building tension and keeping you interested but the writing is subpar on many levels.
First let me just say
THAT ENDING WAS WACK AF. Aight let me get into the writing issues.
If y'all remember, earlier I said they had way too many storylines to wrap up. This became evident when they forced a bunch of characters crossing paths to get the climax. Here are my gripes.
- First off, even if Michael gets Carlo off, there's no guarantee the mobsters will just leave him alone. If anything he loses any leverage he had.
- By the end of the trial there are THREE new people (Mayor candidate, cop, Carmen Ejojo) who know the entire truth. Let's get into their reactions:
- I don't understand Isaiah Whitlock's motivation to help Michael once he found out. If anything he'd want to steer clear away from it for fear of it messing up his campaign. I guess he was worried about it coming back on him.
- The cop just walking away for a promise of cleaning the police office up rang pretty hollow. She came this far and she's gonna back off? What if that nikka doesn't get elected?
- Carmen's character is the biggest wildcard of them all. The fact she just threw her hands in the air and gave up after Michael rigged the trial didn't match her character. I'm glad she brought up his actions getting a whole family killed. I was screaming at the tv "nikka YOUR LIES GOT PEOPLE KILLED!"
- The mob parents find out Adam is the killer. What does Jimmy Baxter do? Invites him over for a celebration as part of some elaborate plan to kill Adam.
Then, he calls his pops to let him know. Why not just kill the little shyt THEN do the victory lap?
Let's get to poor Eugene. As the final minutes of the show were running out I kept saying, "Please don't let this nikka try to kill Carlo." The reason why is that I didn't want to see yet another black life go down the drain. In reality if Eugene kills a Baxter it either ends with him dead or in jail. There are no happy endings there. The writers knew this and had to come up with some cockamamy scenario where he kills someone (although not his target) and is able to get away scott free in a room full of mobsters.
The show just really failed to end it in a way that felt like justice was served. Kofi's killer (Carlo) is free. His dumb ass sister will never know she fell for the dude who killed her brother. And everything else just goes back to normal I guess?
Furthermore there's no sense of payback for the Desiato's actions because Adam got clapped before ever facing the consequences of his actions. It would have been
seeing him get tortured by the mob. Even just scene a with him explaining why he dated ol' girl after killing her brother would have been very compelling tv.
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I hate being someone with critiques and no solutions so here's how I would have written the ending, with the pieces that were available at the time.
Jimmy walks up to a happy Adam and Fia. He stops and gives Adam a serious look.
FIA: Dad what's wrong?
JIMMY: Adam, I know what you did.
FIA: Dad,what the fukk? Stop being weird. Adam let's go.
JIMMY: Adam, why don't you tell her?
ADAM: 
*starts wheezing*
JIMMY: What's the matter? Can't tell her that you killed her brother Rocco, Adam?
ADAM: 
*starts wheezing more frequently*
FIA: Adam, what is he talking about?
FIA. Adam say something!
ADAM: Fia, I... I....
Young Eugene comes out the cut with his eyes on Carlo, misses his shot and kills Adam.
Still shytty but at least we get to see Adam deal with the consequences of his actions for once.
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