Jacomedi A Surprisingly Unforgettable Movie!

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Allison Scates I decided on a whim to watch Being Mary Jane. I was a little reluctant at first since this is not typically the kind of TV drama that I watch, (I watch a lot of crime and historical dramas) but I decided to give it a shot anyways since it got pretty good reviews on Netflix. I just finished watching Season 3 and can say that I really like this show.The show follows Mary Jane Paul, respected news anchor for SNC network, and the trials and tribulations associated with her highly profiled life. The endless pursuit of love + sex, family drama and the advancement of Mary Jane's career are tackled each episode. More importantly, each episode addresses an issue that affects the black community, especially relating to black women.Being an African American woman, I find myself being able to relate to a lot of topics discussed in Being Mary Jane. Are black women beautiful? What does a beautiful black woman look like? There was a noteworthy episode where Mary Jane's niece, Niecy, got pregnant with her then Filipino boyfriend. Niecy was days away from giving birth and confesses to Mary Jane that her daughter is going to be beautiful because she will be biracial. Niecy then talks about how she is not pretty because she is dark skinned and overweight.There was another episode where Mary Jane takes out her weave and her hairstylist is not available to give her a new weave. She becomes frantic because she does not want to wear her natural hair on camera and as a last resort calls Niecy to do her hair. Niecy's comments and Mary Jane's confliction with her hair represent the discomfort a lot of black women feel about their appearance and their disguised hatred for their blackness.More than anything I like Mary Jane's confidence. She is confident in her sexuality, frequently having casual sex and masturbating. She is also not afraid to speak her mind or give her opinion even if it wasn't asked for. There was an episode in which the news anchor for primetime was unavailable and Mary Jane was selected as the replacement. This was a huge opportunity for Mary Jane as prime time has more viewers and the overall tempo is much faster than her afternoon show, Talk Back.The guest for the show was Elizabeth Foy, a conservative white author. Elizabeth goes on to talk about her bestselling book about charter schools and at this point Mary Jane decides to stop listening to her producers and decides to ask Elizabeth her own questions. Like how Elizabeth's book publisher supports neo-racists authors. Elizabeth gets flustered by the barrage of Mary Jane's questions and calls her a 'race baiter' and how she thinks black people are always the victim, always misunderstood. Mary Jane then responds back by saying that they both have a lot in common and that Elizabeth Foy is a ugly black woman too.Mary Jane can be bold and vocal but also she is compassionate and willing to expose her vulnerabilities. There was a series of episodes in which Mary Jane tries to freeze her eggs on air with the assistance of fertility treatments. She then discovers from her doctor on air that she has a below average egg count and may not be able to bear children in the future.The show is not afraid to tackle serious issues. It challenges the existing stereotype that black people do not commit suicide or suffer from mental illness. Mary Jane's longtime friend Lisa has struggled with mental illness throughout the course of the show after having attempted suicide in season one. She finally took her own life in season 3.The reason I gave this series a 8/10 is because there are a lot of episodes where it feels like things are just happening and there is no context or backstory as to why. For example, one of Mary Jane's "sex buddies" has a seizure after they are finished having sex. There is no explanation as to what caused him to have a seizure. He just says, "I started having these 2 weeks ago." That could have been an opportunity to address health issues. There are a lot of little instances like this that plague the series.Overall I really like Being Mary Jane. I think that the show is tactfully done to challenge what it means to be a black woman in America and the struggles that we continually face.

Renee Weston The 2 hour movie premiere left you wanting more...an affair, dying mom, slack family, addict brother, teenage mother to be which is Mary Jane's (niece). I actually liked the original name for the show "Single Black Female" because I don't know one, not one African American female name Mary Jane. They could have given her a more urban name. But anyway.... The most exciting thing about the show is Gabrielle Union's affair with a married man. Every single episode has a sex scene....yep Gabrielle Union shows some skin ( well as much as cable TV will allow). Scenes of oral sex being giving or received as well. Besides Mary Jane's ongoing affair the show is a SNOOZE! Her job and the stories she covers is a bore. The family serves mild drama but not enough to keep you entertained. Veeerrrrrrryyyyyyyy slow plot building. They never really show her interacting outside of work so we really don't get to know Mary Jane, unless she's at work or on her back. I will continue to watch and support because for the first time in a long we (African Americans) are starring in shows on cable and Basic prime time TV. Hopefully it picks up the pace.

glammab63 Thought the acting was horrible, the opening scene was almost laughable. Couldn't stomach much else after he was being hosed down. The acting was way over the top with different actors and the same old same old script. Gabrielle can do so much better and if it were on another station and not BET, it would probably be canceled after last nights showing. Some of these shows have such horrible, melodramatic acting that I don't waste my time to watch many of them. And this one, like some of the others on the air, makes you wonder if these African Americans are just taking any role thrown at them. Was this a play before turning it into a movie? It had that feel IMO.

lildevil561 (Disclaimer: This review is being given only on the basis of the premiere episode.) Let it be said, I'm actually highly disappointed in the reviews written before me. The show is obviously written to relate to the "independent black woman" notorious in this day and age (It premiered directly after Black Girls Rock...Come on...). The woman who suffers supporting an ungrateful and continuously using family, and having to maintain that structure simply on the excuse that "they're family" and that's that. The woman who suffers guilt for speaking the truth to said family when they refuse to learn past lessons and must continue to turn to her for help. The same woman who is punished with the difficulty of finding an equal (and monotonous!) counterpart to match her success and goals, simply because she has already shown productivity and achievement and there is very little to match. A woman who is judged by her own race for maintaining her pride and not demeaning herself to settle with those who don't show her the simple act of respect she deserves simply to give the falsely imagined persona of "Black Love."Why are you disappointed that there are no "Good men" in this show?? Gabrielle Union's character does cease to communicate with Guy #1 (Numbered in order of appearance) when she discovers he's married (Case in point: She has one under Never Answer, and Never Answer 2. Two separate actors, two separate people, two separate characters). Even so, these shows are not meant to be fairy tales with your hopeful happily ever afters just because you wish it. Welcome to reality. On average there are more black woman in existence overall than black men. Now lets make subsections of American Blacks, who are also successful. The gender gap between American Successful Black men and women is extraordinarily great, and yet we act as if this gap is non-existent and every black woman should settle for her semi-decent black man. When has it become OK to sacrifice our pride in the name of "Black Love?" and why should we demean a show that puts a mirror to the spectrum and shows us a glimpse of the reality in which we truly live? And additionally, it has not even been revealed that Guy #2 has done her wrong. She's stealing his sperm...she clearly won't be casting the first stone for his (still) sins, why are you?The show does have it's ups and downs, I'll give you that, but, as usual Gabrielle Union is a flawless actress carrying out her character to a T. The plot is pretty realistic, if not a bit over the top in describing women in this day in age (I still don't think it's acceptable to have your drunk "boyfriend" throw-up on your lap in bed, that's deff a deal breaker!), but it is relate-able to the "Strong Black Women" persona that has been fluctuating in these times. My opinion? Check it out. It's not greatness yet, but I would like to see at least the route the show takes before disregarding it entirely. I just hope it doesn't cause women to start thinking they're wrong in living for themselves, and not sacrificing their beings for attempting to produce a "united front" for a community that does not respect them in return.