I'm probably in the minority, but here's my confession: I have never seen a Tyler Perry movie or show -- but I have seen my fair share of soap operas.
It all began when I was a kid and my mother would record the entire ABC lineup on our trusty Betamax. I knew just about everything that was going on on "Ryan's Hope," "Loving"/ "The City," "All My Children," "One Life To Live" and "General Hospital." I developed my own appreciation for the genre and expanded my tastes to "Santa Barbara," "Another World," "Guiding Light," "Days of our Lives" and "The Young And The Restless" -- and those were just the daytime shows. It still saddens me to this day that of all the shows I just mentioned, only three of them remain on the air. But I digress.
My mom and I were fans of the nighttime fare as well, be it "Dynasty," its spinoff "The Colbys," "Knots Landing" and "Dallas." So it shouldn't be surprising that "The Haves And The Have Nots" is my latest guilty pleasure. It has all the elements of a daytime drama packed into an hour of nighttime goodness.
"The Haves And The Have Nots" -- based on Perry's stage play of the same name -- is a little bit like "Dynasty" and "Dallas" (the updated version), focusing on three families (two wealthy, one poor) in Savannah, Georgia. If anything, it's more telenovela than over-the-top drama and isn't exactly like the goings-on in Genoa City, Salem or Port Charles, but that doesn't make it any less soapy. Or satisfying.
"The Haves And The Have Nots" centres on Jim Cryer (John Schneider), a powerful judge with political ambitions, who is unhappily married to heiress Katheryn (Renee Lawless). Their marriage, despite their two kids Wyatt (Aaron O'Connell) and Amanda (Jaclyn Betham), has become a farce and Jim is taking advantage of it. A one-time fling with a prostitute named Candy (which is how the premiere kicks off) turns into a disaster (for Jim; awesomeness for the viewer) when Candace (Tika Sumpter) shows up at the Cryer family home with her pal Amanda.
That's not the only unexpected houseguest. The Cryers' new maid, Hanna Young (Crystal R. Fox), just happens to be Candace's mom. Thankfully, we're saved from a predictable scam by a mother-daughter team of con artists as we learn that Hanna and Candace detest one another.
The actors are great and deliver their lines with aplomb -- and thankfully they don't give that cheesy last look before the scene cuts to a commercial. The debut episode introduces us to everyone we need to know (aside from the Cryers and the Youngs, we also get to know the other wealthy family, the Harringtons) and it establishes everyone's relationships and attitudes to one another. It's not exactly groundbreaking stuff but the second episode is quite an improvement, delving deeper into why some of the characters behave the way they do. Episode 2 is exactly what needed to follow the first hour, which didn't have a lot of heart, nor did we know who to root for and why. The second hour adds another dimension to some, particularly Katheryn (who was essentially a pompous robot in the premiere) and the Cryer kids.
On the other hand, Jim and Candace, while played wonderfully by Schneider and Sumpter, respectively, aren't the most likable characters. In fact, they're kind of heinous. Their one-nighter -- which actually seemed kind of sweet (you know, once you get past that he has a wife at home and he pays Candy for her services) -- will obviously evolve into a tawdry affair that neither one might not necessarily want, but can't walk away from.
It's not all good news, though. The production values are ... not great. Actually, they're dismal. Filmed entirely at Perry's Atlanta studios, the shot quality looks cheap and the scripts are sub-par, at best. The dialogue needs some serious tightening up if it wants to be taken seriously. "The Haves And The Have Nots" has already been greenlit for a third season, so it clearly has an audience, but that doesn't mean Perry and co. should be phoning it in. The components are there; they just need to work with it.
"The Haves And The Have Nots" premieres with back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, April 8 at 9 p.m. ET and 10 p.m. ET on OWN (Canada).