SPOILERS FOR TYLER PERRY’S THE OVAL
For some, this will be a random post from me. I usually don’t do reviews here anymore, I reserve those for the rest of my team. But the thing is, I started watching this BET series from Tyler Perry called The Oval since 2021… wow. That was the year I launched What’s on Paramount+. But I never reported on that show as it never really hit the ground on Paramount+, until now.
As you know, BET+ is gone. But not the content, which shifted to the main service. And The Oval consistently trended while new episodes dropped day and date on the service. But one small mistake by Paramount was they accidentally released Season 7 of The Oval by mistake in March, quietly removed it, then announced it at the start of May as the final season of the show. Ouch.
As a token of appreciation, I decided to go back and start the series and binge my way into the latest season. And boy will I tell you how bad the show was, lol. Unless you’re used to the style of Tyler Perry’s shows, then any random person watching will see this show as a show about lunatics with lookalike celebrity actors.
For reference, the show takes place in an alternate timeline where the Franklin family succeeds Donald Trump. But the reality is, they all hate each other. The President, Franklin, is a cocaine addict who has several affairs with multiple women inside the office, while the First Lady, Victoria, is also guilty of adulterating but also murdering the President’s flings. The First Son, Jason, is a known serial killer inside the house and a sex offender who attempts suicide which the parents hide from the public, while the First Daughter (played by Paige Hurd until Season 2 when she left to play on Power: Book 2) is sassy and arrogant against her parents then goes missing after Season 2. The Vice President, Eli, hooked up with the First Lady only to try to succeed the ill President who overdosed.
Even worse, the Chief of Staff, Donald, is an adulterating gay man (who has sex with his top agent) married to his wife who needs to be rescued by a Secret Service Agent (who has sex with not only her, but the Vice President and the Head Waitress) for multiple instances of abuse. That’s while the Head Butler and his wife feud over the wife’s sexual relationship with his father and his son’s passing over his fling’s manager/drug dealer who’s employer sold drugs to an agent to please the President and severally backfired. Is it all adding up.
As you can see, this show really has nothing to do with any politics or agenda, just a full executive branch that wants playtime with each other and provoke their “label” to get through anywhere they want (Is that a parallel to Trump? Rightfully so). But that all changed with the end of Season 6 and the start of Season 7.
The start of the season kicked off straight forward. While everyone was goofing around (minus the Chief of Staff covering some topics off screen, despite reminding the President about threats throughout the series), Dilva, a highly respected worker in the government came to give everyone the wake up call that everyone had to start working together or they’ll all fall, while bombings across the nation across the nation occurred, which finally showed the sequence of the President actually doing something useful and taking meeting and briefings with the press.
But the tensions of the previous seasons are still present as the President still doesn’t trust the people who pledged allegiance to the Vice President. So he sends his best agent, Issac, to get revenge on the Vice President. Issac goes working with a mafia who tries to kill every party involved with helping Eli while Eli’s crew try to anonymously destroy the reputations of Hunter’s presidency and staff. They ended up killing the reporter and editor involved with trying to publish those reports.
The final episode premiered today and will air later tonight on BET. I got the chance to watch it and wow. What a way to leave things on a cliffhanger. In the end, Eli the VP is dying after drinking poison, a bomb explosion occurs in one of the top agents’ house with his wife and Second Lady inside, and gangsters shootout a pharmacist (who was involved in selling cocaine to one agent to give to the President; it adds up if you watched up to Season 6) and one assistant at the Butler’s house.
My problem, 2/3 of those outcomes happened in the last 2 minutes of the finale. Or so it’s called. When Season 7 was officially announced, the press release called it the final season. All promotion on BET going into the finale has made it seem like it’s just another season coming and going. And I hope that’s the case. Tyler Perry’s shows are known for their late renewals and considering Season 7 was completed months in advance, there may be a chance of a quiet renewal and production resumes.
All in all, The Oval really improved on where it wants to head off to for the show to conclude. It’s been almost 8 years since the first episode on BET and we’ve seen the abuse the characters put each other through. Now we just await the new head honchos, that being either George Cheeks or upcoming Casey Bloys.
