Movie Review: Power Book

You know that feeling when you start a show thinking you’ll just watch an episode to relax, and before you know it, you’re deep into the night, eyes glued to the screen, your heart racing, and you’re telling yourself, “just one more”? That was me with Power Book. Honestly, I wasn’t even planning to get hooked. A friend had been going on and on about how I needed to watch it, and one lazy evening I gave in. I pressed play, and from that moment, my world tilted. It wasn’t just a series; it felt like I was being pulled into a universe where power, betrayal, loyalty, and ambition all collided in the most raw, unpredictable ways.

The first thing that hit me was the way the story carried on from Power. We’d already been through Ghost’s reign, his fall, and everything in between. But Power Book didn’t let us breathe. It threw us right back into the chaos with Ghost’s son, Tariq. And you know what? Watching Tariq step into his father’s shadow was one of the most emotional rides for me. I kept asking myself—was he cursed to repeat Ghost’s mistakes, or was he going to carve his own path? That tug-of-war between destiny and choice was the heartbeat of the show for me.

I could tell you about so many scenes but I would like to take you back to one which still stays with me. The scene when Tariq was standing in a court, facing the results of his decisions, lying and plotting just to stay alive it knocked me over. Not only the legal fight, but also the mature, the transformation of a boy to a man in a world that consumes innocence. His face, the manner in which he suppressed fear as he played this game--it was raw. I experienced it. I recognized in him the image of how life occasionally makes you mature too soon, to do things you never wanted to do.

And there is Monet Tejada. What a woman. Cold-blooded, ruthless, a high-powered queenpin who knew how to make herself heard without having to speak up. Yet behind that hard shell you could sense the cracks, the fear that she would lose control, the desperation to secure her family whilst she created an empire. Her most frightening scenes were with her kids. There was a sort of tension you could almost eat at the dinner table--love mingled with fear, loyalty mingled with resentment. It made me think of the fact that family is not always hugs and nice words, there are times it is a war zone, survival is the key.

And Cane. Cane was the flame to Monet brain. Impetuous, erratic, a person who always felt the need to prove himself. It got so bad I would shake him and yell at the screen, Why are you this way?!” Yet other times I knew. He was a man who was in need of some validation in a world where only power and violence were respected. A scene which still rents itself free in my head is when he attempted to stamp authority but instead created more trouble to all. That was the tragedy of Cane, he wanted to shine and he tended to dim the entire room.

Brayden’s story hit me differently. On the surface, he looked like just another rich kid dipping his toes into the street game for fun. But as things unfolded, you realized he was in it deeper than he could handle. His friendship with Tariq was one of my favorite dynamics. It was like watching two brothers trying to navigate a minefield together. They fought, they schemed, they protected each other—and it made me think of real-life friendships, the kind that test your loyalty in ways you never expect.

One of the things Power Book did so well was blur the line between right and wrong. You couldn’t just say, “Oh, Tariq is bad,” or “Monet is evil.” Everyone was layered, everyone had reasons. And honestly, isn’t that how life is? We’re all just trying to survive, make choices, protect our own—even if the world calls us villains.

It is not only the action or the betrayals (although there were plenty of those to make you paranoid about your own friends) that kept me glued. It was the emotional load of the story. All the characters were scarred. There was no free decision. It was like watching life on TV only that it is blown up with the magnifying glass of crime, money and ambition.

I sat nights after an episode and just thought. Reflecting on the power transforming people, corrupting people, tempting people. Reflecting on loyalty- what would I do to defend my own? Pondering about fate- are we truly free or are we mere copies of the patterns established by our predecessors as Tariq was with Ghost?

There was one episode which concluded with a betrayal which left me speechless. I will not give too much away but this was a scene where a person close to Tariq turned the tables on him. I still recall being there, shocked, my chest tight. And that is when it struck me, this was not a form of entertainment. This was barefaced story-telling. It raised my anger, sadness, even fear. It caused me to think about what has happened in my life, the people that I confide in, the choices I have made.

When I finally watched all of the seasons, I was not the same viewer who had pressed play so carelessly that night. I had known these characters, had struggled their battles in my mind, condemned them, justified them, despised them, loved them. It was not a crime show, Power Book was about the human condition, the hunger to have more, the price of ambition, the transience of trust and the nature of our pasts.

If you’ve never watched it, I’ll tell you this: it’s not just a show you “watch.” It’s one you feel. It forces you into conversations you didn’t think you’d have—with yourself, with friends, with the screen. It makes you uncomfortable, and that’s what good art does.

So here’s my reflection, laid bare: Power Book taught me that the pursuit of power is never clean. It’s messy, it’s painful, it’s addictive. But it also showed me that in the middle of darkness, there’s always a flicker of humanity—whether it’s in Tariq’s loyalty to his mother, or Brayden’s desperate attempt to be more than just a sidekick, or even Monet’s love hidden beneath layers of cold strategy.

And maybe that’s why we watch. Because deep down, we see ourselves in them. We see our hunger, our fears, our mistakes. We see the cost of wanting more—and the question that lingers after every episode: is it worth it?

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