"I'm nothing like my father."
Power Book 2: Ghost was created by Courtney Kemp and 50 Cent and stars Michael Rainey Jr, Mary J Blige, Gianni Paolo, Paige Hurd, Woody McClain, Latoya Tonodeo, Method Man, Alix Lapri, Lovell Adams Gray and Larenz Tate.
Tariq St Patrick has to grapple with his new world order. His father "Ghost" is dead and he pulled the trigger. On his own for the first time Tariq is forced to balance his college life, family affairs, drug operations and love life. Tariq soon realizes that the only way to avoid the same fate his father met is to become him, only better.
Lead actor Michael Rainey Jr went on record saying when he first heard he was getting his own spin off series that he didn't see how it would work and said that the Tariq character at the time seemed unredeemable. Lucky for him he was able to prove himself wrong and everyone else because this went on to become the most popular show currently airing on Starz and has consistently broken viewership records for them. Academy Award Nominee Mary J Blige stars as Monet Tejada a ruthless Queenpin who heads up the Tejada family which consists of her kids Cane, Dru and Diana and who Tariq finds himself entangled with. Aside from him they are probably the second biggest focus on the show.
In terms of performances I'd say Woody McClain does a great job playing the hothead character Cane here. The real standout and true revelation for me is Michael Rainey Jr as Tariq here. It's not easy to go from a supporting actor in someone else's show to leading your own not everyone can pull it off but he does seamlessly. He does a great job here and because of the writing and his performance you'll find yourself rooting for him. Each season of this show seems to get better than the last in my opinion with one being the weakest, season 2 being a significant improvement and season 3 which was helmed by new showrunner Brett Mahoney after Courtney Kemp left to make original content for Netflix being the best so far.
The final season wrapped things up in a satisfying enough way I'd say and late new addition Michael Ealy as Carter brought a lot of energy to the show. Go into this with not a lot of expectations and you'll at least find yourself entertained. The fact that they were able to make this show work at all after Tariq was one of the most hated characters on the original Power series is a testament to the people who worked on this show.
