Greenleaf

This show had all the potential needed for a great series: a secretive family with all it's flaws, the hypocrisy embedded in religious circles etc. But bad writing combined with one-dimensional characters put it at risk. I only watch it to gorge on Keith David and I am a sucker for gospel music. Being gay I hoped that the gay character in the show would be someone to relate. But alas! You will have to look harder to find a more one deimentional a character. The gay love scene we have so far seen is laughable. How disappointing! So dishonest! If a gay character is to be believed and be authentic, he/she has to "do" something! What, are supposed to take the producers word for it? Reminds you the gay character from Melrose Place. It is so symptomatic of the fear of anything gay that permeates the black production community. Be bolder, dammit! If the actors can't go "all the way", find gay ones!

I love Greenleaf because it isnt too serious, the storylines are dramatic but not to dark. Its a nice break from reality, yes some bits may be abit unrealistic but I enjoy it and will continue to watch it!

I could turn it off..... I struggled to keep watching the eps & fast forwarded to S2, but it just got worse. There was no good strong storyline, the editing was dreadful and the directing was even worse. Even the score was appalling. + The actors must have worked for nothing > they were that bad > except 1 >..Merle Dandridge & she was very good. I am surprised it was renewed for seasons 2 and 3..Just terrible all round.

The story of a Southern mega-church headed by a family of sly hypocrites. Living in luxury and wielding influence how deep does the spirituality they claim really run? Are their sins products of their own human frailty exacerbated by a difficult world? Or are they bad people pretending to be holy?

It is about time a TV series dealt with the world of organized, profit-motivated religious organizations. A night-time soap take on an African-American mega-church in the Deep South is a novel approach to that telling the stories of people that have not yet been properly told in a fictional construct.

But my praise ends there. A solid cast in an interesting setting largely goes wasted in teleplay scripts so inept that they look like film school dropouts wrote them.

I love night-time soaps. I like the idea for this show as well as the story and the characters and the angle they take in relating the narrative. It is an imagined glimpse into a secret world of powerful people who profess piety and modesty but can't live it and we get to see them at their best and worst. I want to see it get multiple seasons.

But the scripts have to get better. They need to be outlined better and the dialogue needs to be more subtle in relaying information as well as doing so in a natural manner in which real people speak. So far they have tried to cram too much information in each sentence

I was prepared to be bored by this series but have been pleasantly surprised.The story lines of each of the characters are seemingly innocent but, become more complex with each episode.

Lynn Whitfield, as always, holds her own as the matriarch of this family whose members seem filled with discontent over the familial pecking order decided by their father. Oprah Winfrey is surprisingly okay as the family rebel aunt who wants to use her niece to bring down her shady brother.

It has, so far, delivered enough shock value to make it entertaining after 3 episodes.