STARZ’s best spinoff from the “Power” Universe, “Power Book III: Raising Kanan,” is back for an electrifying fourth season. The third season concluded with the Thomas family seemingly eliminating all of their known enemies while diverting investigators looking to pin a multitude of charges on them.
When season four opens, it’s business as usual, unbeknownst to everyone their Achilles heel Unique (actor Joey Bada$$) has survived the vicious beating he endured at the hands of his brother Ronnie (actor Grantham Coleman).
While recovering from a traumatic brain injury, Unique believes the attack was orchestrated by Raq (actress Patina Miller) and Kanan (actor MeKai Curtis). Lurking in the shadows, Unique plots his revenge despite not having all the facts.
While the audience anxiously awaits Raq and Unique’s reunion, Raq is trying her best to mend her strained relationship with Kanan despite haphazardly upending her son’s budding relationship with his father, Malcolm Howard (actor Omar Epps). When Kanan tries to circumvent Raq and ingratiate himself into the family business through Pops and Snaps (actors Wendell Pierce and Erika Woods), Kanan soon learns that he’s in over his head and now has to work with his mother in order to keep his products in stock.
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When asked what to expect from Raq and Kanan’s relationship this season, actor MeKai Curtis told the Sentinel, “Kanan feels like his mother robbed him of being able to reconnect and rebuild with his father so you’re going to see him working through that. You’re also going to see in the same way that Raq can exploit [people’s] vulnerabilities, and the chinks in their armor, you’re going to see Kanan do the same thing to her now that Raq is his connect.
“That’s why they’re able to work together because they can mirror each other, ‘I have this on you, you have this on me. And if this is how we’re able to work through and reconnect then whatever. You can do whatever you’re doing, but I need space.’ That’s where Kanan is with his mom at this point.”
Throughout previous seasons, Raq’s lack of maternal instincts with Kanan seemed to stem from her strained relationship with her own mother, Joyce (actress Sharon Washington) a bible-thumping elitist who accepted her daughter’s money despite disapproving of her lifestyle. This season, Joyce’s health issues may be the catalyst for uniting this fractured family.
When asked about navigating Raq’s rocky relationship with her mother, Tony-award-winning actress Patina Miller shared, “Raq blames Joyce for why she’s unable to be the mom she wants to be to Kanan. All of those feelings come to a head this season now that her mother is sick, Raquel has to deal with the consequences of whatever that relationship is.
“It’s going to be an interesting and emotional season for Raq, all while continuing to be a boss who’s trying to expand her business. She’s still a woman in a man’s game. Having to deal with that, her mom and her family is a lot.”
Regarding Raq and Kanan’s dynamic shifting from mother and son to reluctant business partners, Miller shares, “In seasons one through three, there were a lot of lies between the two of them. But now that Kanan knows who his mother is, and Raq has no more lies to hide from, they’re just trying to coexist without having too much drama between them.
“Raq really just wants to have her son in her life in any way that will make sense. Right now, Kanan being her business partner makes the most sense because she can check in on him and she can try and give him advice. She’s trying not to rock the boat, especially at the beginning of the season. Will it stay that way? You have to watch but at least they’re trying to coexist together in some way, but their relationship will never be the same.”
An interesting tidbit about the characters who are supposed to be adversaries of the Thomas family is the fact that many of these working relationships are also rooted in mentorship which is the case with recurring character Stefano Marchetti played by legendary actor Tony Danza who frequently shares scenes with Uncle Marvin played by actor London Brown.
When asked about their on-screen dynamic this season Danza shared, “Stefano feels like he’s sort of a father figure for Marvin. Like that grandfather who tells you about all the mistakes he made so that you don’t make them, there’s an element of that.”
The Sentinel asked series creator and executive producer Sascha Penn if he cognizantly created paternal figures for his characters who had strained relationships with their own parents.
Penn shared, “Maybe not as specifically as that, but it’s an interesting point. There are a number of characters on our show who seem to find older folks to advise and guide them. [However], what’s always complicated in our show is that a lot of times those mentors have agendas of their own.
“So, you wonder how genuine that mentorship is, or whether it’s just a means to an end. And I think that’s part of the tension of the series. In every relationship on ‘Raising Kanan,’ there’s an aspect of it that’s transactional because people have their own agendas. So, it’s definitely something there but it’s always more complicated than it looks.”
New episodes of “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” are released every Friday on STARZ.
