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“BEING MARY JANE” SIGNS OFF WITH FULL-LENGTH MOVIE
INSTEAD OF A FIFTH SEASON, THE HIT SHOW WILL ENDS WITH A MOVIE IN 2018
Everyone’s guilty pleasure other than (This Is Us) will end in 2018. After four successful seasons, one of which changed the setting of the show to New York, BET’s hit show will end with a two-hour TV movie.
This is actually fitting for the show due to the series starting as as movie back in 2013. After receiving huge ratings (about 4 million views) and a great reception, the movie was turned into a full series with the star of the movie Gabrielle Union. Union played TV news anchor Mary Jane Paul who struggled to find balance between a successful career, being the golden child in her family and finding a suitable man to settle with. She even struggled with the idea of settling down, so much so, that she had an affair with a married man and became a friend with benefits to an older gentleman as well. Spoilers aren’t allowed but pregnancies come into play as well.
The series ending with a movie is fitting to how the show began but it also may be related to departures on the production team. The first three season were produced by creator Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil, who left the show right before season four. This led to Erica Shelton Kodish to executive produce the show before her partner Will Packer left for CBS. Without anyone to really helm the show, it’s possible the decision was made to just end the series the way it started. It’s doubtful the fans would mind.
Black women (and most men {myself included}) strongly identified with Union’s character and the story lines were intensely relate-able to people of other ethnicities as well. It’s honestly a shame that this was a cable network show and not something on a more mainstream network. Union will be returning for the feature film, however the rest of the cast has not been decided yet. The film will be released in 2018.