Star: Season 2/ Episode 1 “The Winner Takes It All” [Season Premiere] – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

5 months have passed since Star: Season 1 ended and damn! Wait till you find out what happened.

Making The Best of a Bad Situation: Simone, Alex, Derek

Remember Alex’s announcement that she was pregnant? Well, unfortunately, she suffered a miscarriage. A topic she avoids whenever and whoever brings it up. This includes Derek who seemingly has adjusted to the fact he’ll never walk again, but it, of course, is a sore subject. So when Miss Bruce asks about it, Derek calls them a freak. Something he apologizes for but what is said in anger is duly noted. Especially considering how Derek’s uncle acts when he sees Cotton. But more on her later.

As for Simone? Well, with Carlotta’s record, and Simone getting in trouble at school, she has found herself no longer in Carlotta’s house. Instead, she is in some kind of prison like group home for girls. A place where she is bullied and has gone right back to smoking weed to deal with her problems. Much to the ire of Star and Carlotta.

5 Months After Atlanta Next-Fest: Star, Arlene, Carlotta, Ayanna (Michael Michele)

It has been 5 months since Atlanta Next-Fest and “Big Trouble,” yes they still go by that name, has found their careers stalling. Of which, there are a lot of factors involved. The first being what happened with Simone and Alex messing things up, but for Star too there are distractions. Mostly in the form of her having nightmares about Hunter dying and then there is Arlene now trying to pin the murders on her. She even goes so far as to get Star’s juvenile record to push that she has killed long before Simone’s foster dad. We are told the girl has been violent since she was 12.

Her rebuttal? Well, men have been trying to screw her or screw her over since that age, and as we’ve seen with Hunter, more often than not, while she may get away it isn’t without a few scars and bruises. Be them mental or physical. Hence why she slept with the then president of her label, Holland (Mike Epps), to help confirm a date for the group’s album. For with that, she can get Simone a work permit so that she doesn’t have to be in that home, push Alex to not follow in her mom’s footsteps and focus on herself and the group, and it would make all these sacrifices Star, and even Carlotta has gone through, worth it.

And speaking of Carlotta, while she maybe not robbing the girls blind, or trying to sleep with them, she also isn’t helping them gain much traction either. Though the girls have about an album of songs, everyone notes they’re trash. Which, outside of the song which opens the show, “Ain’t Thinkin About You,” I’m inclined to agree.

But bad turns to worse when Holland gets fired and Ayanna Floyd takes over the label. For with her being very much a no-nonsense kind of woman, and her looking to drop dead wright, that puts a fire and some fear into Carlotta. To the point, she calls in a favor from the Lyons family and is led to believe that she can get a one on one with Ayanna and protect the girls. However, with Ayanna feeling ambushed, that plan backfires.

Life on the Inside and What’s On The News: Carlotta, Cotton

Cotton gets out of jail and minus a burn mark on her back, things seem alright now. Well, outside of her mother having to mortgage the salon for her. That leads to guilty feelings. But, similar to Alex, there is a reconciliation in progress between daughter and mother.

Though, who knows how long that may last. For the news has Hunter, Eva, and Jahil continues to be a consistent story and with the reveal that Carlotta was the hitman, well hitwoman, things should be interesting when people find out.

Highlights

Alex

A miscarriage. When it comes to young women Alex’s age, we don’t often get to hear about miscarriages and things like that. Usually, there is a baby born and then the struggle. But to hear Alex, a young woman who probably had the best doctors and more lost her baby, that is something interesting to explore. Especially since they are going to try to bring Derek’s feelings into it so that we get two barely heard point of views. One being, a young woman having a miscarriage and how that can mess you up, alongside her boyfriend’s feelings on it.

Star

Even if Star is still doing the same nonsense which has given her an inch but, as usual, ended up setting her back a mile, you have to admire her hustler’s spirit. For while even Simone has to note Star’s ways definitely are a red flag, by calling her a hoe, with Arlene bringing up Star’s record from when she was a kid, this brings more opportunity to get to know this girl. Which we did quite a bit in the first season. However, with this show being one which doesn’t mind a flashback, it’ll be interesting to see the people who caused Star to not only build a wall up, but figure sex is the easiest way to get what she wants.

Criticism

Big Trouble

I’m honestly mad that, after a five-month time jump, they still have that ridiculous name. But as for their music career in general, I’m really trying to understand if these music videos we see are just dream sequences or are considered legit? Also, while I get this is an urban network drama, which means soap opera elements, it would be cool if we did get to see more of what it takes to be a musician. Especially the business end for with Queen Latifah, I’m sure, having some stories to tell, one can only hope the shooting of Jahil and other nonsense doesn’t make it so Big Trouble is an afterthought.

Carlotta

One of the things I hated about the first season was Jahil’s nonsense and all it brought to the show. So with him dead, I was thinking we’d be free of ridiculous murder plots. Sadly, with Carlotta being revealed as his killer, it means the show is going to keep a certain sense of extraness for reasons I can’t fathom. For, in my mind, isn’t there enough going on that we don’t need a “Will they get caught?” storyline floating in the background?

On The Fence

Simone

Simone’s regression makes sense considering her circumstances. Yet, at the same time, considering how Simone sometimes feels like a minor character, if not an afterthought, her fall from grace doesn’t hit as hard as it should. I say this because, in season 1, we don’t get to really see her go from rough around the edges to being smoothed out. Her coming with Carlotta to church is a big thing in the beginning, but afterwards, in retrospect, it is just about Otis molesting her and his murder. Thus skipping over a lot of the ways Carlotta was trying to influence Simone and undo the damage done.

Cotton

Considering the emotional journey Cotton went through in season 1, I just hope they don’t drop the ball with this character. For whether it is trans rights; how life was in prison, being put with the men I believe; life as an ex-con, or even finding love, since we see that Asian guy, Elliot, return.

Arlene

While you have to appreciate anyone who is digging into Star’s past and helping to further develop her character, I have to say I feel sort of iffy about Arlene being the one to do it. For while she does have a sort of “love to hate” kind of vibe to her, like a kind of new money Cersei Lannister vibe, I just don’t see much in the way of longevity. She seems like someone else who needs to be killed off or written off.

Though, you got to give her credit, she did get under Star’s skin. Something we haven’t seen a huge amount of people do. And while Star does have a backup plan for if Arlene tries something again, you gotta admire those who can put Star on the defense.