Forever: Season 1 – Review and Summary
Forever feels like watching those classic 90s or 00s movies, but as a show and without them time jumping from the teen years to the leads being adults.
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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Forever: Season 1 Details
- Number of Episodes: 8
- Network: Netflix
- Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Young Adult
- Actors: Lovie Simone, Michael Cooper Jr., Xosha Roquemore, Wood Harris, Karen Pittman, Niles Fitch, Ali Gallo, Xavier Mills, William Catlett, Sherri Saum, Zora Casebere, Rodney Hicks
- Renewal Status: Renewed
Plot Summary
It’s 2017 going on 2018, and Keisha and Justin, on the brink of graduating high school, reunite for the first time since elementary school. Keisha had a crush on Justin; he may not have noticed, but with Justin being awkward around girls and this one showing a real interest in him, he does his best to show himself worthy. However, with being each other’s first, in many ways, challenges arise from Keisha’s ex, a sex tape, to Justin not knowing himself enough, and a certain level of insecurities, which get in the way.
Add in, outside of their relationship, the pressure there is to succeed and Forever becomes not only a love story, not only a coming of age tale, but ultimately it gives you what a lot of 90s/00s movies had where it setup who the characters were as teens, but without the time jump to adulthood.
Review
Highlight(s)
The Music [85/100]
If there was ever a show that would make you go onto Spotify and search for the playlist (playlist linked), it is Forever. I don’t know what the budget was for this, but clearly Mara Brock Akil got it, for it is banger after banger. Note, it is not just the known music of the time like “Bad and Boujee” but between Keisha and Justin’s music taste and songs to set the scene, we get BADBADNOTGOOD, Nipsey Hussle, and for love songs we get “Focus” by H.E.R., Snoh Aalegra and a lot of artists who I can’t remember the names of, nor their songs. Yet, I did find myself vibing to them in such a way that had me grooving while watching this.
Drama Without Trauma [87/100]
Despite Keisha clearly living in the hood, Forever lacks gun violence, gangs, or anything like that. Even in the case of Justin, with his mother Dawn warning about police and sometimes seeming like she is foreshadowing the worst happening, nothing happens like that. All the drama that Forever offers feels like it is true to these characters and to them being teenagers.
One of the main issues for Justin is that he comes from parents who have done well, and his mother, Dawn, only knows her blueprint of success, so she pushes that on him heavily. On top of that, Keisha is his first girlfriend, and it seems most girls didn’t really look twice at him, despite him being a decent basketball player for his school. So, trying to navigate his feelings, Keisha’s life and past, and the idea that he could potentially struggle to find another girl, especially a Black one, who is into him at this point in his life? That creates a lot of issues.
Then, for Keisha, she comes from a single-parent home, with her relationship with her dad still healing. She has this sex tape with Christian hanging over her head, she has focused mainly on what’s safe, over what she is passionate about, since it appears she doesn’t feel she has the liberty to dream, and then comes, with her having a close family, being considered the smart one of them all, there is living up to their expectations. Never mind honoring her mother’s sacrifices.
And we haven’t even gone into her friendships and Justin at this point. Chloe is her best friend, but Chloe is also someone of a completely different socio-economic background, so while it is great that Chloe offers opportunities, there are times when she is aware but doesn’t understand what Keisha is experiencing. Which doesn’t lead to arguments or anything like that, but you can see the potential for isolation. Then, between Justin, Christian, navigating those feelings, and many people in Keisha’s family betting on Keisha getting with the basketball player who could be the next Kobe Bryant, despite what he did to her, there is a lot of drama to sift through.
Yes, the drama isn’t what has become, sadly, accustomed for anything with a Black majority cast, but that’s what makes Forever all the more special. Never mind acts as a reminder why Mara Brock Akil is such a legendary name, despite almost exclusively producing television starring, about, and I’d submit for Black people.
An Effort To Present Balance In Every Way Possible [87.5/100]
Something Forever does that may surprise you is that it keeps things balanced between Keisha and Justin. As noted in the next topic, it does so by presenting their families in full, including extended family. It makes sure to establish what’s next for them by the end of the season, but what perhaps matters the most is that Keisha never gets regulated to just being Justin’s girlfriend. What Forever does is give a notably rare coming-of-age story for a Black girl.
On top of that, by having Justin be the one who comes from wealth and Keisha coming from a working-class household, we also don’t get the narrative of her having to lift someone up or push them. Which isn’t to say, as a girlfriend, Keisha doesn’t support Justin, push him for greatness, and hold him accountable. But that isn’t all she is. Keisha is pursuing an HBCU not only for a guaranteed acceptance and a likely scholarship, but to be amongst her people. How she healed, or is healing, her relationship with her dad through pictures, since words can lead to messy feelings, is noteworthy.
I mean, I watch a lot of television and movies, and outside of Delilah on The Equalizer, which was not a show about her, there is a notable deft of seeing Black girls who star in their show, aren’t a supporting character, have arcs, flaws, wonderful traits, and are, simply put, allowed to be human. And I know I’m mainly focusing on Keisha here, because she deserves the highlight more than Justin, but he deserves some praise too, in how Forever balances things out.
Justin comes from Black excellence, but isn’t someone with a solid plan for how he will reproduce that. He isn’t necessarily aimless, but seems to recognize, partly thanks to Uncle Charlie, that some of his dreams aren’t realistic and he needs to hone in on what he is truly passionate about to the point of being willing to fail in order to succeed. And, again, it is by showing both Keisha’s inability to fail and Justin’s privilege to do so, to a point, that allows for what shows like The Chi fail to do in giving us three-dimensional people, and a sense of what it means to be Black, without a huge cast.
Establishing Extended And Chosen Family [88/100]
But, with that said, let me state that even when it comes to the parents and some extended family members, they get a sense of balance and notoriety as well. For example, episode 5 has us meet Justin’s extended family, mainly through his mom, like Shannon, Jeanine, and Uncle Charlie. With Forever renewed for a second season, I fully expect them to come back, and considering the way Shannon, Justin’s play cousin, was talking, if she doesn’t return for season 2, I’d be so upset. Because the way Akil operated with Forever wasn’t about, “Let me bring some familiar faces and names for a little pop from the audience.” No.
When it comes to who is brought on, no one feels wasted. They are given a character you want more of, not one who just fills out the scene like a glorified extra, and the same goes for Keisha. Quincy, her dad, is a familiar face from one of Akil’s past projects, but he doesn’t just show up so you can say it is the guy from Black Lightning or Love Is, he makes it clear why, for her, that is the Denzel to her Spike Lee. He shows up, it is established he has a complicated relationship with Keisha’s grandfather, who has been nothing but lovable up to this point, but it is made clear, as a father, he made mistakes with Quincy.
And truly, outside of sometimes feeling like Keisha’s cousins could have used a bit more screen time to establish themselves, the supporting roles were all excellently crafted. Oh! And let me add, when it comes to Keisha’s mom, I love how Shelly is crafted, especially as she comes off as a different side of the same coin when it comes to Dawn. Those two, as Black mothers, between the scene they share in conversation in episode 6 to how they are portrayed and written, while diversity has ebbed and waned, what Forever does, which I’m so thankful for, is give us diversity within Black American culture without ever putting down, or putting on a pedestal, any which way any character has lived their life.
On The Fence
The Make Up And Break Ups Can Quickly Become Tiresome [77/100]
Here is my thing, I can only watch people go back and forth in a relationship so many times before I feel like they either need to be single or find someone else. So watching Justin and Keisha makeup to break up, sometimes damn near in the same episode, it is a lot and it will make you think they are so badly trying to force this relationship that it doesn’t make sense.
Yet, I will say, it really forces you to recognize how complicated first loves can be. I mean, who doesn’t romanticize the idea, especially as a kid, that you’ll find the one early on and grow up together? That your high school sweetheart, the first person you had sex with, said I love you, who wasn’t family or a friend, is the person you’d potentially spend your life with?
I mean, maybe I’m solely speaking for myself, but as much as there is this push to see Keisha and Justin as toxic, you have to also remember they are teenagers navigating strong feelings with no one seemingly to talk to. Keisha has one friend, Chloe, who is a White girl, privileged, and pretty much hides what might be going on between her and Darius the entire season. Then, when it comes to her mom and family, for most of the show, they are all in when it comes to Keisha being with Christian, since they don’t know what happened.
Flip it to Justin. His best friend Darius initially thought of Keisha as a thot, so getting advice from him is not something worth trying. Then, as much as I love and adore Justin’s parents, what works for them as a couple clearly didn’t seem like it will last. Justin even asks if his parents, Dawn and Eric, are getting divorced when he has a serious conversation with one of them in an episode.
So taking all that in, it isn’t hard to understand why the breakups are frequents and there are grand gestures between the two. They are relying on fantasy and how things are done in movies and TV shows, and when they have to adjust the expectations given to them by scripted content, they need some time to recalibrate and figure out if it is them, the other person, their standards, or expectations.
Overall
Our Rating (85/100): Positive (Watch This) – Recommended
Forever sets itself apart by offering a coming-of-age story centered on Black teens that embraces emotional depth without relying on trauma. Through standout music choices, layered characters, and a strong sense of family—both biological and chosen—it highlights everyday challenges with authenticity and care.
Then, considering the balance between Keisha and Justin’s perspectives provides a rare dual focus, especially with Keisha receiving the kind of nuanced development rarely afforded to Black girls on screen, while their frequent breakups may feel repetitive, they ultimately reflect the messy, romanticized realities of first love.
Leading to, altogether, backed by Mara Brock Akil’s thoughtful storytelling, Forever thrives in portraying growth, identity, and connection in a way that feels both fresh and necessary. Just as much as it further cements Akil’s role in entertainment as just the same.
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