Sound Off Sunday

This was a week of premiers on TV.  From the Toni Braxton Biopic to ‘Kocktails with Khloe’, this was a week to check out some new things on television.

There was the Toni Braxton biopic, Unbreak My Heart.  I have never watched one of the biopics on Lifetime.  Normally the social media reaction turns me off, and I lose interest.  However I was a bit excited to see this one.  While I am happy that this was a candid , detailed look into Toni’s life, I felt that the actress that portrayed Toni was a C-.  Her in-studio scenes look as if she was just reading the words and she was not a convincing singer.  Lifetime failed again with their choice of leading actresses.  However, Debbi Morgan, who played Mama Braxton, and Gavin Houston who played Babyface, were excellent in their roles.  Also the gentleman who portrayed Daddy Braxton was a great cast.

I was surprisingly pleased with the overall movie.  I felt that it was timely and open.  There were many things about Toni that were revealed in this movie that I personally did not know, her abortion, the debate about revealing her health status and the reasons behind her second bankruptcy. I am happy that she waited until the gag order was lifted before she did a movie because to do so before she could tell the whole truth would have made for a bad movie in my opinion.

I was great to see the storyline stick to Toni without going off on a tangent about her talented family.  There was a level transparency in this movie that I enjoyed.  See the struggles with her Lupus as well as how she dealt with her son’s Autism diagnosis added a little more depth to the movie.  This is a movie I would definitely watch again.  Great job Lifetime.

Khloe Kardashian has always been my favorite. There is just something about Khloe’s swag that I like.  So I was a little excited when ‘Kocktails with Khloe’ commercials begin airing on TV.  While I like the premise of the show, there are a few things about the show that made it a bit too much.  I loved the fact that Khloe had unexpected guest such as Kym Whitley and Aisha Tyler, who brought along gifts of her own alcohol.  There was also Kendall Jenner, Brandi Granville and the most surprising guest of all Snoop.

Khole has always struck me to be the most domestic of the bunch so there was no surprise that there was food provided by Sharone Hakman, a Master Chef contestant, who also made some Khloe and her guest had what appeared to be some candid, unscripted conversations and moved from kitchen to living room where they talked, played games and discussed current events, such as the African America snub by the Academy Awards.

This show showed us another side of Snoop, a more serious, family oriented husband and father who as both Kym and Aisha about their experiences of being Black in Hollywood and he spoke about his little league coaching.  It was great to see this more mature side of Snoop.

Brandi Glanville has never been so quiet on television.  I have never seen her so reserved and non-confrontational.  She may have been more likeable on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, if she had been less confrontational and kept her mouth shut sometimes.  It was good to see her quiet, but she appeared to be slightly bored being there.

I think some of the games they played were a bit childish and immature.  They also prank called Kim Kardashian-West while the show was on which was also a bit childish.  These were moments of the show that they could have taken out. Overall, I enjoyed ‘Kocktails with Khloe’ and  definitely plan to watch again.  See the featured Kocktail from the show below:

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