My overall thoughts on Perry’s work is that we are trying hard not to be seen as caricatures and monoliths, but his films pound this into our skulls, which is why I did not see Divorce in the Black. I will give credit to Perry for sticking to his guns about what he wants to produce and he delivers well to his core audience. Outside of that though, I like a garden variety of stories. At this point I think we all know and can agree that Black folks have some deep seated family issues to iron out and I am glad his fans feel “ seen”.

At the same time, I’d like to see healing and solutions. Maybe it’s a long time coming and maybe we can still have a trauma drama here and there, but we need different and as a consumer, I don’t have to beg Tyler Perry to create differently— I can just choose my own shows to watch.