Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is
BET’s #1 Rated Reality Series Released on DVD
Keyshia
Cole: The Way It Is’ (Season Two)
Click to order via Amazon
Unrated
Running time: 154 minutes
Studio: BET/Paramount Home
Entertainment
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, plus two featurettes, ’Frankie
Reveals’ and ’Meet Keyshia’s Glam Squad.’
DVD Review by Kam Williams
Excellent (4 stars)
Picture a cross between The Beverly Hillbillies and Jerry
Spitzer and you have a good idea of what to expect from
Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, the highest rated series on the
BET Network. The popular reality show offers viewers an
unblinking look inside the dysfunctional family life of
Keyshia Cole, the Grammy-nominated R&B diva who burst on the
scene in 2005 with her platinum-selling debut album, also
entitled The Way It Is.
There’s a reason why this TV program is #1 with viewers,
namely, it appeals to an even lower common denominator than
I Love New York and The Flavor of Love combined. The only
reason to watch this jaw-dropping train wreck is if you
enjoy laughing at trashy nouveau riche putting on airs while
making absolute fools of themselves.
Keyshia’s kin are so impulsive, ignorant and
self-destructive that giving them their 15 minutes of fame
in this fashion borders on a cruel form of exploitation.
First, there’s family matriarch, Frankie, a toothless,
reformed crack whore and recently-paroled ex-con with seven
children by lots of different men. (’We don't like none of
her Baby Daddies.’) She has no idea whether Ken, a stranger
claiming to be Keyshia’s father, is telling the truth, so
she asks him to take a DNA test.
Then there’s sister Neffe, an alcoholic with three young
daughters. She’s married, technically, but her hubby left
her for her first cousin a year ago. At the start of the
series’ second season, Keyshia essentially rescues her
relatives by relocating them away from their toxic
environment in Oakland to a sprawling mansion in suburban
Atlanta.
But bad habits die hard, despite unequivocal house rules,
such as ’no conjugal visits.’ So, it is no surprise when
Neffe somehow ends up pregnant again. Too bad kindhearted
Keyshia can't bring herself to listen to her financial
advisor who suggests that she worry about herself and forget
about everyone else.
Slumming for couch potatoes!