Season 7 of The Chi is now a wrap. The show is breaking records, and it is now the longest-running Black series on premium cable. While Season 8 is already in the works, the series has lost a lot of its luster for me.
It’s not that the show is no longer enjoyable. It’s giving more of a nighttime soap opera — with sped-up storylines, little character development, the addition and removal of too many characters who don’t move the story forward, and a lot of deaths. It’s a lot crammed into a short amount of time.
Last season, I shared my concerns and hoped there’d be improvement and a return to some of the magic we saw in earlier seasons. But Season 7 has felt even more chaotic and confusing, and I’m left wondering where it’s all headed.
But with all the history the show is making, I hope it can turn things around. In the meantime, there are recurring concerns that need to be addressed and corrected in Season 8.
All the kids are gone
When the Lena Waithe-created series premiered in 2018, it was an instant hit, mainly due to the coming-of-age stories we witnessed from the core group. As with life, everyone grows up — and ideally, moves on to greener pastures. The problem is that the kids left, and their stories seemed to end quickly, with little buildup.
Kevin got into gaming, moved into a place of his own, then left for LA to take over the gaming world. Myeisha followed Kevin to pursue photography and for their romance. Gemma moved to New York to pursue music management. That left Jake, Papa, Lynae and Bakari. Papa and Bakari remain a prominent presence in the show, but the others’ absence is felt, especially considering they were the focus for so many seasons.
Too many new characters who seem to be fillers
The series introduced new characters as the kids graduated and branched off, but many of these additions arrived with few, if any, organic ties to the group.
This season alone, we met Zuri (Karrueche Tran) through Emmett’s brother, Damien (Brett Gray), at an addict support group. Reg (Barton Fitzgerald) returns from the dead and re-enters the fold, causing chaos. Hannibal turns out to be married to Angie (Kyla Pratt). Candiace (Reagan Gomez-Preston) shows up dating Dante (Cory Hardrict) and quickly moves in with Reg. While Emmett is hospitalized, Keisha hires a new manager at Smokey’s, Shawnita (Punkie Johnson). Rashaad starts dating Nora (Tammy Townsend). Phylicia Rashad joins the cast as Renee, Pastor Zeke’s (Daniel J. Watts) mother-in-law. Wendy Raquel Robinson plays Riley Dalon, the leader of Darnell’s support group following Jada’s cancer recurrence.
There’s probably more, but that’s already a long list of characters packed into 10 50-minute episodes. That’s a lot for an audience to absorb.
Why is everyone dying or getting shot?
The season kicked off with a bang — literally. In Episode 1, Alicia is on a rampage to find who killed her son, Rob (Iman Shumpert). She shoots and kills Zay (Aaron Guy) based on a tip from the real killer, Knuck (Cortez Smith), who’s Zay’s cousin. Knuck also kills one of his runners in front of the group for wearing too much jewelry. Alicia accidentally shoots Jamal while trying to shoot Reg, believing he may have killed Rob. Rob gets grazed and goes into hiding. Damien, Emmett’s brother, owes Rob money and gets beaten. Emmett confronts Rob, who shoots him in “self-defense.”
Stories are moving too quickly, and everybody is dating everybody
We’ve followed the Emmett-Tiff-Keisha triangle since the start. Now, Emmett and Keisha are finally together and raising Tiff and Emmett’s son full-time. At the same time, both Keisha and Tiff are pregnant with two different men, Knuck and Victor (Luke James), in Tiff’s orbit. Knuck is also the father of Keisha’s son. Alicia was right: this is the ghetto Brady Bunch.
Emmett’s brother showed up this season and has already stirred trouble. He’s nearly gotten Emmett killed, works at Smokey’s, struggles with addiction, lives with Emmett and Keisha, and somehow knows everyone. Where did he even come from? Where is his maternal side of the family?
Jada’s cancer storyline escalated fast. In Episode 9, she gets a terminal diagnosis. She throws Darnell a party, then shares the news. By Episode 10, Emmett has recovered from being shot, learns his mom is dying, and proposes to Keisha, who declines. Three weeks pass, and Jada is already housebound.
Bakari, once a promising character, is stuck between the streets and school, dreaming of being a novelist. Alicia gives him a scholarship, but pulls it after finding out he knows who killed Rob. Either he’ll talk, or he won’t make it.
What’s going to happen next?
When there were two episodes left in the season, I predicted that Jada would die by Episode 12, that Tiff and Keisha would likely give birth, Knuck would be revealed as Rob’s killer, and that Hannibal, Reg or Knuck— or all three —might not make it out. Most of this happened.
Here’s what needs to happen: Cut the filler characters introduced in Season 7. There’s no space for them. Refocus on the core group’s storylines to bring back the heart of the series. And please — ease up on the body count. Let the characters and the story breathe.
