Premise: Wikipedia defines Karen as “a pejorative term for a white woman perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal.” At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and rise of camera activism, the world began to see what a Karen in action looked like, in all her rage-filled privilege rooted in racism. So a movie about a Karen named Karen should be fun.
What I Didn’t Like: Some crime dramas are thrillers and thrillers are horrors just in a different scope. I expected this thriller to be reaffirming as much as it was cathartic. That’s not what I watched. We meet our woke Black couple who move into a predominately white neighborhood and almost immediately our villain, Karen, is aggressive, barely containing her contempt. Of course she has a racist cop brother who shares her views.
It’s as if some wrote a script complied of every racist micro and macro aggression a black body can/has endured and churned out this mess.
There’s no heart. Just contact aggression. It’s one note. And ending that should’ve felt like a relief was more like “about gotdamn time!”
What I Liked: Black Excellence. A couple striving to overcoming their personal and professional barriers. I wish a bit more time was spent on how racism stressed this couple and nearly allowed a Karen to usurp their lives. We have a beautiful couple played by Cory Hardrict and Jasmine Burke. If they weren’t just treated as victims we could’ve seen more, felt more for them.
Same goes for Taryn Manning, our villainous and deranged Karen. Taryn of Orange is the New Black fame, has always played a good crazy white lady. Yet because her Karen is at a ten at all times…there’s no layers to her villainy. Good movie monsters are remembered for their humanity. I’m not asking for empathy for the hurt Karens cause. I’m asking the writers to push to create a fuller picture.
Verdict: This isn’t what you want to watch this season, but if you want a good laugh and some great Afro-diaspora art ideas, give it a watch. Karen is streaming on the BET app or you can check your TV provider and watch it for free.