Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Queens’ On ABC, Where A Female Hip Hop Group Makes A Comeback 20 Years After Breaking Up

There seems to be a trend revolving around old girl groups reuniting. Peacock’s scripted series Girls5evastarted the trend and it bled into reality TV with BET Presents: The Encore. Now, network TV has gotten into the act with Queens, about four women from the titular New York borough who were famous for a minute 20 years ago and are being reunited after leading very divergent lives since then.

QUEENS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The opening shots of the epic video for “Nasty Girl”, the 1999 hit for the hip hop group Nasty Bitches.

The Gist: As we see the members of Nasty Bitches performing in their video, we cut to what they’re doing today. Brianna (Eve), aka Professor Sex, is a mom to 5 kids and has put her music career on hold to take care of them. She’s recognized wearing sweats to the supermarket. Her husband (RonReaco Lee), a college professor, has been having debilitating migraines. When Brianna decides to surprise him with some sexy times in the middle of the day, she catches him sleeping with one of his students.

Jill (Naturi Naughton) aka Da Thrill, lives in Montana and is married to Darren (Emerson Brooks), a church deacon. They’re trying to have a baby, but what Jill really wants to do is get together with her friend Tina (Felisha Terrell). Naomi (Brandy Norwood) aka Xplicit Lyrics, plays lousy gigs in Nashville where she sings her ballads. She is mostly estranged from her 20-year-old daughter Jojo (Precious Way), who’s resentful that her mother chose chasing fame over taking care of her.

Finally, Valeria (Nadine Velasquez) aka Butter Pecan, is a local morning TV anchor in LA. She drugs her competition into saying racist things on air, then “volunteers” to take over the show.

When their song “Nasty Girl” returns to the radio, thanks to a young rap star named Lil Muffin (Pepi Sonuga), the Nasty Bitches’ old manager Eric Jones (Taylor Sele) wants to bring them together to perform with Lil Muffin at the BET Awards. A couple of issues: Valeria and Naomi still have a beef with each other over Eric, even though he ended up with neither of them eventually — and he unmercifully flirts with both and sleeps with Naomi today. Jill can’t do the explicit stuff because of her church associations, and she’s bursting at the seams to come out to somebody.

They eventually all agree, with Valeria being the final holdout; she comes back into the fold after she’s fired from her TV gig because she was caught drugging the host. But when Lil Muffin aka Lauren, ODs right before the awards, the women rally around her, with Jill especially encouraging her to skip the performance and go to rehab. Lauren is obligated to perform, but she hands her slot at the awards to the reunited Nasty Bitches, which leads to good things.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Queens more than reminds us of Girls5eva, though its balance is less on laughs and more on soapy drama. Though there’s plenty of chuckleworthy moments in the first episode.

Our Take: Zahir McGhee (Scandal, Stumptown) has hit on a good combination with Queens. The four leads have all proven themselves to varying degrees, and of course everyone but Velasquez have also had amazing music careers. They’re all dynamic personalities, and their chemistry is apparent as soon as all of them or a subset of them share the screen.

Is the story kind of ridiculous? Sure. But Queens isn’t high drama; it’s a semi-serious, semi-comedic story about these four women (and, to an extent, Lil Muffin, who’s supporting their comeback) and how this new tour and comeback will affect the crazy lives they all already have. Of course, old beefs will come up, which is why Eric is there; he’s the main reason why the group broke up after one big hit album, but it was also because fame got to all of them at a young age and they just couldn’t handle it.

There’s nothing revolutionary or daring about Queens, save for the fact that the group’s original name — Nasty Bitches — will be said multiple times on American network television. But, judging by the first episode, it’s well-executed froth that can go in any direction McGhee and his writers feel like going in.

One of the other things we like about the first episode is that normally “weighty” topics are treated in a funny, Marc-Cherry-esque way. Brianna curses her cheating husband out for getting cancer, telling her she’s looking forward to nursing him back to health so “I can leave your ass.” Jill’s coming out is treated as more a joyous event than anything, and it’ll likely be drawn out during the season because of how delicate things are with her husband and his church. Naomi chasing fame is brought out when two drunk white dudes recognize her from her previous career, and she angrily raps her part of “Nasty Girl” to them from the bar stage.

We’re hoping that the balance between serious and funny that the first episode achieved remains intact. Once it starts leaning one way or another, what we’ve enjoyed about the show so far will likely disappear.

Sex and Skin: Eric and Naomi have some network-approved lovin’.

Parting Shot: The reconstituted Nasty Bitches and Lil Muffin see their tour poster six months after their BET Awards appearance.

Sleeper Star: Precious Way only has a couple of lines as Jojo in the premiere, but they conveyed how truly hurt she is that Naomi chose chasing fame over raising her.

Most Pilot-y Line: None that we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Queens is one of the best new fall network series because it’s smarter than it needs to be and leans hard into its frothy premise.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

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