Starz wastes no time renewing BMF for a second season
The series stars Demetrius Flenory, Jr., playing his own father, who's currently serving 30 years in prison for running a massive drug empire
Starz has rarely met a drug-based crime drama it wasn’t willing to give a second season, series, or “book” to—especially when it’s even tangentially related to the world of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s super-successful Power franchise of shows. Now the cable network has extended that same treatment to recent debut BMF, ensuring that the true story of the Flenory brothers, and their Black Mafia Family, will extend for at least another year.
That’s good news for us, since BMF has turned out to be a quickly established delight on the Starz schedule, a deliberately uneasy blend of family drama and street-based action—only made more electric by a starring performance from Demetrius Flenory Jr. as, well, Demetrius Flenory Sr., with the son playing a younger version of a father who’s currently serving a 30-year prison sentence for running one of the largest drug empires in American history.
The passion oozes from this passion project, with Jackson fighting to get BMF across the finish line after years of failed attempts to adapt the Flenory saga. Jackson and pilot director Tasha Smith reportedly went to the mat to cast the untested Flenory Jr., and [screenwriter Randy] Huggins, a Detroit native, injects the scripts with local character that sets BMF apart from its coastal-based contemporaries. The show also benefits from a connection to the hip-hop world owing to a record label through which the brothers laundered their money. (Snoop Dogg makes a guest appearance in the first half of the season, while Eminem is set to appear in the back half.) The story of the Flenory brothers presents a unique value proposition, assuming it doesn’t get lost among Starz’s snowstorm.
BMF stars Flenory, Russell Hornsby, Steve Harris, Da’Vinchi, Eric Kofi-Abrefa, and more. The series aired its first episode on Starz on Sunday night.