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Strung is a cautionary tale about following your gut. Directed by Malcolm D Lee – the mastermind behind Trip Girls, Barbershop and other great franchises – the Peacock’s suspense stars Chloe Bailey as Laila, a former violinist she watches from a seat in the city’s philharmonic. A substitute music teacher drama leaves that dream feeling far-fetched until Laila meets Lynn Whitfield’s Audra – who not only offers a steady and lucrative job as her granddaughter’s private music teacher, but also an inside track to the philharmonic.
Of course, Laila is too bright-eyed, too pale and too overwhelmed by the fortunes she’s suddenly gone through to realize that everything is too good to be true. Audra’s daughter, Imani (DC Titans’ Anna Diop), is cool and unmoved by the foursome, despite being in her third trimester. The prized student, Zuri (Romy Woods), is a modern problem child: hyper-allergic, obsessive and forever hiding behind the Dahomey military mask. The student’s antisocial behavior, as well as the reaction of a Black girl who appears to be an adult in Laila’s mind (her sister, we learn later), should set Zuri up to become a child killer. But Lee quickly puts aside the conflict, and instead follows the girl’s actions after her rapper father’s murder. It’s not until Imani’s husband, Marcus (Emily in Paris Lucien Laviscount), re-enters the picture – he and Laila hook up before being hired to tutor her stepdaughter by accident, more confusing this time – that Strung starts to get hairy.
Considering Strung’s screenwriter Alan McElroy’s insistence on returning to a normal subject, you wish the film had more courage in its conviction. Suspense entertainment is supposed to be hard and calm, a worrisome factory in full swing. But Strung is full of twists and turns, each one more boring than the last: extra personality development, romantic connections, a sly look at her sister — which somehow never comes through even when Audra explains the connection. Zuri’s physical and mental makeup is so complex that you might expect it to bring a deeper reflection on the childhood development of black children who have been disproportionately exposed to trauma. Instead, the film drags on – almost two hours in total – and the tension in the middle is shaken until the whole thing seems more like a composition than a small series that is quickly sewn into one, with Lee Ham-handedly opening the door to open it.
However, it cannot be said that Strung did not put it together cleverly. The department of art and visuals shows the fragility of this rich country, a cage that looks better than anything you really want – you are always looking, as is often the case with US productions that shoot in South Africa, nowhere. You can see the steam rising from Laila, Imani and Marcus, as curator cinematographer Greg Gardiner captures their different skin tones against a wash of gold, indigo and crimson. You can rest easy knowing that Strung’s music – a mix of classical, jazz and hip-hop standards – is tonally appropriate. And you can be sure that Lee, who excels at comedy, doesn’t take Strung too seriously.
Grammy-winning singer Coco Jones is superb as Jasmine, the skeptical bestie who doubts everything Laila does before writing. During a fact-finding trip with Zuri’s other grandmother (the suspect Donna Biscoe), Jasmine asks Laila if she believed the old bitty thread; Laila says no, but reluctantly. “Okay,” Jasmine giggled, “now tell your face.”
That’s Strung in a nutshell: the show doesn’t live up to its claims. It doesn’t have enough cliffhangers to attract skeptics, or enough riots to kill, or try to be more shocking than the scales in the bedroom – a development more disturbing than perverse. It’s almost too funny, but not too hard-to-make an idea. The slightly squeamish has little fear. The real horrors here are a few extra nerves, Zuri’s bodies and a melodramatic denouement that feels like something that could be cooked up in a Blumhouse-Tyler Perry collaboration – which, unfortunately, it is.
But then again, Strung wasn’t meant to win fame or box office receipts, or even be a Black Swan version of Black Swan. He was made to be watched and watched again while doing chores, or as a seductress in an indecisive marriage, quietly driving Peacock’s engagement all the time. The great thing about Strung is that it’s another industry project to ignore your gut to play it safe – and to that extent, alas, it sings.
