Soul Food - The Series (The Third Season)
Soul Food - The Third Season comes to DVD February 5th and fans of the Showtime Original series better rejoice. It took four years after the release of Season One for season two to hit stores. Thankfully, Season Three comes only six months after the release of Season Two. Looks like the folks at Paramount might finally notice the show still has a loyal following.
While the big wigs gave season three a timely release, again, the DVD includes zero special features, which is increasingly perplexing. The show goes down in television history as the first long-running and successful dramatic series on television to feature a predominantly black American cast. Seasons One, Two And Three have included no special features and fans of the show can only hope the fourth, or final season, will at least give a cast interview or audio commentary.
Being that the DVD lacks in the area of special features, which is really what a DVD is all about, the viewer is forced to rely on the plot. Thankfully, Soul Food - The Third Season has an amazing storyline that engages its audience in twenty, drama-filled episodes. The writers of this season managed to cover the usual range of family and relationships that fans expect, but they also have one episode with a transsexual character and add an interesting lesbian character, who remains for several episodes.
The lesbian character is played by Terri J. Vaughn, who becomes "close" with Bird, played by the talented Malinda Williams. While at any moment the lesbian character could’ve morphed into trite homophobia, the writers cleverly handled the same-sex plotline; with Malinda Williams delivering a powerful monologue on sexuality that I think should’ve earned her an Emmy nomination. Even though the show was critically acclaimed, none of the actors, or writers, ever received an Emmy or Golden Globe nomination.
Season Three also includes excellent cameos from Usher, Terrance Howard, the legendary Diahann Carroll and even Oscar Winner Faye Dunaway.
Soul Food delivers one of the most intelligent cable series of our time and season three is one of the most powerful and controversial seasons of the entire series.
