miareadthis - 809
"Jordan is the best girlfriend you never had." - Murch
There’s this question right? When do fans get to have authorship and ‘ownership’ over their experiences with decades spanning franchise characters? For me, and for a lot of folks of my generation I suspect, this thought stems from the seven original Harry Potter books turned films and beyond. The spinoffs. Plays. Theme parks. Fanfiction. Etc. Especially given the terf that JKR has become. I remember it clearly, that quote Daniel Radcliffe gave saying that Harry Potter can be separated from she-who-must-not-be-named and that her current actions shouldn’t dim the light or darken the memories surrounding ‘growing up’ with/alongside the Harry Potter franchise… to not let her steal our collective joy…
I bring all this up because I’ve just finished Malcolm D. Lee’s with Jayne Allen’s continuation of The Best Man franchise which left me disappointed and speechless. Sure, these aren’t my characters, and I fully acknowledge that they aren’t real, but I feel like I grew up with them. I looked up to this fictional ensemble ever since they first appeared on our screens in 1999 as Lee’s directorial debut. They were a cultural moment and personally, watching the original film over and over, it was like being able to hang with my ‘cool older cousins,’ seeing their aspirational triumphs and heartaches unfold up close. Even in 2013, with The Best Man Holiday, I still aspired to be these fine Black examples of bougie society I rarely saw represented on film1. Then in 2022, Peacock delivered the series iteration with The Best Man Final Chapters, which, Lee proclaimed was The End. But of course, the fans wanted more. More. Especially given the decades long will they won’t they friends to lovers trope portrayed through Nia Long’s Jordan and Taye Diggs’ Harper. I believed, like a lot of folks, that they’d finally get their HEA. But at the close of the series, Lee left it ambiguous… leaving us with the idea, the hope, and possibility of Jordan and Harper finally finding love and peace with one another.
So when Malcolm D. Lee announced that there would in fact be more, a next chapter of this franchise, now in book form, I was shocked, relieved, and so so excited! We’d finally find out what happened with our beloved cast of characters beyond that scene on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade when Jordan tells Harper, fresh off his divorce from Robyn, that she wouldn’t be his safe place to land. That she was protecting herself from being the obvious rebound. That she wanted him to figure his shit out and then and only then could they think about finally, after all these years, making a proper go of it. I thought wow, we can read about this amazing crew, now in their 50s, with Harper and Jordan’s love journey on full, fun, display. And for the first 280 pages, I was in! I was gleeful even, taking selfies with my paperback copy fresh from my local bookstore. I felt I had won the novelization lottery.
This is where I’ll say *** SPOILERS AHEAD ***
Still with me? Ok.
But first — because I need to be more mindful with this practice — I’m going to talk about what I loved about this book:
I loved that we were given the gift of diving into the inner workings of our beloved characters’ minds. Like, had no idea Harper was a product of the esteemed Iowa Writers’ Workshop. So cool! That Murch’s name is just a shortened version of his last name: Murchison. Which of course, now seems obvious. And having Jordan recount a memory from her childhood, a dynamic she witnessed between her own mother and father, explains so much about her character’s, well, character and drive. Thank you Malcolm! Oh, and the signature poker game between ‘the boys’ — Harper, Quentin, Lance, and Murch — was a nice touch and through line from the original film.
Too — slow claps for Lee and Allen for shining a light on the exhaustion and heartache that high achieving Black women face in this society. When we’re in Jordan’s POV, I was both relieved and disheartened to know that I (and so many of us) share in her struggles with balancing expectations of success and living up to standards that no other demographic seems to be expected to adhere to.
All the music cues were fun too! Definitely added them all to my Spotify playlist.
I also loved being in Robyn’s POV. I never quite understood her and it was an absolute privilege to finally see her world through her lens and understand why and how she moves about this franchise. Things that couldn’t easily translate to the screen despite Sanaa Lathan’s excellent portrayal all these years. I understand Robyn now… but I’m still #TeamJordan while also #JusticeForRobyn.2
Which — brings me back to why this book let me down. I hate that I even wrote #TeamJordan (not a fan of the whole women fighting over a guy trope) but ever since the first movie, it was very clear and quite obvious that Jordan and Harper were endgame. Harper proposing to Robyn at the end of the first movie felt like a copout. It proved that a. Jordan didn’t fight for what she wanted (Harper) and b. it felt like Harper only proposed to Robyn as a form of an apology given his actions over the wedding weekend3. In the second film, it’s evident from jump that Harper and Robyn are not happily married even with their growing family, and given that Jordan and Harper clearly still have feelings for one another and Robyn rightfully having trust issues, it was no surprise to me that in the Peacock series that Robyn and Harper finally have it out and end their marriage.
So when finally, in this book, Harper and Jordan are seemingly both single and on the same page, it was just such a let down, the anticlimactic-ness (is this a word?) of them finally hooking up. And I’m writing ‘hooking up,’ because that’s what it felt like. A physical act. Nothing more. Something Jordan finally got ‘to do,’ too reminiscent of the first film’s portrayal of her goals4, and Harper was happy because he finally got what he wanted all along. But while they are in their weird love bubble for two short weeks in Malibu (Jordan’s mansion seemingly untouched by the recent wildfires, half mentioned by the way which I assume was an editor’s note), Harper gets a call from his daughter Mia in possible distress (Mia’s fine by the way but we won’t learn that for a few more chapters).
It’s important here to remember that Mia, Harper’s one and only child that he has a good relationship with and loves, lives all the way in Ghana with his ex, Robyn. And that he’s promised Mia, that if she ever needs him, he’d fly to her, be there for her, in a heartbeat. Harper is many things, but when it comes to his kid, he doesn’t play. As it should be. Anyways… so Harper gets this call. Mia’s in distress. He starts to pack. Understandably panicking about why his 11-year-old daughter is calling him and is in a fugue state trying to figure out the quickest way to get to her. Could he have called Robyn to find out more on the situation? Of course. But we’re here for entertainment and drama I suppose. Any sort of reason be damned. But as Harper is frantically trying to leave, we have….
The Assassination Of Jordan’s Character
(this Mia picks up a mic, stands on soap box) Authors Malcom and Jayne go on to tell us that Jordan is freaking the fuck out over Harper leaving. Not understanding why he’s leaving her and ‘treating her’ like ‘all his other women’… Say what now?
This is when I had to put the book down. There is no world where I believe that Jordan Motherfucking Armstrong wouldn’t be helping homeboy get to his daughter faster. She’s godmother to everyone’s kids, has struggled with her own fertility journey, and given their decades long friendship backed by mutual love and respect for one another, Jordan would also know that Harper leaving to attend to his daughter would have nothing to do with his past with Robyn. But no, Malcolm and Jayne go further, digging knife into open wound, and write Jordan into having an uncharacteristic mental and emotional breakdown over Harper leaving. She blocks him from all contact, leading to days of her eating takeout in her Malibu mansion estate fortress abode with his apology bouquets wilting at her front door. To add further insult to injury, I wasn’t surprised but was still shocked that Harper threw Jordan’s infertility in her face. While they’re fighting as he’s trying to run out the door, he says dismissively, “You’re not a parent, you don’t understand.” Low. Blow. To quote Robyn, “Fuck you, Harper.”
(deep breath)
Plot happens. Harper makes a semi-mess in Ghana. Jordan gets back onto her corporate ladder and while Harper is realizing that a. his daughter called him under false pretenses (she’s 11 after all) and b. Robyn is moving on without him, through a series of plot points in which Robyn refuses her boyfriend’s (Kwesi) and her ex-husband’s (Harper) help in ‘saving’ her struggling restaurant (sure gurl, I get it, pride, ego, whatever), Harper then I guess ‘forgets’ about Jordan, his self proclaimed one true love, and sleeps with Robyn. Why y’all? Why? They respectfully cannot stand each other. And not in the enemies to lovers kind of way either. Make it. Make sense. Obviously Robyn regrets their tryst, Harper re-learns the lesson that she and Mia are better off in Ghana without him (we saw this already in Final Chapters), and just as Jordan has accepted a Chicago based corporate opportunity of a lifetime via Brian McDonald, her ex from Holiday (lowkey didn’t mind that dude and cackled when he reappeared on the page), Harper rushes back to Jordan and proposes to her off of Lance, Murch, and Q’s words of wisdom over poker that women need assurances not maybes. Oh yeh, and then the book ends. It just ends. With a weird add on that Robyn might be pregnant. At this point, respectfully, I hope Malcolm and Jayne are joking.
(deep breath)
All that to say, when I finally finished this much anticipated book I wanted to crawl up into a ball. Gone were the characters I grew up idolizing. Why oh why would they have Jordan act a fool over Harper rushing to his daughter’s aid? Maybe Malcolm, and bless him for indulging us, was right. We didn’t need more. I often wondered why he didn’t just let Harper and Jordan get together in the Peacock series. After all, it is titled Final Chapters. But after some quick googling (-ai), I found this excerpt from a 2023 interview he gave Alamin Yohannes of Entertainment Weekly:
Part of me wishes I had read this interview before reading the book. But I craved the wish fulfillment of these two gorgeous Black badasses at the top of their careers finally saying fuck it and actively choosing to be together in a mature, responsible way. If Shelby and Quentin can do it, then why can’t Jordan and Harper? But at this point, I no longer wish for their HEA. They’re both fools. Jordan deserves to be free of Harper and Harper can only ever choose himself. To quote Murch from Final Chapters, “Every time you have the opportunity to choose yourself over doing the right thing, you always choose yourself.”
—
The last thing I’ll say about this book is that I wasn’t expecting it to only be in three of our character’s POVs — Harper, Jordan, and Robyn. I missed catching up with Shelby, Quentin, Candace, Lance, and Murch and loved the brief moments we got to spend with them. It seems there are two more books forthcoming in this series but I may listen to audio versions of the next iterations to save time. Also, aren’t y’all tired? Why are we still playing these high school shenanigans? Sit down. Be happy. Chill.
—
Going back to the original quandary of our ‘ownership’ of the characters we know and love, my Jordan wouldn’t act like this. Even Shelby wouldn’t have acted this way. And yes I realize I’m being protective over fictional beings. I’m hoping in these next few weeks as more folks finish The Best Man Unfinished Business and can discuss alongside the press tour panels being uploaded to YouTube to watch back, there will be more clarity around the swings Malcolm D. Lee with Jayne Allen took. After all, I remember being quite mad when reading Deathly Hallows for the first time. I thought it was all leading to Harry being the ultimate sacrifice. That he and Voldie would both die per, “Neither can live while the other survives,” in the end. But hey, maybe that’s what fanfiction is for. To take these worlds, these characters, and play house with our own variations on the page. In my version Harper would forever remain uncommitted to his string of monogamous flings and Jordan would finally be open to find true love, away from Harper and his soul sucking orbit.
—
I hope you know I’m being critical over a franchise I love. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t waste my time here. I love the characters and world Malcolm D. Lee created with The Best Man franchise. He gave us the Black St. Elmo’s Fire for the Gen X generation and I cannot wait to see what’s next from his brilliant brilliant mind. In the book, Harper once again is pitching a story idea, this time, to Hollywood studio execs. I hope Malcolm is actually writing this script because a. I’d watch the shit out of it and b. I have my own receipts of a version of the same concept I’ve been tinkering on for forever.
Leave a comment! Let’s discuss! And for shits and giggles, I’ve dropped the OG trailer below for nostalgia’s sake.
As always, thank you for reading, and stay sane (and safe!) out there ✊🏾
miareadthis
Thankful for Stella Meghie’s The Photograph and Mara Brock Akil’s adaptation of Forever adding to this rep.
I feel like this series from Robyn’s POV would be a horror franchise.
If you’re reading this entry and have no idea what I’m talking about, please please go watch Malcolm D. Lee’s now classic, The Best Man.
In the first film both Jordan and Harper wonder what if and hope to pick up where they left off in college even if it’s just for one night…