Keeping Up With the Joneses (2021 Lifetime)
Cast: Vivica A. Fox, Arie Thompson, Ciarra Carter, Jasmine Aivaliotis, Shellie Sterling, Eric Roberts, Allison McAtee, Meredith Thomas, Jarret Janako, Rib Hillis,
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
For generations, the wealthy Jones family has dominated life in and around the seaside town of Pacific Hills. After the death of patriarch Theodore Jones, his second wife, Robin, assumed control of the family business. Now someone is coming after the family, trying to beat them at their own game. Using threats, blackmail, and even murder, whomever it is will stop at nothing to destroy the family and everything they’ve built. But the Jones family has faced adversity before. And when their backs are against the wall, there’s nothing they won’t do to hold onto their power… because when you mess with them, you are messing with the wrong family. (2021)
Thoughts
The movie begins with a dead body surrounded by beautiful women in cocktail dresses sipping champagne. Ms. Vivica A. Fox tells the women that they will hide the body until the party is over.
The women are the Jones family are wealthy and feared in the community. Ms. Vivica A. Fox plays Robin, the step-matriarch who received the bulk of the family estate and business after her husband Theodore Jones died. Much to the disappointment of his daughters.
- Pam is the oldest and CFO of the company.
- Carrie, the philanthropist.
- Kayla is a party girl
- Tara is the baby of the family, who is in a prestigious college and sells prescription pills.
One month earlier. Pam calls a meeting because the family is receiving threatening (untraceable) letters. Whoever is writing them doesn’t want the Jones company developing in a hotel in a residential area. Pam tries to reason with her half-brother Carlos who is a detective. She asks him to help her look into the letters, and he sends Pam to a private investigator named Jess. (He is working with Jess on the side to set up the family.)
Kayla is shown vomiting multiple times, and it is a Lifetime Movie, so she is 100% pregnant. She postmates a pregnancy test, and it comes back positive.
Ms. Vivica A. Fox drinks Pino Noir with a business partner of her deceased husband named Webb. Webb tries to get her to sell the business. She declines.
Jess starts questioning people who work for The Jones and blackmails them into talking. Ange, an assistant, suggests that it could be someone in the family turning on one another.
Carrie throws an elaborate outdoor gala for a juvenile diabetes charity. Pam and Ms. Vivica A. Fox are forcing her to cook the books and hide money in the budget. Kayla is jealous when she sees her boyfriend, William talking to another woman. Meanwhile, Tara gets a bartender drunk.
After the event, another envelope shows up. This time it is threatening Ms. Vivica S. Fox specifically.
Kayla tells William about the baby, and he is excited to have a son, specifically. Kayla wants to keep the family bloodline strong.
Tara is suspended from boarding school for punching a teacher while he was breaking up a fight. Ms. Vivica A. Fox doesn’t take the news well and tells Tara that she is not welcome in her home. Tara calls her stepmother a sidepiece who just slept with her father for money, which causes Ms. Vivica A Fox to slap Tara across the face. Carrie takes Tara in for the week.
Pam is taking a shower and is attacked by a man wearing a mask. She pulls off the mask and starting making out with the man. The man is WILLIAM, Kayla’s baby daddy. He tells Pam about the baby… after they have sex. He wants to skip the prenup and asks Pam to make sure that happens, or he will tell Kayla.
Kayla beats them both to it and finds a receipt in his pocket. She accuses William of having an affair and promises him that she will not tolerate infidelity. William lies to her face and blames her emotions on her hormones. (What a jerk!) Then she meets with Pam to ask her to give William a role in the company. (If she only knew what was REALLY going on.)
At Kayla and William’s baby shower, Carrie thanks Carlos for hiring Jess. (Who has been “asking the right questions.”) Jess has also been doing some eavesdropping and learns about Pam and William’s affair. She doesn’t live to tell the family because she is the dead body at the party.
After the party is over, Carlos (Whose hair has gone Troll Doll) confronts Ms. Vivica A Fox. She tells him that she thinks Webb is behind the letters and was working with Carlos. As she is talking, he puts on black gloves.
The daughters come into the room and layout the evidence they found via security cameras or something. All you need to know is Carlos killed Jess because she was working with him but had a change of heart.
Ms. Vivica A. Fox pulls out a gun and takes Carlos down, and says, “That’s what happens when you mess with the wrong family!!!”
Side Note
Minority Report: The cast features predominantly Black and LatinX actors. Even the supporting cast is very diverse.
This movie laying out everyone’s name and relationship at the top was MUCH appreciated. Thanks, Kandi Burruss (Who is the narrator of this series.)
A lot of table setting her. I’m hoping now that we know the backstories the rest of the series will be more fun to watch.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪 (2 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2021 Lifetime® | A+E Networks®
Live tweet along with @LifetimeUncork using the hashtag #KeepingUpWithTheJoneses
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Surprised that you guys think it’s entertainment to kill white people so comically.