TV Show review
Review basis: 5 seasons, 42 episodes · through June 19, 2026
July 18, 2021 · 60 min · TV-MA · Returning Series
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Power Book III: Raising Kanan is a crime drama series. It tells the story of how Kanan Stark grew up in Queens, New York during the 1990s. The show focuses on family struggles and the dangerous drug trade. Viewers will notice prominent girl power themes with a female drug lord ruling over her male relatives. The show also features a major storyline about a young lesbian character dealing with her sexuality, romantic relationships, and homophobia.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Power Book III: Raising Kanan.
Woke representation / casting
The show features a prominent lesbian main character, Jukebox, who has multiple on-screen romantic relationships with other girls. The show also stars Raquel "Raq" Thomas as a highly competent female drug lord who runs the family business and exerts total control over her male brothers and rivals. While the show's mostly Black cast is historically accurate to its 1990s Queens setting, the casting choices and role dynamics place a heavy emphasis on identity representation, particularly regarding queer identity and female empowerment in a male-dominated crime world.
Woke political dialogue
The dialogue is mostly focused on period-accurate street politics, crime, and family loyalty. However, the show occasionally includes light dialogue criticizing corrupt police officers, systemic racial profiling, and homophobic religious teachings.
Identity-driven story themes
A major storyline throughout the seasons focuses on Jukebox navigating her identity as a young lesbian. Her journey includes exploring her sexuality, experiencing violent rejection from her father, and surviving a traumatic forced gay conversion therapy program. Raquel's storyline also heavily emphasizes themes of female empowerment and rising above male dominance in the hyper-masculine criminal underworld.
Production
Western institutional / cultural critique
The series presents a highly negative critique of traditional religious institutions. This is seen when a Christian church forces Jukebox into a traumatic and abusive conversion therapy intervention. The show also depicts the local police force as deeply corrupt and racially biased, while framing traditional masculine roles in the street game as toxic and destructive.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The show is a prequel series that stays consistent with the established canon of the original Power series, where Jukebox was already written as a lesbian character.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
There is no organized anti-woke campaign or boycott against the series. Most viewers enjoy it as a gritty crime drama. However, a small number of social media users have complained that the prominent focus on lesbian subplots and a female kingpin feels forced.
Creator track record context
The primary show creators, 50 Cent and Sascha Penn, have low scores and focus on commercial entertainment. However, several episodic writers and directors, like Stacey Muhammad and Natasha Tash Gray, have strong activist profiles and focus their work on identity, race, and progressive themes.
