A life-changing experience that led me to alter the career path I said I had wanted since I was four years old. The best biopic ever, at least to me. I am talking about “The New Edition Story” which came out in 2017. Growing up in a typical black household with parents born in the late ’60s and early ’70s, music from their era was bound to be playing. Artists like Luther Vandross, Stevie Wonder, Barry White, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Bobby Brown, and many others filled the silent moments within my household. Many different bands from that era surrounded my childhood as well, like, The Temptations, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Mint Condition, The Whispers, L.T.D, The Isley Brothers, and New Edition played constantly. But back to the main narrative of this essay, “The New Edition Story”, a three-part biopic about the original 5 members (well technically 6 but we’ll get into that later) who founded the famous R&B group New Edition. 

     I can still remember the excitement that washed over me, as a bright-eyed 10-year-old girl who couldn’t wait to see the story behind one of my favorite R&B groups. Part of me just wanted to see the actors who portrayed the real-life singers, because in my defense, they are all very attractive. But anyway, once my family and I heard the biopic was coming out, the one thing that immediately came to mind was, is it gonna be good or will it be another terrible lifetime biopic (which almost every biopic Lifetime has made over the years has been)? But this one was coming from BET so I expected great things. And well, let’s just say it most definitely exceeded my expectations. The series came out in parts; one episode being released one night at a time. The first episode released captured the essence of young black boys from Orchard Park in Boston or O.P as they called it, navigating their way through the projects and just living life. 

Episode One: 

     The kids who portrayed young Ralph Tresvant (Jahi Winston), Ricky Bell (Caleb McLaughlin), Michael Bivins (Dante Hoagland), Ronnie Devoe (Myles Truitt), and of course Bobby Brown (Tyler Marcel Williams) were cast almost perfectly for their roles. Each one of them looked like the men they were portraying. The ambition, drive, and curiosity of a child are what led them to be signed by a record label. But first, hard work had to be put in before they even set foot on the stage which Mr. Brooke Payne (played by the legend Wood Harris) helped them out with. Brooke Payne was also Ronnie’s uncle. If you didn’t know, New Edition started off with only four members but Brooke was trying to model their group after previous iconic groups before them and of course, having a great choreographer as your uncle, Ronnie held it down in the dancing department. Each actor did their own singing, dancing, and everything else to portray the younger version of New Edition. This episode was full of good music and even better dancing, including some of the group’s earlier hits like “Candy Girl” and “Is This the End”. During the song “Is This the End” we got to see a montage of the tour. The young boys continuously played the song and then seamlessly transitioned into the older versions of the characters as the song progressed.

Leading into the teenage growth stage:

      Following this transition, which depicted the young boys growing up to be teenagers while on tour, we now see the boys finally come back home. They come back home to the projects. After all the beautiful places they got to experience while on tour, they come back to their reality. This return also led to an even harsher reality; opening the check from their tour. After having a number one hit single over MICHAEL JACKSON, touring all over the world, and still balancing school, they came home to a quite underwhelming check. A check of a dollar and eighty-seven cents, oh I’m sorry you can’t read that. They came home with a check of ONE DOLLAR AND EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS. After all the things they accomplished, that was the result. The one thing to take away from this is that people should always read their contract, and the group definitely learned that lesson. The record label was making a lot of money off of them while the boys and their moms got a check to split amongst 10 people, of $1.87.  Sad to say, because of this and the clouded minds of the moms, Brooke got fired even though HE WAS NOT and I repeat WAS NOT the business manager, only the manager/choreographer of the children.

Episode Two: A brief overview of the last two episodes 

     Egos got bigger and bigger as the boys grew to be men (ah you see what I did there, the group has a song called “Boys to Men” and there’s a group called Boyz II Men who named themselves after that song). The mothers of the boys in the group then hired a white man this time to manage the group. This new manager viewed Ralph Tresvant as the dictator of the group’s overall decisions which made everyone else in the group feel neglected. They later brought Brooke back just to choreograph which helped strengthen the boys’ bond a little better. Meanwhile, Bobby became more and more conceited especially after the song “Mr. Telephone Man” which he sang lead on (well at least that’s how it was depicted in the episode), and eventually, he left the group and went solo. This actually kind of worked out in his favor because he is now known as “The King Of R&B” following his most popular album My Prerogative. But his ego and fame also led him down a dark path filled with drugs, lots and lots of sex, and other stuff which will not be mentioned because that’s what The Bobby Brown Story is for. After some time, Michael Bivins found out that the group wasn’t actually signed to MCA records, they were instead signed to THEIR MANAGER. When I tell you how upset I was, never mind let’s not get into that but they ended up firing that manager. Which helped Mike to understand the business side of the industry and to help other young artists like them. During this time, Ralph was coming out with a solo album but it got put on hold. Mike went behind Ralph’s back and persuaded Johnny Gill to join the group in replacement of Ralph. Ralph was a little frustrated at first but he then came around and they made the still well-known hit song “Can you Stand The Rain”. 

Episode Three: 

     Oh, and let’s not forget to mention my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE musical piece I’ve ever seen, the performance of “You’re Not My Kind of Girl”. Fast forward 6 years after the hit album, N.E Heartbreak ( The album that debuted their new member Johnny Gill) and all of the members had officially disbanded with the exception of BellnBivnDeVoe. All six members then made the album Home Again. Once again, their egos grew out of control despite each and every member’s second solo or collective album flopping and causing bankruptcy. They went on tour as a collective group but the catch was, they’d only get paid after the thirteenth show. Unfortunately, they only made it to nine shows due to  Brooke’s heart attack which was, in my opinion, Bobby’s fault because of the stress his inflated ego and instability caused. A fight broke out on stage and shots were fired, causing the tension of the group to become apparent. But the third episode ended with each member rekindling their relationship with each other and performing together at the 25th anniversary of BET Network (which is a real performance if you want to look it up). 

     Now that I’ve summed up the episodes, let’s relate back to the opening sentence of this piece; an expression of my thoughts because I finally get to rant about what this biopic meant to me. I realize this is a bit chaotic but, I didn’t want to format this as a boring simple essay about the show like I’m writing an article for New York Times or something, so this is what I’ve got. This biopic changed the course of my life in many ways. After watching it I realized that acting was what I wanted to do. I’ve said I wanted to be a neurosurgeon since I was little but after watching this and becoming fascinated with cinematography, character development and expression, storytelling, and the art of writing, I understood that this industry was for me. If you were to see the intense focus and excitement I had written all over my face, it truly impacted me in more ways than one. 

     Thank you, for reading this rant of mine. You can watch The New Edition Story on Paramount Plus and BET Plus. Oh and before I forget, the older versions of the characters, older Ralph Tresvant (Algee Smith), Ricky Bell (Elijah Kelley), Michael Bivins (Bryshere Gray), Ronnie Devoe (Keith Powers), Bobby Brown (Woody McClain), and Johnny Gill (Luke James).