NFL
By: Mark T. Wilson
Season 1 of Forever on Netflix has the internet ablaze, especially among the African-American community. But things got better when news dropped that Netflix will be picking up the show for a Season 2. But what’s next for Justin and Keisha?
Forever is a novel written by Judy Blume telling the story of two teenagers in love. Mara Brock Akil took Blume’s story and added a twist to it. But where the book ended, the series is till going which gives brock a chance to tel her version of how she see Justin and keisha heading intotheir furiteer.
With Keisha off to college at Howard University in DC, and Justin chasing his dream to become a music producer in LA, the pair we fell in love with are on opposite sides of the country. Somehow, they will need to make their way back to one another, but how and at what point?
According to Lovie Simone, who plays Keisha, she didn’t want to see another time jump. Simone wants the story to pick up where it left off. With the show heading in the same timeline as the Pandemic, it would make sense for Forever to begin there. But for viewers, that may be a bit too much.
To be honest, we lived through those days and are not sure if we want to see another show go back down that tunnel. With the way everything was, we may be forced to see them trapped in a house together, which would make for great TV, but in the end, we could also see the issues that may come.
For me, I would love to see a time jump, not just due to the COVID issue, but the foundation that Forever was built on and the reason Justin and Keisha split in the first place. They needed to find themselves. To do that, they will need time apart. With a year or so passing since they turned away, that is not enough time for either of them to table their individual or collective issues.
What was so special about the first season was how deep their love ran. But the other side of that was seeing two young adults make a decision that not only touched them but their viewers as well. We wanted them to work it out, but we also understood why they needed to go their separate ways. Just like Justin and Keisha needed time to heal, so does the Forever audience.
What was Keisha doing in college? Did Justin make it in the music industry, or did he attend Northwestern? The story could continue after one semester of college but it will not show any real growth. They will fall back into the arms of one another and we’re right back into that cycle.
With a time jump, Brock Akil can fill in the gaps as we go along. She can tell a story of Keish finding a replacement love in DC. Maybe after 2-4 years, she is still involved with that person. Maybe if Justin stayed in LA, he would have found someone from the neighborhood who may have known Keisha, or something, and things would have gone great. But whatever happens, we need that space for them to see that other options are out there.
Make no mistakes about it, Justin and Keisha are definitely endgame. But true love is not easy. It takes work and putting them right back into that space they just left, naw, Forever has to be better than that.
