Oprah Brings Megachurch Drama With ‘Greenleaf’ On OWN As ‘Queen Sugar’ Previews [Spoilers]
Oprah Winfrey has a drama on her OWN channel that is quietly and quickly gaining buzz on social media platforms like Twitter, called Greenleaf. Centering around the rich Greenleaf Family, leaders of a Memphis megachurch that has made the Greenleaf brood a moneyed group of people, Greenleaf exposes the underbelly of a world that mixes Scripture with unscrupulous living.
As reported by IMDB, the full cast and crew of Greenleaf reveals plenty of names and faces of actors and actresses that audiences may not have seen in years — as well as new countenances that offer a well-rounded feast of a predominantly African-American drama.
With the Memphis megachurch bringing to light a balanced script that highlights Bible verses amid an environment that finds church folks fighting over offices, song selections, and much deeper issues, Greenleaf feels like the first time a TV drama as sophisticated as the series based around a black church has appeared on TV.
Even the very surname of the Greenleaf family at the center of the Greenleaf drama harkens a Bible verse — chiefly, Proverbs 11:28, as reported by Bible Hub.
“Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”
Lynn Whitfield, who once played Martin Lawrence’s insane ex-girlfriend in the 1996 movie A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, is back in a big way 20 years later as the First Lady of the megachurch in Greenleaf. Terms like “First Lady” — which is what plenty of black churches call the head pastor’s wife — along with terms like “PK” for “preacher’s kid” are thrown around Greenleaf in a way that’s familiar to many Greenleaf viewers who’ve frequented churches over the years.
Greenleaf is very topical in the way it includes hot-button topics of modern day times, including the #BlackLivesMatter movement as well as the spotlight that is placed upon megachurches and the sometimes dubious spending that can occur when millions upon millions of dollars are being raked in by church leaders.
A recent Greenleaf episode found the megachurch leaders at the center of the drama trying to explain the “love offerings” received by the head pastor — all the while auditors demanded not only the church’s financial documents but also the personal tax returns of Bishop Greenleaf as well, much to his chagrin.
Lady Mae Greenleaf is, unfortunately, reminiscent of certain real-life pastors’ wives — with Mae insisting upon her husband procuring a new private plane when their existing private plane leaks fuel to the point at which they miss an important lunch. Lady Greenleaf clucks at the thought of traveling on a commercial airliner with regular folk — and only agreed to join her husband on the excursion so that she would be able to garner new things on a shopping trip to the new city.
With storylines that reveal a “down low” married man hiding his Grindr-like scrolling on gay apps from his pregnant wife to child sexual abuse to adultery and more, Greenleaf is growing a fan base and winning comments like those below from viewers on social media.
“Greenleaf is the perfect example of how it is in the life of church folks.”
“Greenleaf is sooo dang good.”
Meanwhile, during the latest episode of Greenleaf, Oprah released a preview of another new drama, Queen Sugar, as seen below.
Ava DuVernay and Oprah created the Queen Sugar drama, based off of Natalie Baszile’s novel of the same name.
