July 10, 2019 (2019-07-10) – October 27, 2022 (2022-10-27)
Family Reunion is an American sitcom created by Meg DeLoatch that was released via streaming on Netflix on July 10, 2019.[1] In September 2019, the series was renewed for a second season which premiered on April 5, 2021.[2] Part 4 was released on August 26, 2021.[3] In October 2021, the series was renewed for a third and final season, Part 5, which premiered on October 27, 2022.[4][5]
Tia Mowry as Nicole "Cocoa" Joie McKellan, a mother of five (as of Season 3) who believes in new-age parenting and sometimes is very sassy but still loves her kids.
Anthony Alabi as Moses "Moz" Deuteronomy McKellan, Cocoa's husband and a former Seahawkstight end. Although a strict person at times, he cares about his children.
Talia Jackson as Jade McKellan, Cocoa and Moz's eldest daughter who is boy-crazy and a little rebellious.
Isaiah Russell-Bailey as Shaka McKellan (seasons 1–2); Cocoa and Moz's older son. He is shown to be a very intelligent and academically inclined. In season 3 (also known as Part 5) he attends an elite boarding school and does not appear in the show.
Cameron J. Wright as Mazzi McKellan, Cocoa and Moz's younger son who has a passion for singing and composing music.
Jordyn Raya James as Amelia "Ami" Nicole McKellan, Cocoa and Moz's youngest daughter.
Loretta Devine as Amelia Louise "M'Dear" McKellan, née Williams, Moz's Deep Southern old-fashioned churchgoing mother.
Recurring
Richard Roundtree as Grandpa, M'Dear's husband for 43 years and Moz's father who is also a pastor. He is a survivor of prostate cancer.
Warren Burke as Daniel, Moz's childish brother
Lexi Underwood as Ava (season 1), Jade's friend from church
Naomi Grace as Genevieve, Jade's friend from school who speaks with a British accent.
Mark Curry as Principal Glass (seasons 1–2), the principal of Maya Angelou Magnet School
Lindsey Da Sylveira as Mikayla, Jade's nemesis who is a black activist and mocks Jade for not being “black enough”.
Telma Hopkins as Maybelle, M'Dear's sister who got married 4 times (5 times including her marriage to Tony in Season 3)
Lance Alexander as Elvis, a family friend of the McKellan family who also has a crush on Jade
Journey Carter as Renee, one of Jade's friends
Jasun Jabbar Wardlaw, Jr. as Tyson (season 3), Moz and Cocoa's nephew and Maureen's son whose behavior is troublesome due to his father's passing but shapes up with the support of his family in Columbus.
Legend and Legacy Jordan as Skye McKellan, Cocoa and Moz's lastborn son, Jade, Shaka, Mazzi and Ami's youngest sibling, Daniel and Grace's nephew and M'Dear and Grandpa's fifth grandchild
Guest stars
Erica Ash as Grace, Moz and Daniel's younger sister
The McKellans head to a family reunion at M'Dear and Grandpa's house, where Moz, Cocoa and the kids consider a simpler life away from city comforts.
2
2
"Remember Charlie Wilson?"
Eric Dean Seaton
Beverly DeLoatch & Charity L. Miller
July 10, 2019 (2019-07-10)
The family begins to unpack and settle in but not everyone is accepting the change as quickly. Jade has to share a room with Ami which she is not used to. Ami does crazy things in her sleep keeping Jade up all night. Refusing to live like this, she begins to move upstairs to the attic. Meanwhile, while the parents are together talking, Mazzi and Shaka discover an autograph signed by Charlie Wilson and M'Dear reveals that she was once involved with Wilson back in the day. She claims that she had helped him with a few things but never actually dated him. Grandpa gets furious and refuses to believe this and ignores M'Dear despite her attempts to explain. Seeing as how they started this by snooping around M’Dear’s stuff in the first place, Moz grounds Shaka and Mazzi until they figure out how to fix M’Dear and Grandpa’s fight. When all else fails, the boys turn to Jade for help, which she initially refuses, but agrees after M'Dear moves up to the attic with her and prevents Jade from sleeping, such as loudly praying to God for a long time and snoring in her sleep. They invite Wilson over to clear things up and confirms he didn't date M'Dear, causing M'Dear and Grandpa to reconcile. The Mckellans hang out with Wilson and sing his songs.
Moz gets the kids go-karts but Cocoa is totally against having them. She claims that they will get hurt and bans them from being ridden. Moz ends up riding them with the kids but Ami gets a hurt knee and Mazzi hurts his hand but the three of them agree to not tell Cocoa. However, at dinner that night, Ami beings to limp and Mazzi eats with one hand which leads to Cocoa discovering the truth about the accidents. Meanwhile, M'Dear takes Jade and Shaka to Vacation Bible School where she challenges everyone to recite as many bible verses as possible with a certain word. She beats and humiliates everybody including Jade, Shaka and Elvis. Determined to beat M'Dear, Jade takes Shaka's suggestion and uses a bible verse app to cheat and ends up beating her. However, M'Dear decides to do this at church and before they begin she takes out Jade's earpiece causing her to lose the competition. Jade ends up confessing to everyone and apologizes to M'Dear, while the family hang out on the porch when the service is over. Cocoa is revealed to be injured from driving in the go-kart.
Jade takes Ami to the park and while she's there she meets up with Drew. While Ami and Drew's sister play together, Jade and Drew hang out. Eventually, the four of them meet at the movie theater but Drew and Jade end up watching a different movie alone leaving Ami and his sister behind. When Cocoa accompanies M'Dear to bible study, she unintentionally upsets the other women at the study by revealing that she didn't have a home church in Seattle, attempting to teach them about figures from other religious traditions, and encouraging them to read a book of Bahá'u'lláh. When Cocoa returns, M'Dear helps them accept Cocoa's beliefs, and the ladies end up opening up and are willing to learn from M'Dear. Meanwhile, Shaka hangs out with Grayson and Elvis and makes a bet with them to see who can stay in a creepy basement the longest. They end them screaming/getting freaked out by a lady (who is a part of M'Dear's bible group) they found who they thought was dead but she wasn't. They ripped off her leg and she threatened to beat them with it. Shaka wins the bet but M'Dear reveals that Grayson is struggling and gives him some supplies including his sneakers which he would've won if Shaka had lost the bet.
When Aunt Grace returns for a visit, she is greeted with love from everyone and agrees to take Cocoa to the Women's Revival she claims to be going to under the request of Moz. However, they end up going to Prettyboy's which is a teen/adult hangout. Coincidentally, Jade is there waiting with her friends for Drew to arrive as he asked her to hang out but snuck out in order to do so. She tries to hide from them and successfully leaves the hangout, but is disappointed to hear that Drew arrived after she left. While there, Grace encounters someone that she helped get into a relationship. After that, she reveals to Cocoa that she dropped out of the seminary she had supposedly been going to and her parents do not know. She's actually a matchmaker for people trying to find someone to spiritually connect with and Cocoa promises not to tell. When they get back, M'Dear and Grandpa discover they were at the hangout and begin to yell at them but are interrupted by a sudden kitchen fire. However, the next morning, Grandpa finds out Grace dropped out and resumes their fight. Meanwhile, the kids are held responsible for the fire and are grounded by Moz until the true culprit confesses. They investigate the kitchen fire and through a series of crazy theories it's revealed that Shaka accidentally started it while playing a game and making a snack at the same time, but he reveals that he has dirt on everyone else so they promise not to tell. When Moz talks to them, the kids decide reveal what they are hiding. Grace leaves, but not before reconciling with her parents who accept her decisions and Shaka gets a spanking from M'Dear for starting the fire.
When the family is at a restaurant, they notice two people and immediately exit the place without telling M'Dear what was going on or why they left. After being forced to reveal their secrets, they tell M'Dear the story of their road trip to her house, which they claimed to be awful. It started with them renting an RV to drive to the house. After driving for a few hours and getting lost in Idaho, they were able to find a place to eat where Jade met a cute guy named Parker. He ended up trying to set her up with his dad who was already married to two different women at the same time, and the family runs away in fear. Some time later, they blow a tire and a man crashes his car into their RV and escapes on a bike. The family meet a couple named Clyde and Angie in the woods and hang out with them at a campfire until the couple turns out to be voodoo priests and once again the family run away. The next morning, the whole family gets into a fight with a raccoon they initially presumed dead and barely escape. They finally reach M'Dear's house and show up as a mess, as in the second episode. At the end of the story, however, M'Dear does not believe them and goes for a run, but comes running back to her house after she encounters Clyde and Angie in the woods, causing the family to run away again.
7
7
"Remember the First Day of School?"
Eric Dean Seaton
Taylor Vaughn Lasley
July 10, 2019 (2019-07-10)
It's the first day of school for all of the children and all of them end up in tough situations. After a mishap with registration, Mazzi poses as a fourth grader because he's not ready to go to fifth grade and the teacher gives out candy for students who answer questions correctly. Shaka gets a crush on a girl after finding her backpack. Jade as well as some of her friends get detention and suspended for three days after the principal who had served in the military declares their regular school outfits unacceptable. In detention, they discover that it is only the girls who face dress code violations while the boys are excused. This leads to Jade starting a protest in the hallway which involves Moz and Cocoa. Eventually, M'Dear joins as well and the protest leads to the principal revoking the suspensions he gave Jade and her friends and changing the dress code to allow their clothes in school. Moz finds Mazzi and after talking Mazzi is ready to start the fifth grade the proper way. Shaka also gives his crush's backpack to her and gets her phone number.
Mazzi is making treats for his Uncle Daniel and Moz and they all have a good time together. When Mazzi leaves, he overhears Moz joke about his status as a musician, unintentionally hurting Mazzi's feelings. Wanting to impress his father, he decides to try out for his school's football team and cuts. However, after playing for a while, he starts to act meaner towards the crowd during the games and begins to treat others disrespectfully including Cocoa. Moz confronts him which ends up with Mazzi revealing that he overheard him and Moz apologizes for his statements while Mazzi revisits playing an instrument. Meanwhile, Jade decides to enter the town's beauty pageant and hires a former beauty queen yet self-absorbed coach who focuses on a person's looks rather than their true self. She then reveals that she only wanted to coach Jade because of her skin tone, which would improve her status if Jade won. This ends up with Jade wearing a brown afro wig, big hoop earrings, and a spray tan that covers her natural skin color, which she doesn't like. Cocoa engages in an argument with Jade's pageant coach and tells her off while mentioning to Jade that she's beautiful by being herself and doesn't need the wig or spray tan. Jade, realizing her mother was right, fires the coach and competes without those items, effectively winning the pageant. Jade, Cocoa, and her family celebrate the victory on the porch with Mazzi's cookies.
Jade takes a locket from M'Dear's room and wears it to school. Her friends see a photo of two people in the picture and when they ask Jade who they are she doesn't know. M'Dear then tells the kids a story about their ancestors from many years ago. The people in the photo were former slaves who had managed to successfully escape and have a daughter together and even started the tradition of hanging a ribbon on a certain broom when the other married their lover. The locket was then passed down from several people with their own stories including M'Dear's Aunt who was part of a club as a singer and was nearly assaulted by a mobster until she was saved by the club's white owner, whom she loved. M'Dear reveals her own story of the locket, having lost it at a party but it was returned to her by a young Grandpa, leading to their budding relationship. At the end of the story, Jade and Ami fight over who will get the locket next, but M'Dear tells the girls that she already promised the locket to Aunt Grace. However, she agrees to let them in on another family tradition: the matrimonial jumping of the McKellan family broom. Meanwhile, Cocoa and Moz are revisiting the day of their wedding after M’Dear reprimands them for having been married by a black Elvis impersonator instead of in a church and spend the night dancing at a club which ends up with Cocoa punching Daniel's obsessive and crazy date in the face. When Cocoa and Moz get home, they tell the kids that the two of them didn't have a church wedding and after thinking Cocoa proposes to Moz that they remarry and he accepts.
M'Dear introduces Jade to a new boy named Kurt and asks her to show him around town since he just moved. At first, Jade is totally against this but after meeting him she starts to like him as a friend. They hang out on the porch and talk, tell jokes to one another and even go to Prettyboy's where they play chess. While they are there, Jade encounters Drew, who becomes suspicious of her and Kurt's friendship and bails on the bowling date he had asked her to earlier in the episode. Jade, deciding not to cry on this rejection, decides to ask Kurt out, but it is revealed that he has started dating Ava, leading to a rivalry between the two. Meanwhile, Mazzi and Shaka start mowing lawns with Elvis to earn money for a PlayStation but when they try to get inside the house after finishing a cop finds them and handcuffs them at the house. Cocoa and Moz return to the house and are forced to explain that the situation was based on their skin color. The next day, the boys refuse to go outside out of fear of encountering the cop again, but Grandpa surprises them with a PlayStation, lifting their spirits. A few days later, while coming home from a trivia game night, the same cop pulls Moz over despite him doing nothing wrong, angrily explaining how Moz's file of complaint against him almost cost him his job. Cocoa then decides that this town is no longer safe and that they will be moving back to Seattle.
The episode starts off with a party celebrating the firing of the cop that pulled Moz over. The next day at school, Shaka and his friend learns that the step team is holding tryouts, which fires up Cocoa's competitive streak as she pressures Shaka. Meanwhile, Jade learns that her Math teacher is dating Daniel, which she's forced to ace math to go on a school trip.
Only a few days before Cocoa and Moz’s wedding, Cocoa’s famous white mother Daphne, who has earned two Emmy’s, arrives in time for the ceremony, much to M’Dear’s delight as she is a fan of her work. However, Cocoa has to put up with Daphne’s criticisms of her weight and appearance, causing her to go to extreme measures to loosen her weight. Unfortunately, the diet she is on causes her to faint from not eating enough, which only makes Daphne’s comments worsen. When Cocoa is faced with her insecurities, Moz reminds her that Daphne is no expert on their relationship and that Cocoa is perfect the way she is. On the night before the wedding, Daphne crosses a line by making a deprecating comment about Jade, causing a furious Cocoa to confront Daphne for trying to convert her ridiculously high standards onto others, like she did with Cocoa growing up, and Cocoa officially revokes her wedding invite. M’Dear also abandons her admiration for Daphne following this incident. However, during the wedding, Daphne returns to apologize to Cocoa for her behavior, recounting how her own mother made the very same comments about her, and reconciles with her daughter. Meanwhile, Mazzi and Shaka are tasked with being the best men and ring-bearers, but accidentally drop the ring in dip, causing them to seek out pawn shop owner Squee to help them clean it. Due to Squee’s manipulations, the boys naïvely trade the rings for fakes. Daniel realizes this and takes matters into his own hands. When he fails to convince Squee to give the ring back, Daniel trades away his prized watch, which was given to him by his late grandfather, thus saving the boys’ from bearing any responsibility. Impressed with Daniel’s selfless sacrifice, Grandpa pays a visit to Squee and is able to “talk” him into giving Daniel’s watch back. The episode ends with Moz and Cocoa marrying for the second time and the whole family watches them partake in the McKellan family tradition of “jumping the broom.”
As Jade's fifteenth birthday nears, she grows depressive and unwilling to celebrate, since her parents have banned Royale from attending. To fix this attitude, her friends convince her to throw a masquerade party so they can sneak Royale in, but Royale refuses to attend while hiding his identity, as it goes his principles, much to Jade's disappointment. When M'Dear goes shopping, Moz and Cocoa discover their card has been frozen. They speak to their financial advisor, who reveals that the McKellans have been paying three mortgages (with Uncle Daniel's amongst them), and are near to broke, so they are forced to lie low with their spending spree. Moz and Cocoa keep this secret from the rest of the family, but struggle to adapt without paying for their daily luxuries.
Meanwhile, Shaka, who is still angry and feeling betrayed by Elvis for his actions in the last episode, tries to force Mazzi to stop hanging out with Elvis. When Mazzi refuses, Shaka forms a "friendship" with Mazzi's rival, Braylan, as payback, severing their relationship. At Jade's party, Moz and Cocoa fly in her friends from Seattle to surprise her, but what ultimately lifts Jade's spirits is Royale, who crashes the party in disguise. Royale reveals he is leaving Georgia, so the two confess their love for each other and share a kiss, but they are caught by Moz, who forces Royale out. Elsewhere, Braylan crosses a line by bullying Mazzi and Elvis, so Shaka sides with Mazzi and Elvis and tells off Braylan, reconciling with his brother and friend.
Meanwhile, M'Dear overhears a conversation with Moz and Cocoa's financial advisor, who reveals that the McKellans are now officially broke. M'Dear offers them to stay with her for as long as they need, but after she says this, Cocoa receives a note, revealing that Jade has run away with Royale.
The McKellan children are shocked when they learn that Principal Glass has died. Jade finds herself conflicted in having grief, due to her past clashes with Glass and feeling herself to be the only McKellan in not having a positive relationship with him. Jade also refused to take part in singing at a ceremony in honor of Principal Glass until she gets a visit from Glass's spirit, who tells her that in spite of their differences, he always viewed her as a great leader. This moves Jade, inspiring her to attend the ceremony. Meanwhile, Mazzi starts dealing with death anxiety until M'Dear takes him and Ami to a funeral home and gave them a light humor discussion about mortality.
After singing at church, Jade and M'Dear are approached by the pastor's nephew, a famous rapper (Coy Stewart) to sing on his new song. When they listen to it, it turns out that it has sexual references that M'Dear frowns upon. When Jade confronts him about this, he disrespects his uncle, the church, and his own grandma. It turns out that Jade was recording the whole thing and threatens to put it on TikTok. At the church, he visits to apologize for the song and starts to perform a new version of the song, about Jesus. Meanwhile, Cocoa's sister (Essence Atkins) visits with her son Tyson after he gets in trouble back home in Detroit. He then takes Moz's car for a joyride with Mazzi and Ami. It turns out that this behavior is a result of his father passing away.
On October 17, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a straight-to-series order for a first season consisting of twenty episodes. The series was created by Meg DeLoatch who was also expected to executive produce. Production began in Los Angeles.[6][7] The first part was released on July 10, 2019.[1] On September 17, 2019, Netflix renewed the series for a second season consisting of sixteen episodes. It was also announced that there will be a holiday special that was released on December 9, 2019, and the nine extra season 1 episodes were released on January 20, 2020.[8][9] The second season premiered on April 5, 2021.[2] Part 4 was released on August 26, 2021.[3] On October 18, 2021, Netflix renewed the series for a 10-episode third and final season.[4] The third season premiered on October 27, 2022.[5]
Casting
Alongside the initial series announcement, it was reported that Tia Mowry, Loretta Devine, Anthony Alabi, Talia Jackson, Isaiah Russell-Bailey, Cameron J. Wright, and Jordyn James had been cast in series regular roles.[6][7]
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 67% approval rating for the series, based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10.[10]
^ abBjornson, Greta (September 21, 2022). "New on Netflix October 2022". Decider. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
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