Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Season 4 on Starz, The Return Of The ‘Power’ Prequel

Welcome back to the Power Universe. In the ten-episode fourth season of the Starz hit Power Book III: Raising Kanan, creator-writer Sascha Penn’s Power spinoff-prequel, the 1990s New York City drug business ambitions of young Kanan Stark (Mekai Curtis) and his mother, Raquel “Raq” Thomas (Patina Miller), continue to both converge and diverge. It’s also a relationship complicated and enabled by one truth, that family is everything. Which is especially true inside the narrative arc of the Power world. All the major players are back for season 4 – Curtis, Miller, London Brown as Marvin Thomas, Malcolm Mays as Lou Thomas, and Hailey Kilgore as LaVerne “Jukebox” Thomas; Wendell Pierce, Erika Woods, Tony Danza, Omar Epps, and Joyce Thomas also appear, and Paul Ben-Victor and Sibongile Mlambo join the cast.

POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN SEASON 4: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “Before you can think about where you’re going, you gotta look back at where you been.” The voiceover of series co-executive producer 50 Cent as the adult Kanan Stark returns as Power Book III: Raising Kanan revisits the shocking deaths that ended season 3.

The Gist: Season 4 of Raising Kanan begins inside the moment where last season ended. Ronnie Mathis (Grantham Coleman) and police detective Malcom Howard (Epps) are dead, killed – for reasons – by Raq (Miller) and Kanan (Curtis). But the difference here is perspective, because the series then flashes to three months before the incident. Not only did Kadeem “Unique” Mathis (Joey Bada$$) survive being shot and left for dead, he emerged from secret recovery with vengeance as his top priority. And in the series present, Unique is gathering intelligence vital to his revenge tour.

Of course this is unknown to Raq, Kanan, and the Thomas family. They are celebrating reduced scrutiny by an FBI task force snooping around the Queens, New York drug game, and a boom in business on the streets, fueled by the constant competition for increased corner coverage. But how a scarred and angry Unique will come at them – not only does he know Raq and Kanan killed his older brother Ronnie, he saw them kill Detective Howard, Kanan’s biological dad – is only one new wrinkle. Raq has also learned she is pregnant with Unique’s baby. “I ain’t got no room for another kid in my life,” she tells her doctor.

As for Raq’s relationship with Kanan, she says it doesn’t matter if he hates her. She’ll love him anyway, no matter what. It’s a mother-son commitment that exists partly outside of their respective professional goals, as that side of things continues to evolve. Kanan has also turned to his uncles Marvin (Brown) and Lou (Mays) for their insight into the family’s history, and when he interviews his grandmother Sharon (Thomas) for a school project, she shares a personal secret with only him. In Raising Kanan, family is both a uniter and a divider. Which Jukebox (Kilgore) also understands. She believes in Butta, her singing group with Iesha (Liv Symone), and Marvin encourages her talent. But Jukebox is also considering a big life decision that would remove her from her family’s immediate influence.

Some facts are known to some, not to others, and nobody knows everything. They just gotta work their lives from the inside, from their true nature. Which for Unique especially comes down to getting what he believes is his, the dreams and goals of others be damned. Kanan, Raq, Lou – they all better watch out. “You got a damn superpower right now,” says Unique’s friend Early (Chris Redd). “Everybody think you’re dead and gone.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Power Universe vibe check: Power Book IV: Force has declared its upcoming third season to be its last, Power Book II: Ghost ended in 2024, and the POWERs that be have also announced another prequel. Elsewhere, when Season 3 of the Starz crime drama BMF premiered last year, it was with the announcement of a fourth season that…remains only announced. Grantham Coleman of Raising Kanan has gone on to star in The Emperor of Ocean Park alongside Forest Whitaker. And Snowfall, with its throwback look at the cocaine drug wars of 1980s Los Angeles, aired its sixth and final season on FX in 2023.    

Our Take: The return of Joey Bada$$ to Power Book III Raising Kanan as Kadeem “Unique” Mathis is huge for the series in season 4, and not just as a professional rival to the drug business aims of Raq and Kanan. He is also all the way up inside their family dynamic. “They all workin’ together against me,” he tells Early as he nurses his wounds in secret. But the emotion Bada$$ puts into the scene is notable. Vengeance drives Unique, but that is only one dimension compared to what’s underneath, where someone who repeatedly tried to kill him – Raq – can also be his lover. We’re intrigued with how Raising Kanan explores this, especially since Raquel herself, even without knowing ‘Nique survived, gets a faraway look in her eye when she considers their history together. 

Ultimately, this series is meant to fill in a backstory important to the Power universe. It’s called Raising Kanan, after all. And in Season 4, while Raq’s relationship with Kanan contains both promise and peril, Kanan’s exploration of where he personally fits into his larger family history broadens the scope of what we’re learning about the character. (“Capable, skilled, and brilliant,” his grandma says of his late grandfather. “Just like you.”) Power Book III: Raising Kanan is at its best when it shifts perspectives. When its characters see something with fresh eyes, so that we also see it. And then we can fit that data into the larger Power universe, which just keeps expanding. As the prequels and sequels and prequel/spinoff hybrids continue, we feel like all of this will fit nicely together in a massive multi-series rewatch. Or, a true saga of Power.

Sex and Skin: As Season 4 of Raising Kanan gets underway, one big theme is how romances from the past have a way of rising back up. The return of Natalee Linez as Jessica Figueroa, Lou’s ex, embodies this. 

Parting Shot: “Knowin’ about the lies and dying? That ain’t no way to live.” The adult Kanan’s narration guides us back to the events that began season 4’s lead episode. From here on out, it seems those who thought they had all the answers might just learn how they asked all the wrong questions.

Sleeper Star: The period detail in Raising Kanan continues to stand out, from brands sported – Polo, United Colors of Benetton, Karl Kani signature T’s – and music cues – Eric B. & Rakim’s 1992 single “Casualties of War” feels thematically prescient – to the state of how people communicated in, ahem, antiquity: pagers, pay phones, and fixed landlines.     

Most Pilot-y Line: “Every debt I owe is gonna get paid. Every fucking one.” Without tracking in spoilers, when it comes to this character, it’s a matter of how said debt will be paid. In ducats? Or in lead? 

Our Call: Stream It! With season 4 of Power Book III: Raising Kanan, the Power Universe continues to spool. As a prequel, the series has a highly watchable standalone quality. But it also works great as a spinoff, continuing to add chapters of lore to the universal whole. 

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.

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