Has A Lack of A Shared Universe Hurt Tyler Perry’s Viacom Shows?
This is a topic I’ve mentioned several times on the channel, but recent conversations with some fans have made me want to revisit it. The Oval still has a loyal audience, and I occasionally get questions about it. Recently, some of my videos about The Oval have garnered more interaction, and interestingly, many people have also brought up Ruthless in their comments.
What’s noteworthy is that some viewers stopped watching The Oval because it no longer connects with Ruthless like it used to. On the other hand, I stopped watching Ruthless because it felt like Gilligan’s Island—the characters never really escape the compound. Even when they do, they always go back. What frustrates me is the potential for connecting these two shows was huge, but Tyler Perry missed the mark.
Tyler Perry’s Promising Universe, Yet Disjointed
When Tyler Perry began creating content for BET, many fans hoped this would be a sprawling universe with tightly connected shows. We had Sistas and Bruh, The Oval and Ruthless, and on the surface, this seemed like the right move. Before this, when Perry was still working with OWN, fans had hoped for a crossover between If Loving You Is Wrong and The Haves and the Have Nots, but that never happened.
However, over time, things started to become disjointed. For example, Bruh initially had ties to Sistas, with the character Andy appearing in a few early episodes. But by season 2, Perry decided to have Bruh stand entirely on its own. In all of Sistas, the only mention of Bruh was a brief conversation where the character Mike was referenced.
Similarly, Zatima is a spin-off of Sistas, but the storylines don’t line up at all. One might argue that due to the faster pace of Sistas’ release, it’s difficult to synchronize the shows, but honestly, that’s not a valid excuse, especially considering Ruthless and The Oval have a much slower release schedule. There’s literally no reason these shows couldn’t connect more smoothly.
Logical Misses When Connecting Ruthless and The Oval
One of the most glaring examples of the lack of connection is when Barry was abducted by the Rakudushi cult in The Oval season 2. As of now, Ruthless is in season 5 or 6, but this event has never been mentioned. Or take Tally’s death in The Oval—it wasn’t even referenced in Ruthless until season 3 or 4. This lack of connection makes it feel like viewers who invested time in both shows, hoping for a reasonable crossover, were misled.
Not only that, two FBI agents from Ruthless appeared in The Oval season 5 and worked with Simone. But in season 6, despite a major shootout, there has been no mention of them. I’m hoping they will return, but based on how Perry has handled crossovers in the past, I’m not sure that will happen.
Will Sistas and Zatima Ever Truly Sync?
The new writers of Sistas claim that Sistas and Zatima will sync up in the future. However, given the current script quality, I don’t really believe that. A clear example is when Zac’s mom passed away—if Sistas and Zatima truly exist in the same universe, why didn’t more of the Sistas cast show up at Zac’s funeral? This just proves that the two shows don’t have any real connection and are merely branded as spin-offs.
Tyler Perry Missed a Huge Opportunity
Building an ambitious film universe but failing to connect it properly has made the viewing experience feel incomplete. At first, viewers were excited about the idea of watching multiple shows to uncover Easter eggs and overlapping stories. But once they realized that the connections were too loose, they lost interest.
