Patina Miller on Power, Pressure, and the Humanity Behind ‘Raising Kanan’s’ Most Compelling Matriarch
In Power Book III: Raising Kanan, Patina Miller delivers a performance that has redefined what a Black female crime boss can look like on television. As Raquel “Raq” Thomas, she is not simply a figure of authority or intimidation. She is a mother, a strategist, an entrepreneur, and a woman constantly negotiating the cost of control. In BGN’s interview with Miller, the conversation centered on what makes Raq so compelling to audiences, and her answer landed with striking clarity: relatability rooted in complexity.
“I think that it’s just because she is relatable in a lot of ways,” Miller explained. “The pressure that she’s under, her being a mom and wanting to protect her family and her son more than anything. Her being a really strategic person. Her being an entrepreneur. There’s so many different traits that she has that people can identify with.”
That idea of layered identification is key to understanding why Raq resonates so deeply. She is not written as a one-dimensional villain or a traditional antihero. Instead, she exists in a space that feels uncomfortably familiar: a woman trying to survive systems that were never designed for her success, while also trying to protect the people she loves, even when her methods are morally complicated.
Miller emphasized that Raq’s power comes not just from her authority in the streets, but from her emotional realism. “There is an honesty to the character. She’s not perfect. She knows she’s not perfect. Things happen, and I think that is what makes her relatable,” she said. “People see the bits and pieces of themselves in her, people that they know.”
That honesty extends into the everyday gender dynamics Raq navigates, which Miller points out as universally recognizable. “I know what it feels like to be in a room with men and have to constantly explain yourself, or men who think they know better,” she said. “Being questioned because you’re a woman. You would never do that to a man.”
In that framing, Raq becomes more than a crime drama archetype. She becomes a reflection of lived experience for many women who understand what it means to lead while being doubted, to provide while being underestimated, and to carry emotional and structural labor without recognition. She is also, as Miller notes, the “glue” of a family, a matriarch burdened by the weight of legacy, survival, and ambition all at once.
Perhaps what makes Raising Kanan so enduring is not just its connection to the broader Power universe, but its willingness to sit inside the messiness of family itself. Miller leans into that truth without hesitation. “Family is messy. It can be… nobody’s perfect. Not just Black families, white families. It’s all families, right? These archetypes are so real, and they’re raw, and they’re human. And that’s why they can cross the boundary, and that’s why people of all colors watch this show and feel something.”
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That universality is what elevates Raq beyond genre television. She is not simply a crime boss navigating a violent world. She is a woman shaped by it, responding to it, and often perpetuating its cycles in the name of protection and legacy. The tension between those impulses is what makes her so magnetic.
In Miller’s performance, Raq’s contradictions are not flaws to be smoothed over. They are the point. And in a television landscape still catching up to fully realized Black women in positions of power, Raising Kanan offers something rare: a character who is allowed to be brilliant, ruthless, vulnerable, and deeply human all at once.
Power Book III: Raising Kanan Season 5 is set to premiere Friday, June 12 at midnight on the STARZ app. On linear, it will debut on STARZ at 8:00 PM ET/PT in the U.S.
Jamie Broadnax
Jamie Broadnax is the creator of the online publication and multimedia space for Black women called Black Girl Nerds. Jamie has appeared on MSNBC’s The Melissa Harris-Perry Show and The Grio’s Top 100. Her Twitter personality has been recognized by Shonda Rhimes as one of her favorites to follow. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and executive producer of the Black Girl Nerds Podcast.
