Y'Lan Noel as Coltrane Wilder in 'Nemesis.'

courtesy of Netflix

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“I feel like what I do is a little bit comparable to Bruno Mars, in that there is never going to be another Bruno Mars,” Kemp tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t think people understand why Power works. They saw it from the outside and went, ‘Oh, that’s a drug show.’ But it’s not really a drug show. It’s a Shakespearean drama about morality, and everybody’s in modern times; they’re saying the N-word a lot. I’m glad nobody has figured out my formula. If someone were to come along and be like, ‘I’m the new Bruno Mars,’ they would never be the new Bruno Mars. Whether you like him or not, you gotta respect the game. The man knows what he’s doing, and he can be whatever he wants to be at any given time. And that’s what I’m doing.”

Admittedly, it did take Kemp a bit of time to find what she wanted to be doing at Netflix, having signed a lucrative production deal with the company in August 2021. She attributes the long wait for her debut at the streamer to dealing with the loss of her brother and learning the Netflix machine. But, after originally looking to try something completely new, Kemp found herself being drawn to the thought of returning to the world of high-stakes crime dramas.

The result was Nemesis, an explosive cat and mouse game between a cop and robber. Created by Kemp and fiancé Tani Marole, the Heat-style thriller stars Abbott Elementary‘s Matthew Law as LAPD detective Isaiah Stiles and Insecure‘s Y’lan Noel as master criminal Coltrane Wilder. When his partner is killed in a robbery, Stiles becomes obsessed with finding the crew responsible, and he soon locks in on Wilder, who, in classic thief fashion, is planning one last job before riding off into the sunset.

Over eight episodes, the first season of Nemesis rips through more fiery events and story than most shows could in a multi-year run. There’s multiple heists, a massive, blockbuster-level shootout in the streets of Los Angeles, a pair of shocking deaths and plenty of pending trouble left on the table. Late in the finale, Stiles is in pursuit of Wilder, but Stiles’ teenage son Noah (Cedric Joe) is seeking his own revenge for Wilder killing his grandfather. Also in the mix is a cartel gunman, who shoots and injures Noah, and Stiles is essentially responsible since he’d previously asked the cartel kingpin to help him get Wilder. In the end, Stiles must choose between helping his son or allowing Wilder to get away. The cop allows his enemy to flee, but, before he does, Wilder declares, “You were never going to win.”

“Netflix asked us to wrap it in a place where you wouldn’t need a second season, and I was like, ‘Bet, we’re not doing that,’” Kemp says with a laugh. “But we knew that we did not want Coltrane to get caught. We didn’t want it to feel like you did all this for nothing, in a sense.”

Kemp admits that she was influenced by the lessons learned from the fan reaction to the conclusion of Power. Just over halfway through her final season, Kemp killed off her main character, drug kingpin Ghost (Omari Hardwick), and spent the last five episodes using Rashomon-style storytelling to unveil the identity of the killer.

“I thought I was playing fair with the audience, like I told you guys in the first episode that drug dealers are either dead or in jail, so I feel like those were the only two options,” Kemp says. “But what I did learn from that exper

'Nemesis' Finale, Season 2 Plans Explained: Courtney Kemp Interview