The fourth season of Bounce’s “Saints & Sinners” debuts on July 7, and when viewers catch up with the Southern Baptist Cypress, Georgia, church and the surrounding community, star Keith Robinson promises they’ll be in for something big.
The show picks up after season 3 concluded with Greater Hope going up in flames and Mayor Ella Marie Johnson thrusting her mother, Lady Byrd, into a mental institution.
So what can fans expect when the newest crop of episodes air this summer? Robinson told Atlanta Black Star exclusively that there’s a stunning development that takes place.
“Somebody gets killed that you wouldn’t expect,” Robinson, who plays Miles Calloway, dished on Tuesday, July 2. “You don’t know who did it because everybody has a motive as to why they did it so you’re kind of left to watch the season for the answer to be revealed.”
As for what it takes to pull off something so stunning, the foundation is in the preparation. While lots of shows welcome the use of ad-libbing, Robinson said the prime time soap opera is “pretty methodical.”
“For the actors, we kind of know these people better than anybody because we’ve been playing them for about three seasons,” he says after giving the writing staff their due. “For us, it’s preparing to find places to grow our characters through our own life experience. In every season, our characters are more developed and more real. … It’s kind of an ongoing thing with actors.”
But Robinson doesn’t only have to focus on developing Miles, who was formerly the minister of music at the fictional church and a one-time R&B crooner. He’s also responsible for some of the music that’s been on the series over the last few seasons. Doing so allows Robinson, who is a singer-songwriter and R&B crooner in his own right, to fuse his two careers into one.
“It’s been a really great thing for me to be able to have the best of both worlds,” Robinson said. “This season, there’s a single that I wrote called ‘Happy,’ which will be in the fourth episode. It’s a song about Miles’ confession. … As a songwriter, it’s been really fun to able to write songs in the third person in the character that I’m playing. It’s kind of a unique experience. I think it brings a little more levity to the character of Miles.”
But while Robinson has certainly been enjoying his time on “Saints & Sinners,” he’s also not limiting himself on the small screen. Robinson has a host of big-name Hollywood stars he’d like to work with.
“It’s a long list,” he admitted when asked. “Anyone from Denzel [Washington] to Will Smith to [Robert] DeNiro to Jeffrey Wright to Don Cheadle. Any great actor that’s down to work with me, I’m down to work with them.”
Now, however, Robinson is finishing up work on his sophomore album “Love Episodic 2,” due later this year. And he recently completed his directorial and writing debut on the film “The Greener Grass Experiment,” which he hopes to be released next year.
The fourth season of “Saints & Sinners” airs on Bounce Sunday, July 7.
