Jeanie Boulet - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Jeanie Boulet's return to the series as a guest character in 2008 was well received by television critics. A reviewer from New York Entertainment commented that her return was like a "welcome throwback to the days when it seemed like every episode forced Jeanie to process some piece of world-shattering news." The return storyline was described as a "classic Jeanie Boulet moment, as filtered through the show's new blunt-instrument writers it was like it was 1995 all over again." Discussing Reuben's portrayal of the character, the reviewer said, "There's always been great pleasure in Reuben's beautiful, open face in moments like that; she played those scenes to the hilt, creating in us a great sympathy for her character We couldn't stand to watch her suffer so, but we couldn't stop watching her suffer, and we died a little with every hurt the producers hit her with."

It has been suggested that the program-makers' decision to give Jeanie HIV was an attempt to draw attention to the illness to the black community, particularly black women. Jeanie — like the majority of female AIDS cases in America at the time in 1997 — was black, heterosexual, and acquired HIV from a long-term partner. However, it has been noted that some viewers may have been offended that out of all the sexually active characters in their serial, Jeanie — whose private life had not been extensively portrayed at that point — contracted the virus.

Aspects of the HIV storyline have been criticized, specifically that little airtime was dedicated to dramatizing clinical procedures determining whether Jeanie had been exposed to HIV. When Jeanie discovered that her husband had AIDS in the second season finale, Jeanie has a blood test and sends it off for analysis to see if she also had the virus; however, viewers were not shown the multiple clinical procedures involved in the testing, and the following episodes concentrated on post-test rituals.