Watch Curtis Jackson's New Starz Drama Power: First Episode Is Online Free Here

Starz is giving us an early (and free) look at the first episode of Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson's new drama Power. The video above shows the (mostly) full first episode, edited slightly for content. This episode has arrived online a week ahead of the planned premiere, as Power is poised to take over the Saturday at 9:00 p.m. timeslot now that Da Vinci's Demons has wrapped up for the season.

Created by Courtney Kemp Agboh with Curtis Jackson among the executive producers, Power introduces us to James "Ghost" St. Patrick, played by Omari Hardwick. As we see in the first episode, Ghost is a drug ring kingpin who's getting a taste of legitimacy as he opens a hot new nightclub. Though the business is really just a front to launder his money, it's causing Ghost to wonder if maybe it's time to walk away from his illegal activities and go legit. After all, there's probably more of a future for him -- that doesn't involve jail or an early death -- in the nightclub business than there is in the illegal drug industry.

At Ghost's side, both in business and as an old friend, is Tommy Egan (Joseph Sikora). From what we see of him in the pilot episode, Tommy's much more interested in continuing with the drug business than he is with the nightclub, which he sees as a way to clean the money and nothing more. Ghost's wife Tasha (Naturi Naughton) seems to appreciate the glamorous side of the nightclub life, but her main priority appears to be her relationship with her husband and the business he's running. Ghost's relationships with Tommy and Tasha are two major aspects of the plot of this series, as is his reconnection with Angela "Angie" Valdes (Lela Loren).

The recently released 30-second TV spot for Power uses Angie's description of Ghost to show off the many sides of Power's lead character, as a kingpin, a friend, a husband, a father and a man...

It's great that Starz is giving viewers an early look at this series, as I think Power has a lot of potential. I weighed in with more of my thoughts on this new drama series in our review of the first three episodes. Power premieres this Saturday night at 9:00 p.m. ET on Starz. You can view the full list of Summer premiere dates here.