In a very first for South Africa, Nonhle Thema is set to redefine the meaning of reality TV. In the premiere, the show looked rehearsed and what's with Nonhle's accent?
This is a great concept and it will work very well because as TV viewers, we like reading about our TV personalities and what they are up to. We are always told they are hard workers and all. Please excuse me, the word hard worker can, at least according to me, be used by someone who is some sort of a teenager. Everybody is a hard worker so why tell us you are a hard worker.
That said, in the first episode, the show takes off from when Nonhle has been offered the Vuzu job and resigns from O Access. She then went onto Vuzu and was happy that for the very first time in 5 years, she has at least spent one year at home. Then suddenly, Vuzu offered her a job to be the channel's international face, which means Nonhle has to leave SA again and go to Los Angeles to bring us red capert news.
For me, the show was really kind of fake as it looked rehearsed. Firstly, Nonhle's manager received a call from Vuzu producers telling her they wanted to see her and Nonhle immediately. Was the whole Nonhle goes to Hollywood thing already finalised? If not, why didn't they write re-enactment? As a viewer, I would understand if they told us it was re-enacted because it might have happened in the past. I just find it to be too good to be true.
Well, basically episode one was all about Nonhle and having to make a decision about whether she will take the job, go to LA and leave her life behind, including her boyfriend whom she has been seeing for at least 6 months. She was given 24 hours to make a decision. She also hinted that her previous relationships failed because of all the travelling.
She said she needs someone who will understand the nature of her work and its demands. Because deciding to pack and leave isn't something you just do, she visited her mom Cynthia Shange who plays Thandaza's mom in Muvhango for some counsel.
Once again, the scene with her mom looked rehearsed and I could tell this because of camera angle. We were shown Nonhle entering the house and the camera point of view was from inside the house. Her mom was all dressed up and I am understanding of that as she might have been on her way somewhere since she is an actress.
Another scene that was obviously planned was when Nonhle went to sleep and her manager called and she ignored the call. Nonhle was going to bed, the manager was at some restaurant and probably during the day. This, I didn't get!
I have never watched O Access and have never heard Nonhle speak except for her Dark and Lovely ad. Her accent is polished and I don't know how to classify it. What I like about the accent is that it is not like that of Americans which we can hardly hear a single word. A lot of bloggers have been making big noise about Nonhle's accent but that's really no big deal to me. It's just that the accent needs to be brought back to South Africa only.
In my opinion, the show will do well because we have never had something this great on our local screens and big ups to Nonhle, who is one of the executive producers of the show. The show is produced by Nonhle Thema productions.
Hopefully as time goes on, the whole rehearsed scenes will dissipate as we will see Nonhle on the streets on LA. She told TVplus magazine: "Having cameras on my face 24/7 was something I wasn't used to and I had to learn that there are cameras following me around," she said. Vuzu presenter Lalla Hirayama said after the show: "We love your work Nonhle." I also love Nonhle and I love her work. Hopefully we will get to see what she really does because as ordinary people, we don't really know the kind of commitment and long hours they put into their work.
This is a great show and I shall refrain from scoring it as it needs to at least be given a window period before we can say various things about it.
Everybody is a hard worker. Blogging on TVSA can make me a hard worker so please, drop the hard worker phrase already. On the other hand, never resting on your laurels shows that you are not sitting down and celebrate your yesterday's achievement but are achieving even more things today.
Pictures courtesy of Nonhle's website and various other sources. Makisto doesn't send his love to Nonhle Thema's web content manager because there is only one copy(able) picture on the site. However, all my love to various sites on the net for programming the pictures in a way that I can copy them lol.