When Blood and Water came out on Netflix the hype was big. It attracted a lot of fans; some loving the story, some enjoying the LGBTI portrayals, some enjoying the 1 percentile lifestyle being projected.
I, on the other hand, was one of the few who thought that the series was just okay. It felt a bit like Riverdale lite, and if Riverdale is your cup of tea, good on yah but if it ain't, then dial down your expectations.
Let's dig in...
Produced by Gambit Films, Daryne Joshua and Travis Taute, who gave us the Rear Window-inspired Nommer 34 Cape Town based drama.
This time they collaborated with Nosipho Dumisa (she of Makoti fame on SABC 1), director and head writer of the series.
The Cape Town drama starts off as a mystery of a young girl trying to track down her sister, who may or may not be in an elite school and have a new family.
The mystery elements worked to a point but they are overshadowed by the teen melodrama of crushes, juvenile sex, juvenile drinking and gay blow jobs that detract more than enrich the mystery. Hence the Riverdale parallels.
We’ve seen the story of the super-rich kids behaving badly - the only difference here is that they're based in South Africa.
There's not a lot of innovation on the tropes that come with these types of drama, which makes the series come across as generic, as it ticks all the different tropes: the good natured male friend, the douche rich kid, the physically fit pretty boy and yes, black SUV’s with tinted windows that stalk people towards the last bit of the series.
The saving grace was the performances and production quality. Ama Qamata as Puleng Khumalo and Khosi Ngema as Fikile are stiff and a bit one note, especially for leads but bearable.
Dillon Windvogel and Natasha Thahane - especially Thahane’s portrayal of Wendy - has spunk and she lights up the screen whenever she appears.
The production is on point, the guys even got the soundtrack to pop, including an appearance by one Nasty C but the drama of human trafficking is used as a plot device that is not really taken as seriously or milked.
The 1 % lifestyle and schools is clearly where the interest is, and it's stretched to a point where one does not see where the artistic license and real world realities connect.
The script and story do not exploit the South African context and setting to mark it differently from a thousand racy pubescent dramas that are trying to be edgy from the CW.
Although one can argue that the team wanted to make a straight cookie cut ‘’racy” drama to get the numbers, which they have done, I found it made it less compelling.
It would have been cool if it had a bit of bite, especially if you think of the real world implications of human trafficking in SA.
I hope Season 2 moves beyond melodrama and the leads, who have now been garnering other work from Gomora to TV ads, deliver something more substantial.
What did it feel like: Riverdale lite, ticking all the boxes of clichés of teen drama trying to masquerade as a daring drama but end up being very, very tame.
Verdict: **1/2
*trash ** You are on your own ***It tries ****Almost Perfect *****Instant Classic