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This show hit Netflix on Wednesday and the premise interested me so I decided to watch the 6 episode first season of South African show Blood & Water and here is my review. The premise of the show sees a teenage attempt to track down her long lost sister who was kidnapped before she was born, she thinks she makes a breakthrough when she meets a girl who fits the profile.
Main Character
The main character is a girl called Puleng and I thought she was fine as a lead, obviously with the subject matter you are rooting for her and it is interesting to see her try and work out the mystery and you want her too. It's just as a character there isn't much to her, she even does some questionable actions which makes you question whether you are meant to like her as she does use people just for her investigation and not really to be friends with.
Supporting Characters
The main supporting character is Fikale and she is the generic popular girl at the school, she is important to the show but the show tries to make you feel sympathy for her but I just found it really difficult. The rest of the cast just aren't particularly interesting, they are as cliche as they get and none of them are very likeable. It's a shame as there is some potential but the characters aren't wriiten well enough for you to care about any of them.
Story
The story again has plenty of potential, the investigatory stuff by Puleng is interesting at times, you find out things pretty much the same time as she does and you are with her most of the way on her journey until her character does some questionable things. The problem is that this show is full of high school drama, there are like 3 or 4 love triangles and they just aren't done very well, I don't hat all love triangles if they are executed well but this show tries too many and doesn't really do them well. Again there is one storyline in particular involving her father but it isn't highlighted enough or explored enough and if there is a second season that is something I would like to see futher developed.
Script
The script is okay, there is actually some decent dramatic moments in the show that rises it up a bit, it's just there is not enough of these moments. Also for a bunch of teenagers they are really not that funny which feels weird in a group especially the popular kids as you would feel in a school situation at least one of them would be funny to a certain extent.
Style
I always like seeing shows or films with different settings and a highlight for me was for sure the South African setting as for someone who isn't from there it added something for sure and made this pretty generic show feel a bit less generic. Though even though it is only 6 episodes the pacing is pretty slow and maybe could have done with only four episodes to streamline it a bit which I think would have improved it.
Overall
Overall, this is a forgettable show, there is some real potential here but it feels very generic and by the numbers in its current format and I would say this is one you can avoid for now.
score 4/10
alindsay-al 22 May 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5761448/ |
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1-6-2020 02:28:10
