Courtesy of Netflix
Blood & Water is still one of Africa’s top 10 most watched Netflix shows many weeks since it first launched. Proof that Netflix’s African audience have been craving locally produced content that resonates with their realities, even if that reality is a posh high school in Cape Town
While there are small, small similarities to other popular shows, I feel like this show cuts a little deeper. The stakes are definitely higher as it tackles real life issues such as human trafficking. Of course, like any quintessential high school drama, it comes with a colourful cast, take a peep…
The cast
I love them all but, I will pick a few. The fish out of water ‘New Girl’, in this case the Puleng (Ama Qamata) who transfers from her school to the fancy Parkhust High. Puleng is ‘fiksated’ by the popular Fikile but not in the starry eyed sense that everyone assumes.
Fikile aka Fiks (Khosi Ngema) whose looks, money and swimming prowess place her at the top of the popularity totem pole, she seems perfect but as we all know, nobody’s perfect.
Then there is KB (Thabang Molaba), ‘the cool main guy’. He could be your average rich boy with nice cheekbones but instead is a skateboarder who reads poetry and writes bars — though his dad would rather he picks a more serious career, preferably in the legal field.
And my favourite, ‘the geek’, Wade (Dillon Windvogel) whose ernestness, and self-deprecating humour will make you root for him even when he takes an L.
True to life?
The show is rumoured to have been inspired by real life happenings. The story of Miché Solomon who found out that she had a twin sister when a new student who bore an uncanny resemblance to her joined her school. For Kenyan audiences, the story of the Kakamega twins, Melon and Mevis, who separated at birth and were reunited 19 years later will come to mind.
Blood & Water has been renewed for a second season, a win for creator Nosipho Dumisa, we can hardly wait!