The Real Wabora’s recap show

Have to firstly apologise for being so late with this – I’ve been AWOL for a bit because of a brilliant course I’ve been attending (will let you in on this a little later).

So after Kumbul’ekhaya (don’t ask), what pops up on my screen? The Real Goboza. It was gone for quite some time, hey? Anyways, the “gossip” show was back on with all the “freshest” stale news you could ask for.

First up, they addressed the story about whether or not Live’s Bonang Matheba refused to go to townships with the Back to School campaign. Shugasmakx was in studio explaining exactly what he’d explained in last Sunday’s tabloids. Yours truly covered this story earlier this week.

Also in old news, they looked at Audi Fashion Week… nuff said.

Then there was Generations’ 15th birthday. This is what Generations founder Mfundi Vundla had to say:

‘Generations was created out of an experience I had, hanging out with young black advertisers. They created the first black advertising agency in South Africa and that was the birth of the idea’

Well, now you know!

Next up, RGB covered Khabonina’s birthday/ the launch of her talent school (don’t know if I heard all this info correctly, at this point RGB was starting to lose me!). I think I really dig Khabonina and you can read more about her here. That’s a very cute interview in City Press.

There wasn’t much to report on the SAFTAs (South African Film and Television Awards) red carpet . The only thing that caught my attention was Terry Pheto. Now, I love me some Terry. I think she’s soo lovely and has a fantastic career ahead of her. But. As evidenced at the SAFTAs (and I saw it for myself last week in Sandton City), Terry is a classic example of bad hair colour happening to a good person. I’m gonna have to agree with Shwashwi when I say it’s got to go!

City Ses’la actors were in studio celebrating their 7 SAFTA wins. Much deserved, might I add!

The J&B Met was also drier than a 2 day old Chicken Licken bone… Claire Mawisa was there in all her gorgeousness, giving other celebs some style/ fashion advice:

‘Don’t try too hard’

Will have to agree with her on that one. Sizwe Dhlomo was there repping for Carducci and the Kwela Tebza boys looked great – and ahead of the trend curve – in plaid. Bonang disappointed – the flapper idea is good in theory, but in practice her colour combo (including her weave) washed her out completely, IMO.

Marc Lottering was super funny as expected. This is what he said:

‘This is where I speak to former beauty queens who tell me about their supposed business plans’

Kwakwakwakwa!

There was also a party roundup, which checked out Dineo Ranaka’s party in Midrand. It looked… sweaty. Then they showed some footage of this strange event.

All-in-all, RGB hasn’t deviated from its original concept - stale news, recycled.

Exasperations

Karabo Moroka

Generations celebrated it’s 15th birthday this week. Congratulations are in order, I suppose. [To be honest, I'd prefer if they closed shop, but apparently only the good die young. More on that later.]

Props are in order, though – Generations broke new ground on SA TV as the first truly black soapie; it launched a whole host of superstars (Connie Ferguson and Sophie Ndaba) and it’s provided endless cover girls for certain local mags. Hmm.

To celebrate it’s bday, the good ole SABC re-broadcasted the soap’s very first episode in all it’s 90s-hair-and-red-lipsticked glory. Even Sis Rebecca made a cameo. Here’s a great recap of the episode.

I have quite the love/ hate relationship with this show. I actually started watching it way back in 94 (every night, my mom and I would anxiously absorb the latest Moroka exploits). It was great seeing black people in the traditional white people roles often seen in soapies – wheeling, dealing and scheming in all their glam glory (forgive me, bhuti, it was the 90s!).

But how far has Generations Exasperations really come? Does it still represent the reality of what it means to be black in SA? In my guesstimation, not really.

Gone are the days when any character on the show had any sort of connection to anyone living in a township. Now, I know quite a few ‘Black Diamonds’ (hate that term) and each and every one of them knows someone still living in some township somewhere in this great country of ours. Not so on Generations. It’s all Tsalanang and townhouses…

And I also have the sneaky suspicion that the writers secretly hate women. [If I'm really going to be feminaziist about it, I could say that all soaps are misogynistic, but I think Exasperations more so.]
The female characters are supposed to be sophisticated, powerful, strong, beautiful business women, but most of them come across as emotional imbeciles. Or are women in soapieland not supposed to be mature in the boardroom and the bedroom? I just can’t understand how the writers expect us to believe that these women are capable of making multi-million rand descisions, but lack judgement in their personal lives. I mean, I know some people are emotionally messed up, but certainly not the extent of a Karabo Moroka (stealing babies, acting bratty because her bf is down in the dumps).

You know, Exasperations writers/ producers/ directors also expect us to exercise such great suspension of disbelief, they may as well hand out hallucinogens with the TV guide. Khethiwe went from cleaning to supermodeldom just like that; we’re supposed to believe Bridget and Adam were also models. Really? Surely there are starving (no pun intended) models out there willing to do the job for real.

On one hand, Exasperations has contributed to the stagnation of a few acting careers (can you see Connie doing anything but be whiny Karabo?), but on the other hand it’s given some talentless people the opportunity to call themselves actors (too many to mention).

I just think there’s such a great opportunity for a soapie to tell stories we can relate to, be entertaining, but still glam. I can’t help but think about Isidingo’s cast and the superb acting they gave us last year with Lettie’s fictional death and the scenes around Ashley Callie’s very real and tragic one.

Anyways, enough ranting. The Exasperations celebrations will continue later this month with the screening of a retrospective/ behind-the-scenes special hosted by Ms Moroka. So tune in on 26 February (SABC 1) at 8.30pm to find out what it takes to make this show happen. Can’t hardly wait.

Pic via.