Tinaye Agere
Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
IT goes without saying that it is a little bit too late for me to give a straight-up review of the debut season of the hit Zimbabwean adult drama series “Soulmate”, what with season two expected to drop on the ZTN Prime this week.
However, having binge-watched the first season, I simply could not pass up the opportunity to give my two cents.
While not a perfect offering, I found the show highly entertaining. The show’s star, creator, director and producer Brydan Heart may very well have struck oil as far as the creative process is concerned.
Soulmate explores concepts and themes associated with young adults, but mainly focuses on the lives of Phumza (Heart), who is painted as a player from the ghetto side of town. He ends up in love with Lucratia (Randal Ncube), a rich good girl.
As the show progresses, their lives intertwine in a clash of lifestyles, resentments, envy and attraction.
Structurally, the series employs a flash-forward plot that involves a mystery element, with most episodes taking place in three separate timelines, namely, 2019, 2023 and 2024.
For the benefit of those yet to watch the show, I will try to avoid too many spoilers and, instead, offer some insight into what the show seeks to do in its second season.
Here are four key questions “Soulmate” season two needs to address:
What happened between Lucratia and Phumza?
From the very first scene of the show, in episode one, it is clearly defined that Lucratia and Phumza are the show’s main characters.
We are introduced to a distraught and love-scorned Lucratia, who has decided to kidnap her ex-boyfriend and is currently torturing him.
The boy’s crime is never clearly defined during their interaction in 2023, and we soon find out that Phumza escapes and is now narrating his own version of their story. The funny thing, and this is genius on the part of the writer, is that we hardly see the two lovebirds’ interaction during the entire first season.
The slow burn to their story, while satisfactory for the introductory season, has to end, and we expect to see the two characters dominating the second season despite it being a series. However, Heart runs the risk of falling into the same trap the writers of the American comedy series “How I Met Your Mother” found themselves in because of a delayed drop.
Who are the real soulmates?
Still to do with Lucratia and Phumza, are the two characters really believed as soulmates? The answer is a no!
From the little, or no, interaction we have witnessed, we are yet to see any evidence that these two can be viewed as a real couple let alone soulmates.
No sparks flew when they met in the early parts of season one and it will take some convincing, and stellar writing from Heart, to convince anyone otherwise.
With Lucratia and Phumza out, the question remains who then?
My money was initially on Lucratia and Chris (Nkosilathi Mabuza), but it seems the show has gone out of its way to make the latter unlikeable. After all, this is the same guy who was involved in a hit-and-run that left a woman unable to conceive again.
That hardly spells soulmate.
Lucky for us, the show is full of couples to choose from (Owen and the mystery stranger).
Does Owen get his happy ending?
If we have learnt anything from the first season of this show, it is that almost every character has a dark side.
Lucratia is painted as an innocent rich girl, who is unlucky in love, but again, this is also the same lady who kidnaps an ex-boyfriend and tortures him.
Chris, for the most part, is the designated best friend, who is in love with a girl who sees him as nothing more than a friend.
Unfortunately, he kills his father and was once involved in a hit-and-run.
Anita (Ntombie Buhlungu) is the mother figure of the show and often gives advice to women on matters of the heart. However, she is a victim of domestic abuse and was involved in her son’s hit-and-run cover-up.
The only character who comes close to being clean-cut is Owen (Perfect Nkiwane) and the first season was not kind to him.
Soon after getting his first girlfriend, he is mistakenly beaten up, loses the said girl to his brother Phumza. He does get a prophecy that he will meet a good woman and we even get to see glimpses of the said mystery lady.
A happy ending is around the corner but I am afraid things will get worse before they get better for this loveable goof.
What is Mandla’s backstory?
For a show that is not short of bad guys or people, Mandla (Tavaka Matunah) looks like the worst of the worst.
Despite his limited and often sporadic appearance, this criminal seems to have a hand in a lot of the bad things that appear to be happening to a lot of people on the show.
He is the one who orchestrated skunk heads (a cool name by the way) to mistakenly beat up Owen and was the mastermind of the robbery at Chris’ house.
But beyond selling drugs and alcohol, his criminal activities and his apparent hatred of Phumza, we do not know a lot about the character.
That has to change.
An episode or two solely dedicated to the character would help.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu