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This show is Netflix’s first African series, and I was so dead set on loving it but

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The Summary

Episode 1 

Puleng and Zama go to Fikile’s party Zama was invited to by Chris. At the party, Puleng becomes friends with Wade who insinuates that she bears somewhat of a resemblance to Fikile. 

When Puleng discovers that Fikile shares the same birthday as her abducted sister, she takes it upon herself to uncover the truth. However, she gets distracted during a game at school and gets into a fight which gets her suspended. 

On the day of her suspension, her father is arrested for child trafficking in front of her school. When they visit him in jail, he suggests that they lay low and for that reason, Puleng proposes that she changes her school to Parkhurst – Fikile’s school.

Episode 2

Puleng resumes at Parkhurst and immediately joins the school paper’s editorial team where she offers to interview Fikile. 

During the interview, Puleng questions Fikile about her childhood of which Fikile has very little recollection of. 

However, the two bond and Fikile invites Puleng to KB’s house party later that night. 

At the party, Puleng makes various failed attempts at obtain Fikile’s DNA sample. She also bonds with KB at the party.

The next day, she submits her interview to Wendy – the school’s newspaper editor-in-chief – who out of jealousy for Fikile, changes the article and prints it.

Puleng also finds out that Fikile is having an affair with the school’s swimming coach, Chad.

Wade catches Puleng in the principal’s office with Fikile’s birth certificate.

Episode 3

Fikile gets upset about Wendy’s version of Puleng’s interview and ousts Puleng from the group. 

KB is torn about the situation but Chris and Reece take Fikile’s side. Fikile however, changes the narrative to sell treats to convince her schoolmates otherwise which intensifies Wendy’s jealousy even more.

Puleng tries to rectify the situation but Wendy disagrees until her friend Tahira forces Wendy to change her mind. 

Chris also finds out about Puleng’s real surname from Zama.

Puleng comes clean to Wade about her suspicions about Fikile being her sister and Wade reluctantly becomes her ally because he has a crush on her.

Episode 4

Chris and Fikile hatch a plan to disgrace Puleng as being the child of a trafficker. 

The next day, Puleng comes to school and Wade shows her the video Chris uploaded on the school newspaper website. 

Puleng reports Wendy as the perpetrator and Wendy gets suspended. However, after a discussion with Zama does Puleng realise that it was Chris who did it.

Puleng and Fikile get into a fight of which KB protects Fikile instead of Puleng. Both girls’ parents are invited and Fikile’s mother has a panic attack when she discovers the reason behind the video.

Puleng shuts KB out of her life and informs Wendy about Fikile’s affair with Chad. 

Later that night, however, KB visits Puleng to apologise and make his intentions known. While they are kissing, Wade sees them through her window and walks away sad.

Episode 5

Wendy informs Principal Daniels of Chad and Fikile’s affair. Principal Daniels then forces her to come forward with a witness. 

Fikile makes peace with Puleng which makes Puleng reject Wendy’s plea for her to come forward. 

However, since Wendy has the evidence of her voice note, she takes it to Principal Daniels who then summons Puleng to her office for a testimony.

Principal Daniels questions Chad and Fikile who both deny having an affair with each other. However, after realising that it might be Puleng whi is responsible for it, Chad confesses to Principal Daniels who fires him on the spot. 

Chad’s pregnant wife goes to find Fikile and embarrasses Fikile in her class. Fikile blocks Puleng while KB fights with Chris over Puleng. 

Wade discovers that KB’s dad, Mr Molapo may have had a hand in the abduction of Puleng’s sister.

Episode 6

Fikile’s mother confronts Puleng for digging into Fikile’s life at a dinner party in KB’s home. 

Wade shows Puleng the information about Mr Molapo’s involvement with the abduction syndicate but Puleng is hesitant to go forward with it. 

Fikile continues to receive hate mail and starts to drink heavily. She even tries to kill herself but is saved by Chris who tells her that Puleng is obsessed with her. 

Fikile texts Puleng to meet her at school. When Puleng shows up, she interrogates Puleng about Puleng’s obsession with her but Puleng reveals to Fikile that she is her sister.

My Thoughts

According to the synopsis, Blood and Water is about 

After crossing paths at a party, a Cape Town teen sets out to prove whether a private-school swimming star is her sister who was abducted at birth.

Netflix

This was supposed to be the overriding theme of the show and if they had stuck to it, the show would have been great. 

However, what we got was this synopsis being treated as an afterthought. 

Matter of fact, this show centred more around the scandalous lives of the upper-class teenagers of Cape Town, than it did on Puleng finding out Fikile’s real identity.

What I expected when I watched the show, was to have Puleng go into full investigative mode – uncovering secrets which would then form subplots that would drive the main plot. 

I wasn’t expecting to watch Fikile being hounded by the psycho that was Wendy or even care about her inappropriate relationship with her coach. 

Which brings me to the question, how did those two subplots help to advance the plot?

For a series with only 6 episodes, the goal should have been to use each episode to dig deeper into the secrecy that surrounded Fikile’s birth and childhood.

We should have had an episode dedicated to characters like:

KB – using him to throw some spotlight on his dad

Fikile – using her to throw the spotlight on her mum

Wade – using him to tie up loose ends as they did

Puleng’s father – to make us understand why he was involved with an adoption agency

Wendy – would have been a useful ally who gets involved with the investigation to help uncover Fikile’s true identity, but is actually doing it to disgrace Fikile.

Chris – who knows the truth about Fikile’s identity but has refused to tell her because he is in love with her or something.

The idea of the show was fine. There was no need to embellish it with the regular high school drama. 

My verdict

I give Blood and Water a 2 out of 5. It had such a nice production, too bad the storytelling was abysmal.

Cast

  • Ama Qamata – Puleng Khumalo
  • Khosi Ngema – Fikile Bhele
  • Thabang Molaba – KB
  • Dillon Windvogel – Wade Daniels
  • Arno Greeff – Chris Ackerman
  • Ryle De Morny – Chad Morgan
  • Greteli Fincham – Reece Van Rensburg
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