Generations: the forced legacy!

The Moroka Family

I get that Mfundi Vundla needs to keep making a living and there is a great need for locally produced shows on our screens, but Generations the legacy is not a good show, and I am not saying that because I am comparing it to THE Generations, it just sucks in its own right.
overtime viewers get bored of watching poorly curated material. ok I am comparing it to the old one..

Here are some of the things that annoy me about the legacy...the forced legacy. (don't tell me to stop watching if i'm not happy with it, I watch to critisize)

1. Karabo Moroka

Yah Yah Yah...She is beautiful, formidable and smart, but she is also annoying and moody. I used to like her in the old Generations despite not having morals..think Sibusiso, Tau, Glen, Mandla, Lungile Mabena (there I go comparing aga...shut up!). I now dislike her ability to be focused only on problems for an extended period of time, this is her worst quality, she always makes things worse. This should go on her CV under Skills and talents as "Best at making things worse".  The way she was focused on what happened to Abe, every time her husband comes home the first question to hits him with is "what happened to Abe?"(I get more annoyed at the writers since I know its her husband behind his disappearance yet he always claim he has no idea what happened to him). She is also jealous when Tau and Mary bond over the baby yet she still has feelings for her high school sweetheart whom she continuously invites over for dinner despite the fact that her husband doesn't  approve of the friendships


2. The way every scene ends, with characters staring into air

 I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this. Every time a scene ends, the camera focus shifts to one character who is staring to the side with a pondering face, even after a good encounter e.g an engagement, a job offer, good results, etc. a character involved will still stare into open space to show some kind of dissatisfaction, don't get me wrong, I didn't go to Drama school but I think the way Generations do it is exaggerated. [[[On an unrelated but closely related note: Why are Nimrod Kunutu(Skeem Saam) and Broke Logan(The Bold and The beautiful) always crying??? I think its SABC1 Show's Signatures hey!]]]


3. Tshidi and Kumkani's marriage

I can't believe there was a time I adored these two, now their marriage is a joke. I can't believe the writers of this show would have us believe a sane woman could endure so much nonsense from her spouse and still fight for his love and affection..yah yah yah,i'm not married and all but this relationship has become unbearable to watch, he once hit her, he lashes out at her, he cheats on  her in front of her face and worst of all, she doesn't seem to want to break off from this silly relationship. she described to her mother that she is nothing without Kumkani. Just like in the relationship between  Dineo and Paul Mashaba, Tshidi is portrayed as the trophy wife who is incapable of surviving on her own apart from her ruthless bad-boy spouse, which I find very insulting to us women. (no, i'm not a feminist of some sort)


4. Overly diverse families

The Diale family

I'm not saying families can't be diverse, where one parent is from another culture and the other from another but I think Mfundli  imposes too many rainbows on our nation. In the old Generations it was Paul and Kenneth Mashaba who were biological brothers, grew up together in one household but one speaks Zulu fluently and the other Sepedi fluently. Paul had a mixed race daughter who spoke Afrikaans despite growing up with her Zulu speaking dad. i'm not oblivious to the fact that some families reside in melting pots like Soweto, Sebokeng, Mamelodi and others.

The Diale family(Their surname is Tswana by the way despite the fact that none of them are) consists of 3 languages, Xhosa(Namhla and Getrude), Tsotsi taal(Cosmo and Lucy) and Zulu(Gogo). I guess its permissible in the new South Africa to have such mixtures.


5. Ezweni and Hashtag world

I don't even need to say much about this one, this is a clichéd storyline from Generations writers, its almost as if it holds the show together, just two companies who specialize in the same services poaching each other's clients, competing , stealing and cheating to get ahead. BORING.

6. 50 shades of Smanga Grey

 A friend of mine once asked me "Why don't they kiss on Muvhango?" which I replied with genuine laughter. I think Muvhango is a good show you can watch with your parents without the fear of things escalating between couples on screen. In an attempt to be modern and attract young adults, Generations the legacy tends to go overboard in the erotica department. most South African tv shows have always kept 13PG but can this be an evolution of African film culture? who knows.
anyways...in the scene you see above, Abe’s sister Thabi (played by Motswaledi Setumo) got into the spirit of the Scarlet lingerie campaign bringing up the subject of candles poured on her body during a Ezweni campaign meeting. Mfundli Vundla needs to retire soon, he might think he is doing justice to feeding our already fallen appetites but in a country that already faces teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS at a higher rate, Parents should be warned not to allow their children to watch garbage.
Also...that dance between Tshidi and Kumkani SMH

Stay in school kids!

7. Barak Obama's estranged, troubled daughter

This girl's dad is the president of the United States of America yet she has been through so much drama within a course of 7 months. ok she is actually not Obama's daughter but from being good in IT, being kidnapped by Kumkani, embracing some Goth personality, having an affair with a teacher, getting pregnant by that teacher and almost marrying the teacher and having an abortion, loosing her bursary, being an accidental model and being through a sexual harassment experience with the Moroka golden boy Smanga, just over 7 months...this teenage girl has been through what most women wont go through within their lifetime.

8. Karishma

 
 Gosh she is a terrible actress! glad they got rid of her. although she exited the show a while back, I can still clearly remember the wedge she drove between Tshidi and Kumkani. she is the worst thing that ever happened to this new legacy, but what can we expect, its always been a dead legacy anyways.

ok enough bashing for now, i'm stepping away from my computer.
thanks for reading.
Keep watching and criticizing :-)