SERIES
Mark your TV calendars for these shows
Valley of the Boom, a docudrama set in Silicon Valley about the rise of the internet in the ’90s, looks like dynamite. This six-part series about the “browsers wars” is sure to be one of the hits on South African TV screens next year, with favourites like Genius and Deep State. The explosive history of Boom provides all the elements for a gripping plot: passion, rivalry and money.
Boom has a “disruptive” format, intended to reflect its techie themes, say its creators.
Off screen, 21st Century Fox — which owns channels like National Geographic and hit shows like The Simpsons — is staring down its own disruptive moment. Disney and 21st Century Fox are merging, a move which will shake up the entertainment industry.
Meanwhile, the show must go on. Season nine of The Walking Dead will be back on October 8.
The second season of the British thriller Deep State will premiere in SA early next year and local viewers will see that parts of it were filmed both on the continent’s southern tip (here) and northern tip, in Morocco.
Showbiz and family dramas including Atlanta, The Gifted and Lee Daniels’ Star will be broadcast early in 2019 but some, like Empire (season 5), will be starting next month.
The third season of Genius on the National Geographic channel zooms in, for the first time, on a woman. Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, is the star of this acclaimed series which has previously featured Einstein and Picasso.
Fox says it prioritises its women viewers (Trump obviously didn’t have a hand in this) and a new Nat Geo WILD series about female vets called Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet celebrates independent women.
Watch them wrestling with animals in far-flung destinations, then wonder if it’s too late to switch professions.
Mars returns for its second season in November and, like the first season, stars fictional characters alongside talking heads like Elon Musk. This gives Mars a scientific gravity but also interrupts the storyline so it’s a part-win in my view.
Cosmos, another show exploring new realms, and Hostile Planet, focusing on issues like climate change, will be broadcast early next year.
Of course wildlife, natural history and remote destinations are the major attractions on Nat Geo WILD. Popular features like Sharkfest — did you know there are over 500 shark species? — Snakes in the City and Big Cat month will be back.
In November The Explorer returns, featuring a “new generation of explorers” confronting issues like environmental racism and cloning humans.
FOXlife, which targets women, will premiere new content in 2019, including seven reality shows. Among them are Nigerian Top Weddings starting next month.
Director Levern Engel, head of Fox Networks Group (FNG) Original
Productions Africa, said she expected to have scripted local dramas on air by next year.
Outpatients starring Dr Cathy Davies from Joburg, who looked as polished at the media showcase this month as she did in the premiere broadcast, will look at aesthetic medicine.
On this occasion Evert van der Veer, the vice-president of the FNG Africa — which includes the National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, Fox, Fox Sports and FOX life channels — drew attention to the growing popularity of FOX Sports in Africa.
Soccer is big but the channel also broadcasts African boxing, basketball and cycling. It reached 125 million households during the West African Football Union cup of nations it created in 2016, he said.
The tournament hosts, Ghana, won that year and the next host is Senegal.
Van der Veer said that Fox, the flagship channel, has doubled its prime-time viewing in SA (3pm to 11pm) by shifting this programming an hour earlier.
After Fox and Disney join forces, they are expected to take on streaming giants Netflix and Amazon. Sounds like more disruption.
L FNG Africa programmes are found on channels on DStv (MultiChoice, Kwese, Black and StarSat (Chinese StarTimes Media SA)