Top shows to binge during lockdown
It has been long months of staying at home with enough time to binge on all the shows we previously had put on hold because there just was not enough time.
Though the country is slowly opening up and people are getting back to work, there will always be those days where one just wants to be a couch potato and get lost in a good story.
In case you missed them, here are our top five favourite local shows to stream.
● Blood and Water (Netflix)
Everyone is talking about it. The six-episode South African Netflix original mystery follows Puleng, a 16-year-old Capetonian pupil, in a quest to find her older sister who was abducted from hospital after birth.
The teen combines secrecy and strategy as she suspects a schoolmate to be her long-lost sister.
Starring 21-year-old actress Amamkele Qamata, Blood and Water shot to No 1 in at least five countries, including the US.
● Loving Thokoza (Showmax)
SA prison drama Lockdown’s award-winning creator Mandla N makes his eagerly anticipated feature film debut with Loving Thokoza, set in the chaotic months leading up to
SA’s first democratic elections in 1994.
The film stars Enhle Mbali Mlotshwa as Charlotte Grootboom, a recently graduated English teacher who comes to Johannesburg to stay with her uncle, while she looks for a job at a Model C school.
Unable to find work, she instead takes a teaching job at an apartheid-ravaged school in Thokoza, where she fights to set up a debating society.
● The Beautiful People (Showmax) The Beautiful People is a 10part documentary series that follows a group of American, British and Brazilian fashion models as they follow the sun to Cape Town for the summer season.
Each episode delves into the reality of their day-to-day interactions as they attempt to find work, make friends and build their careers over a threemonth period.
The show goes behind the scenes into the day-to-day, reallife business of modelling — the auditions, the challenges, the insecurities and the fierce competition for work over the peak season.
● Intersexions season 2
(Netflix)
An oldie but goody, Intersexions is an educational drama series that raises awareness about the spread of HIV/Aids and promotes safe sex.
From one person in the first episode, the drama follows a series of intimate encounters that entangles a group of people as they face the cascading consequences of HIV transmission.
The drama series stars an array of well-known actors including Thato Molamu, Noxee Maqashalala, S’dumo Mtshali and Mothusi Magano.
● S(he) (Showmax)
After qualifying to compete in the 2016 Olympic trials for swimming, Penny Kemp, an intersex teenager, is forced to undergo gender treatment while dealing with being ostracised by one of her teammates.
(S)he is a coming-of-age drama that speaks to what it means to be a teenager, what it means to be accepted, and what it means to stand up for who you are.