M-Net's Vuzu AMP announced the new dramas and acquisitions at the MultiChoice Content Showcase held just over a week ago in Mauritius.
So far only one journalist from Africa who attended it wrote about Vuzu Amp's shows and the actual programming announcement.
South Africa's press and TV critics were not invited and didn't attend, and Vuzu Amp's marketing and PR division didn't release the channel's upcoming programming announcement details to South Africa's press (so they couldn't write about it, even if they wanted to).
However, here is what Vuzu AMP viewers can look forward to on the DStv channel, which is as applicable for viewers in South Africa, and of course for the rest of the continent:
This new drama looks incredible and its strange that it's allocated to Vuzu AMP and not to M-Net (DStv 101) - it belongs on M-Net.
I saw a few minutes of the first episode in July and was blown away. The new drama follows the lives of new FBI recruits training at the Quantico base in Virginia.
Someone is a secret double agent (we don't know who); people are romantically involved with each other; there's overtones of 9/11 (and a conspiracy theory); someone is ejected in the first episode and thrown out of the programme - and although i saw just a few minutes I love this show already.
Yep, SABC3 which had Heroes doesn't have this new, reset 13-part mini-series which starts in America on 24 September and on Vuzu AMP on 29 September.
Again, why this is on Vuzu AMP if M-Net has Resurrection, Under the Dome, The Whispers, Game of Thrones, Arrow and Gotham and other such shows, beats me.
It's becoming harder to tell and just know what would be on M-Net and what would be on Vuzu AMP because Vuzu AMP's channel positioning (or M-Net's - depending on your point of view) seems off.
While the dividing line between M-Net and M-Net Edge is clear, Vuzu AMP is trying to - or feels like it is - becoming a "M-Net 2", instead of being its own thing.
The exact same type of shows should always be only on the one type of M-Net channel I feel so you instantly know where future, similar shows are going to show up.
Anyway, there's a lot of new humans in Heroes Reborn who discovery they have super powers, and a few familiar older faces will also return. And this time you'll be able to watch it in high-definition (HD) and series producer Tim King is back as executive producer.
Power - starts 31 October
Power, which is more like FOX's Empire and Tyrant, is gritty - but actually great (and ironically also stylish but in a strange way).
Power is also definitely not a youth television show - meaning its not actually suitable for Vuzu AMP.
Power suffers by comparison with Empire, but definitely still watch it. It's actually very good, and very much the same, although lesser known. Two seasons ( 8 episode first season, 10 episode 2nd season) are done and the show has been renewed for a third.
Power, a Starz drama like Black Sails on History (DStv 186), revolves around successful executive James "Ghost" St. Patrick who has a wonderful Manhattan penthouse and owns the nightclub Truth. But the truth is that he runs a drug empire - and now he wants out.
I wonder what would happen if you did a marketing focus group and had young and old people who've watched M-Net and Vuzu AMP and put them in a room, then show them Quantico, Heroes Reborn and Power, and ask them to guess what TV channel each show would be on.
I'm sure they would say M-Net for all of these besides perhaps Heroes Reborn, which could also easily be M-Net.
Besides these shows, How to Get Away with Murder (yet another extremely oddly Vuzu AMP allocated show that's an ill fit) will be back from 11 January 2016 for a new season.
