Netflix's Élite cancelled after 8 seasons but get ready for a Spain-SA prep school cross-over with Blood & Water.

by Thinus Ferreira

Netflix has announced that its Spanish private school set drama series Élite has been cancelled after eight seasons but get ready for a cross-over of characters when Élite's Las Encitas in Madrid and Blood & Water's Parkhurst College in Cape Town do a student-exchange programme.

According to Netflix, Fikile in Blood & Water, portrayed by Khosi Ngema, will arrive and show up in the 7th season of Élite produced by Zeta Studios which is released on Netflix on Friday 20 October. 

In turn, Ivan, portrayed by Andre Lamoglia, will arrive and show up in the 4th season of Blood & Water produced by Gambit Films which will be released on Netflix in 2024.

Netflix previously newed Élite for a 7th and 8th seasons but has now announced that the Spanish private school set series will end after its 8th season which is currently in production. 

Netflix previously said that Mina el Hammani, who played Nadia during Élite's first three seasons, will return for the final season. Omar Ayuso who portrayed her troubled brother Omar during the first five seasons, will be back for a new story arc in the 7th season.

Carlos Montero, Élite creator, who spoke at a press conference in Madrid ahead of Élite's 7th season debut, said that he, along with co-showrunner Jaime Vaca and Netflix, had decided to end the series but that it has been "several incredible years in which I've met wonderful actors, we've worked with all the directors we wanted to work with".

"We are shooting the eighth season which will be the last season of Élite," Montero said, noting that "Élite changed everyone's life".

"There are actors who started with us and it has been their springboard to be now world stars, it is happening to this cast and it is a pride to have contributed to that and to know that they have seen us all over the world and liked it."

TV NEWS ROUND-UP. Today's interesting TV stories to read - 3 September 2020.

Here's the latest news about TV that I read and that you should read too:

■ Must-see cheap production values: Doctor in an Indian medical drama series uses Scotch Brite scrubs as "defibrilators".

■ South Africa's hyped but disappointing Blood and Water on Netflix doesn't really reflect South African life.
Compared to the much better done better Grassroots on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) that is much more nuanced.

■ Islamaphobic? Joy Reid on MSNBC (StarSat 263) has no apology over her "The way Muslims act" comment that sparked outrage, says her comments were misconstrued.

■ China's propaganda channel CGTN (DStv 409 / StarSat 266) has scrubbed its website and removed anything to do with its anchor Cheng Lei detained in China, and deleted videos and references to her on its social media.

■ In America advertisers now want to cancel their campaign out of fear that the upcoming 2020 TV season will be disastrous for ratings given the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

■ The most toxic behind-the-scenes on-set stories of Netflix's cancelled The Patriot Act.

■ A new low for Indian television news.
- And in Australia: When television news is bad news.

■ Can satellite pay-TV survive in the video streaming centric world?

■ The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime Video will travel the world again after Covid.

■ The 10 most expensive to produce Netflix Original series and how much they cost.

■ Tanzania's shocking crackdown on media continues as Clouds TV becomes the latest TV channel to get banned.

■ How watching TV may relate to depression.

■ With new Wan Luo TV channel it's the first time people in northern Uganda will have a national TV broadcast inthe Luo dialect.

■ Scandal: Kerry Washington would have abandoned the Scandal series if Fitz was ...

■ An Indian journalist's shocking letter about working for Republic TV.

Netflix orders a second season of its trope-filled South African teen drama series Blood & Water, ensemble cast expected to return.

by Thinus Ferreira

Netflix has renewed its recently released teen drama series, Blood & Water, its Netflix Original drama filmed in Cape Town, South Africa, for a second season.

Netflix renewed the Gambit Films production, executive produced by Bradley Joshua without first locking up contracts with the emsemble cast who were all surprised by the news.

Khosi Ngema, Ama Qamata, Natashoa Thahabe, Gail Mabalane, Cindy Mahlangu, Thabang Molaba, Arno Greeff and Dillon Windvogel are however expected to return for a Blood & Water's second season.

The teen-trope filled Blood & Water apparently did well in views in Netflix in several countries, although the video streaming service doesn't release show-specific ratings, despite lukewarm reviews from TV critics.

As a Netflix Original Blood & Water looks derivative compared to Spain's ELITE also found on Netflix and in its third season, and The Girl from St. Agnes from MultiChoice's Showmax that both also revolve around private high school set teen mysteries.

"It's a privilege and a blessing to return to our beloved characters as we delve further into the greater mystery and scandals of their world," says Nosipho Dumisa in a prepared statement and who is Blood & Water showrunner and director who will return to help the second season.

Dorothy Ghettuba, Netflix's Amsterdam-based boss for Netflix Originals from Africa, says "We know our viewers were left with questions and those answers await them in the second season of Blood & Water".

Bradley Joshua says "we can't wait to welcome everyone back for an even more exciting season 2".


ALSO READ: TV REVIEW. Netflix's Cape Town-set youth series Blood & Water is a shallow déjà vu but the teens will splash in it.
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. South Africa's Blood & Water teen angst drama from Gambit Films looks like it's another rip-off from Netflix's Spanish series ELITE using The Kissing Booth's production design values.

TV REVIEW. Netflix's Cape Town-set youth series Blood & Water is a shallow déjà vu but the teens will splash in it.

by Thinus Ferreira

You know what they say about the kiddie pool: The water's warm.

Blood & Water, the 6-episode South African series from Gambit Films releasing during the global Covid-19 interregnum remains at the all-too-familiar and shallow end of the content youth genre pool where it's safer - with some splashy drone-shot visuals and a CW network-type story that its older teen audience will likely be more than fine with.

Following after Queen Sono as Netflix's second commissioned Netflix Original for Africa, Blood & Water is an achievement in existence for South Africa's TV industry but disappointingly never enters a new or deeper side of the pool to break bigger waves.

It doesn't swim out further than where pay-series like ELITE, The Girl from St. Agnes and the well-done Grassroots, from Clive Morris Productions seen on Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) and Showmax, have already gone before, but it does bring another Cape Town-lensed high schooler drama to an international audience.

Stocked with all-too-familiar TV tropes and aptly done teen-emo mood music to suit, Netflix's Blood & Water borrows a lot for its teen melodrama scripts from the real-life tabloid headlines of the kidnapping of Zephany Nurse.

Zephany who was abducted in 1997 from the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, grew up with people she believed were her "parents".

Older people in real-life would already have read over months in the YOU and People SA magazines all the uncanny twists and turns.

In TV form however Blood & Water - executive produced by Bradley Joshua, Nosipho Dumisa, Daryne Joshua, Travis Taute and Simon Beesley, with Nosipho Dumisa also directing, gets a C- with its youth audience that will likely be unperturbed about the roughly inspired copy-and-paste story.

They will probably find the Blood & Water story about a sister looking for her sibling who was abducted 17 ago a novelty.

Looking like a more scripted version of Clifton Shores with some forced acting, added obligatory "edgy" sex scenes and perfunctory profanity, the 16 age restriction makes Blood & Water unsuitable as family viewing - an odd creative decision from Netflix.

It's difficult not to see how Blood & Water doppelgänger-ed a lot of what came before it if you've already seen streamer series like Spain's ELITE on Netflix and then The Girl from St. Agnes from MultiChoice's Showmax that went before it - along with a scenic set design déjà vu from Netflix's The Kissing Booth that was also done in Cape Town and even using the same film locations like Camps Bay and the University of Cape Town.

While the Blood & Water script, acting and set design at moments seem to hint at deeper plot promise, character layers as well as symbolism that will later be explored, it frustratingly never arrive.

Instead, the show leads the audience through a rushed and mostly shallow 6-episode paint-by-numbers story with some pacing issues in the first half that improves in the last few episodes.

"If I didn't think I'd be much happier" - a quote from Sylvia Plath - flashes within the first few seconds of the opening episode. Instead of foreshadowing any deeper bildungsroman theming, character-building or symbolism it is a prescient warning about how to approach Blood & Water as you watch it.

Towards the end when one character says ""It's just high school drama. It will blow over" the meta-remark comes too late.

Under the older and more experienced cast Gail Mabalane shines most convincing as mom Thandeka Khumalo with authentic emoting gravitas. Among the younger cast especially Natasha Thahane excels and stands out as sassy maroon beret prep school social activist Wendy.

Honourary mention goes to Ama Qamata as the ingénue Puleng thrust into the make-believe world of Llandudno where teen house parties apparently come with a bouncer.

A stilted Ryle de Mornay should have spent a lot more time with a dialogue coach. His delivery is flat and unconvincing as this series' obligatory teacher who is having the affair with a student. It's dangerous to cast "sexy teacher" on looks alone.

The acting of a clearly too-old-for-high-school Arno Greeff in the role of bisexual Chris also needs a lot of refinement - one of many one-dimensional characters who are introduced but of whom the backstory, motivations and side-arcs are simply largely left unexplored.

What looks best in Blood & Water is a visually idealised Cape Town achieved through well-done camera drone work and scene-setting editing.

The lighting overall gets high marks with attention to detail and the camera angles that will be used - ranging from difficult to lit club bathroom scenes, to light-falling-through-the-window half-profile illumination.

Script-wise the 6 episodes feel rushed with a lot of character motivation never explained. What seems like it might become new plot points are started but not further developed.

Several unrealistic scenes throughout the 6 episodes, as well as set design mistakes will, again, probably not bother the younger crowd but they do detract from Blood & Water's authenticity.

Besides the poor teachers' cars, private schools like the fictional Parkhurst College actually have rows of SUVs parked outside. South Africa doesn't do American-styled school-staircase media briefings, and not even private schools have flanked banner flags outside the front door.

At no school newspaper or magazine will the kids ever be able to publish anything without strict prior teacher editorial oversight first but it happens in Blood & Water because it's needed to advance the plot and character conflict.

One hopes that after Ted Sarandos, Netflix's chief content officer, and new-hire Dorothy Ghettuba, who leads African originals at Netflix, toured South Africa as the streamer's latest outpost earlier this year in which they want to produce more original content, that they will be mindful in focusing on commissioning projects that make South Africa and Africa shine in unique stand-out series instead of programming that's more additive in nature.

Netflix Originals for Africa should be "Original" - new stories, on a canvass with Netflix budgets resembling what's given to other regions.

It should be projects that showcase Africa, projects that expand and go further than content that had already been done; projects that tell a story in budget and scope that existing pay-TV in South Africa and Africa can't or won't.

Blood & Water is fine but there already exists enough of this type of story. Netflix that has more than adequate lung-capacity can and should go jump in, and dive deeper, into a bigger story pool.


- The review is based on Blood & Water's first season of 6 episodes.

TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. South Africa's Blood & Water teen angst drama from Gambit Films looks like it's another rip-off from Netflix's Spanish series ELITE using The Kissing Booth's production design values.

by Thinus Ferreira

The teaser trailer for the angst-filled, 8-episode South African teen drama series Blood & Water coming to Netflix gives the terribly bad first impression that it's yet another shallow-looking, rip-off of the Spanish series ELITE - making use of the same-lame production design values of Netflix's The Kissing Booth teen romcom movie that was also filmed in Cape Town.

In my opinion local teen dramas like The Girl from St Agnes and Blood & Water don't need to be high art. It's mostly entertainment fluff.

Yet, when they're so extremely derivative in nature that they do little to nothing to grow, expand and to improve South Africa's TV industry or standing of the local industry in the world, it's well ... bad.

The trope-filled and disappointing Queen Sono came and went on Netflix and accomplished little besides being a footnote as "the first South African Netflix Original".

It failed to move the needle forward in terms of showing what (more) South Africa is capable of, but on another platform in the way that The Crown does for the United Kingdom, Osmosis did for France, 3% did for Brazil or India's incredibly impressive first Netflix original Sacred Games.

Meanwhile the high school set drama series Grassroots on 1Magic (DStv 103) - that yes, also had a swimming pool feature prominently - has been great with a fantastic first season, a suspense-filled, cliffhanger ending, and completely embodies what a Netflix or Showmax series should be.

The story and characters go beyond what has been on television up to now. Grassroots, produced by Clive Morris Productions, expands the teen drama series within the South African context with new themes, topics, plot and characters.

Spain's ELITE did the same and, through Netflix, advanced that country's industry and what the world sees Spain as being capable of producing in terms of television.

But back to Netflix's stale-on-arrival Blood & Water that from the outset even in terms of how the trailer has been cut, looks extremely unoriginal. The main character needs help to find out whether the star of the school's swimming team is really her long-lost sister who was abducted at birth.

It all comes across as very Days of Our UCT Lives - Gossip Girl on Upper Campus edition especially after Quinton van der Burgh did the scripted "reality" series The Shores which was followed up by a second season renamed Clifton Shores.

So let's analyze:

Where have you've heard - or seen - any of these tired TV tropes before?

The outsider teenager - mostly a bookish, studious girl - gets dropped into the world of the clique-ey, rich elite kids who initially don't want anything to do with him/her.

There's the private school that has a pool - the setting of a mystery.

The private kids are beautiful from the outside but ugly from the inside.

The private kids all hide deep, dark secrets.

The private kids do parties with alcohol at mansions or wealthy homes, while the poor kids who are outsiders, somehow get access or attend at the mansion where then bad things happen, including sex that is actually rape.

How about the University of Cape Town as a backdrop for a fancy-schmancy elite school; or Camps Bay as "the beach" where the rich hang out.

Then there is always the "mystery" - someone is either dead or missing, or has a secret family link with someone else in the story. Someone who is not part of of the rich, privileged ones, is on a quest to search and solve the secret(s).

Of course there are teenagers who are smoking - some adults too ... because we have to somehow prove or emphasize that Netflix and Showmax ain't SABC1 Simunye y'all.

And don't forget preppy school blazers, kids wearing headphones, teachers with secrets, outsiders becoming insiders but "losing themselves", snobbish kids forced to eventually see the error of their ways (usually through public shaming), and the silly "bestie" who is in on the main character's secret and the one who comes up with some plan.

Surprise! Someone is usually revealed to be bisexual.

Cue Blood & Water from Gambit Films - filmed in Cape Town and making use of Camps Bay, Cape Town mansions and the University of Cape Town (UCT) that in this one is subbing as Parkhurst College.

Blood & Water, visually and story wise apparently leans heavily in terms of story, characters and production design elements on where Netflix's ELITE, Showmax's The Girl from St Agnes, and even Netflix's teen romcom The Kissing Booth have all gone before.

Hopefully, hopefully Blood & Water isn't yet another yawn-inducing Gossip Girl retread rip-off of the excellent ELITE or the copy-and-paste lookalike The Girl from St Agnes that was already hugely problematic for its similarities to ELITE.

Add into the mix the seen-before production design elements from The Kissing Booth that now appear in Blood & Water and it leaves very little that inspires confidence that the Gambit Films show is going to be very original. Already we've seen:


The outsider will once again be depicted on the steps and literally being pushed around:
Blood & Water

ELITE:

The Kissing Booth:

Pools of trouble - the pool is yet again the scene of a central mystery:
Blood & Water:

ELITE:

Camps Bay is where the kiddies hang out:
Blood & Water:

The Kissing Booth:

Party mansion:
Blood & Water:

The Kissing Booth:

Hot jocks always wear headphones, in school, like so:
Blood & Water:

ELITE:

The preppy rich blonde girl on the left from ELITE has money but a lot of personal problems. The same will very likely be the case for the preppy rich blonde girl, with a really very bad wig on, on the right from Blood & Water:

Speaking of which, the girl with the very bad wig on is Greteli Fincham who plays Greece van Rensburg. She's will be in The Kissing Booth 2 as well. And does the publicity photo pose not remind you of ... oh yes:

At least Shamilla Miller isn't scared of getting typecast. After she was Jenna Galloway from The Girl from St. Agnes on MultiChoice's Showmax she puts on a new red school blazer to now be Riley Morgan in Blood & Water, again playing a private high school bestie:

It's all so much the same, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you had seen Blood & Water like two years ago already and just skip over it all.


ALSO READ: SPOILER ALERT. Here are some of the similarities between The Girl from St. Agnes on Showmax, and ELITE on Netflix.