SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE
SIGN IN SEARCH MENU
SOUTH AFRICA'S TV WEBSITE


Innocent Times

Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Miniseries

Rate:

7.6

Add to Show Favourites

Seasons


Season 1

Innocent Times is a South African television mini-series created by Geoff Newton and Justin Strydom of Shoot the Moon Productions for M-Net Original Productions, which makes use of unprecedented special effects to tell the violent story of a young woman with a deeply disturbing past intent on catching her up.

The mini-series premiered on M-Net on Wednesday 23 April 2008, at 20h00. It replaced the previous mini-series, Ella Blue.

There are six hour-long episodes in the series. The show carries an age restriction of 18VSN.

Repeats

Saturdays: 21h00, on M-Net Extra (Channel 103)

Synopsis

There were good times. There were bad times. And there were innocent times.

Innocent Times takes us on a road trip both past and present. It is the story of four people locked together by fate and their damaged pasts. It is a road movie, love story and a darkly comic thriller.

When Genevieve Scott-Thomas is let out of prison after 15 years, her son Zac is killed when he falls off a balcony. Most think it is suicide, but Gene knows differently.

To her it is a sure sign that her past is catching up with her. She decides to team up with award-winning journalist Jeff Levine and takes him on a journey into her dark past.

As she reflects on her life, we flash back to a landscape of the mind, a strange world where a murder spree took place.

The show has a stylized film noir and ‘comic book’ look. The lovers are idealized and the villain has a grotesque and slightly metaphysical quality - a man who has done a deal with the devil and now harvests the souls of the damned.

Innocent Times is very much a love story – as twisted as the love sometimes is, it is still very real and very much the driving force of our four main players. All are seeking to outrun their destinies and live the perfect life.

Characters

Young Genevieve Scott-Thomas

A beautiful but much damaged teenager who knows that her looks are the only asset she has in life. Deeply psychotic, Genevieve sees life as one long battle where only those who take their destiny into their own hands live meaningful lives.

Intelligent and manipulative, but at the same time naive and unworldly, Genevieve was also, for a time, romantic and obsessed with the notion of ‘true love.’

But the brutality of her life soon convinces her that ‘love’ is a cruel joke.

Older Genevieve Scott-Thomas

Still beautiful but hardened after her 20 years in prison, Gene now works as a hairdresser in Primrose. She is a complex person, not so much embittered by the events that shaped her life but still carrying a deep seated anger towards those who used and abused her.

Half of her wants to settle and live a quiet life – the other half would love a reckoning.

Zac Fouche

Zac Fouche is the classic rebel without a clue. During a stint in prison as a young man for minor drug offences Zac was raped and should have come out hating the world and the system that had done this to him. Yet Zac’s view of the world is naively optimistic.

Good looking, charismatic and somewhat versed in the ‘beat’ philosophy of Jack Kerouac, Zac cuts a romantic figure for Gene. But Zac is still damaged goods – a firecracker waiting to go off. All he needs is a cause – someone to fight for.

Gene recognises this in him and even thought she does love him, uses it to her own ends.

Eddie Brok

"The Reaper" has been Eddie’s nickname all the way from fighting as a mercenary in the Congo to the war on the borders up to when we meet him. He’s now a senior detective in murder and robbery in Durban.

Eddie sees the world as a battle ground. He’s a true psychopath in the Athol ‘Ivan the Terrible’ Visser style. Loathing mankind and corrupt to the core Eddie runs a brothel and sells his youngest girls to a list of high profile clients.

Yet, deep in his twisted psyche Eddie does, he thinks, love one thing – Genevieve.

During the 20 years of Gene’s incarceration, Eddie has been working freelance as an assassin. But now Gene is out and he has one job left to do.

Jeff Levine

Jeff is a good looking, highly intelligent and an award-winning writer. He has been following the story of ‘Baby Doll with a Gun’ for some years now and like other scribes he desperately wants to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

But Jeff has his own hidden agenda which makes a shocking revelation in episode four.

He too is damaged goods - the little boy who lost his mother and father at 10, was adopted by a benevolent Jewish couple – hence the name.

When he finally gets to meet with Gene he doesn’t for a minute think he is going to find himself a player in the last and final bloodiest chapter.

Zac Jnr/Marlene

Zac is Gene’s now 24-year-old son. Zac is gay and a talented female impersonator but also lost to the world of hard drugs.

Consequentially, he lives in a complete fantasy word where dreams of stardom mix with the brutal world of a cocaine addiction.

Zac’s world is sordid and chaotic, yet when he’s performing on stage at the seedy Club Berlin, he finds a momentary escape in the music and applause.

Zac’s life is a true tragedy - short and painful.

Stills

Quentin Krog and Nina Milner as Zac and Gene


Juliana Venter as Older Gene


Justin Strydom as Eddie Brok


Quentin Krog and Nina Milner as Zac and Gene
Credits

Executive Producer, Head Writer
Geoff Newton

Creative Producer, Writer
Justin Strydom

Associate Producer
Sibusiso Mambo

Director: On Location
Alex Yazbek

Director: Chroma Key
Tristan Holmes

Visual Effects Supervisor
Greg van Niekerk

Colourist
Keith Fraser

Lead 3D Artist
Carlos Vilela

Director of Photography
Trevor Calverly

Sound Design
Shaun Fourie

Head Editor
Sandra Viera

Production Co-ordinator
Lucia Meyer

Related Articles

Must See: Innocent Times
(contains behind-the-scenes pics)


Season 1 Cast

as
Eddie Brok

as
Jeff Levine

as
Older Gene

as
Young Gene

as
Zac Fouche Jnr.

as
Zac Fouche Snr.

as
Cafe Owner

as
Cameo

as
FJ McNickel

as
Guest Star

as
Guest Star

as
Guest Star

as
Store Owner

as
Warden Derrick Pieters

as
Zac's Father

as
John


LATEST ARTICLES

New on TV today: Saturday 9 November 2024

The Real Black Pearl opens up on BET and Kom ons Braai: Celebs returns to VIA.


Blink Kant Bo Teasers - December 2024

Intriguing background details about Orhan are unveiled during a publicity shoot for Ferit and Seyran.


New on TV today: Friday 8 November 2024

Gangland with Annika Larsen gets topical on e.tv and eReality reveals Secrets of Miss America.


Grab your camera! Encounters calls for documentary films for 2025 festival

You can be an emerging talent or documentary master and your film can be short, mid-length or a feature.


New on TV today: Thursday 7 November 2024

Dating is Written in The Stars on TLC and Crashed: $800 Million Festival Fail airs on S3.


Mzansi Magic's big culling! Umkhokha & My Brother's Keeper cancelled too

Every current primetime daily show will be binned in 2025. We unpack why.


Ask TVSA: How to submit a music video to Channel O

You've worked your magic on a vid and want to see it on TV. Here's what to do.


New on TV today: Wednesday 6 November 2024

The Old Man 2 drops on Disney+ and the final season of Evil begins on M-Net.


Kelders van Geheime crystal ball: new characters and a dirty doctor crush

Former Isidingo and Suidooster star Maurice Paige looks set to bring cloud for Shireen's husband.


New on TV today: Tuesday 5 November 2024

Saras & Kumud begins a run on Star Life and Gordon Ramsay's Future Food Stars starts on BBC UKTV.

LATEST SITE ACTIVITY


More activity at TVSA Central



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS



LATEST SOAPIE TEASERS





×
×

You browser doesn't have Flash, Silverlight, Gears, BrowserPlus or HTML5 support.