After 6 long days we got our second episode of SABC 1's 4 part series Side Dish. Did the second episode live up to the great opening? Let's dig in...
After the hedonism and body count of the first episode, Episode 2 wouldn't come out of second gear until the last minutes, which is a pity but at least it had some great performances to entertain. Also, the series felt like it's setting up some reveals that it will later pay off.
What was set up:
- Amanda had a miracle baby and the chances are it's Richard's aka Dead Side Dish and not the husband's. This has left Amanda as an alcoholic rallying from guilt at killing her baby daddy.
- There was so much guilt going around Joyce can't even touch meat. Her penance is to give her customers extra meat for free, something the husband won't appreciate - thus far he suspects shrinkage.
- Poor Phiwe is the most guilt ridden of them all. Her engagement is gone and she's basically a hobo who paints her wall with images of what the fab four did. Thuso Mbedu did some heavy lifting in this episode and visual flare supported her performance well. I foresee a SAFTA in her future.
The only character who outwardly seemed impervious to her guilt was the slay queen Sli but her temper at her now up-and-running Boutique staff says otherwise. Sli, with every episode, is becoming the ice queen and Jo-anne Reyneke is enjoying her to death.
Episode 2 also gave us more of the men this time around.
We see Apollo as a caring policeman, Sli's husband is as crooked as they come when it comes to tenderprenuers and Amanda's husband is oblivious to the miracle baby not being hers.
I predict there's some cool drama cooking with all these guys coming up in the future.
What I liked about Episode 1 was how fast the pace was but Episode 2 started doing the standard thing of dragging events to fill in a 48-minute episode.
By the time Phiwe appeared as the crazy hobo, writing and painting about what happened, you didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know she's going to go down so for the episode to keep dragging out her eventual demise was a tad tedious.
Amanda's back and forth became less and less dramatic as the show progressed but even with that, there's still a lot to love for Episode 2.
It's quite clear that come Episode 4 ...the question is which lady will be left standing?
Poor Phiwe bit the bullet in this episode and it was sad... wonder who's going down next week.
Episode 2 gave us a sense of the aftermath and let us watch the ladies dig their grave just a little, just minus the sexiness and energy from the first episode but with some top class acting.
Hopefully Episode 3 doesn't slow down the pace and trusts in the audience's smarts to put 1+1 together like in Episode 1.
It felt like: Less like Girls Behaving Badly with murder - more like the first act of Murder She Wrote
Rating :
***
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* rubbish ** ja nee ***ya zama ****Umoya yam uya vuma *****record/clear your schedule for this one