As I've said before, Side Dish started well, the pace was pulsating. The plot moved fast, Episode 1 felt like a standalone movie... so now that we are at the season finale, what does one make of the last episode and the series?
Episode 4 dished out all the secrets for everyone to see, from Poor Skhalo to the School - there was no place left for our ladies to run. Poor Joyce had to ditch her kids, Sli showed that she has some form of humanity and poor Amanda went to meet her cousin.
All this sounds riveting on paper but the last episode lost some of its momentum.There are some story choices that make no sense, unless it's a slight comment on how incompetent the SAPS can be.
The publicising of the girls' identity without the police going to their homes or places of work first? Then there's the police having an alert out but the traffic cops not having the same alert... and Appollo travelling from Tzaneen to Joburg to still be in time to be part of the highway chase? Maybe I'm just nitpicking.
Or maybe the show wants to extend the series beyond four episodes and I'm pre-judging it. But the surprise and engagement for me was gone. Everything became too on the nose; even how Phiwe's book was connected to a decomposing body in the newspaper was a stretch.
The series started on high note for me but ends on a not so high note. For an episode that had car chases and a main character dying, I wasn't moved. It lacked tension.
How did you guys see it?
It was not all gloom and doom - at least Amanda had her confrontation with her cheating husband which I loved and was a nice touch, but other than that, the episode did not leave me on the same high as Episode 1.
Unless there's still more to come... we shall see next week.
Rating
**1/2
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*trash ** ja nee ***ya zama shame ****now we cooking *****record this/don't miss it