African Couch Potato

• S3 Ep18 News, Views and Reviews

  November is here already, and to welcome it in Gino takes a quick look at whats hot and happening on the local scene. We kick off the episode with a couple of reviews; Bad Influencer on Netflix is a drama centred round celebs buying and selling faux gear, followed by Slay Queens on Showmax. This docuseries picks up on first-hand accounts of those ladies who hook up for cash.In the news, the SABC TV licence crisis is not getting any better, while Multichoice's Shaka iLembe scored big on the job front.Finally, what to look out for on Netflix:The Big C - A suburban mother faces her cancer diagnosis while trying to find humor and happiness as well.My Sister's Husband - Amara deceitfully pawns her sister off to her husband which leads to a marital quagmire.Just Alice - A resourceful wife leads a double life, expertly juggling separate households and husbands while trying to keep her elaborate charade from falling apart.Unspeakable Things - Leanne Morgan discusses her rise to fame, family matters, and her one-time CBD experience. Being Eddie - Follows a comprehensive look at Eddie Murphy's life and career. while on Showmax:Outlaws S2 - Set in the lush but lawless land on the border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal, Outlaws is the story of two families at war with each otherThe Unspoken War - In 1993, four years after the last shots were fired in the "Border War", a peaceful end to apartheid was negotiated.Drop - A widowed mother's first date in years takes a terrifying turn when she's bombarded with anonymous threatening messages on her phone.Last Breath - A true story that follows seasoned deep-sea divers as they battle the raging elements to rescue their crew mate trapped hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface.High Ground - When a mysterious prisoner lands in his jail, a border town sheriff faces the wrath of a brutal cartel in this action-packed thriller.That should keep you going for a while - enjoy!Yes? No? Send us a textLet us know what you think, what movie or series you would like to see featured, or just to tell us how brilliant it all is:instagram.com/africancouchpotatotwitter.com/[email protected] WhatsApp Channel: Mzansi Film News, Views and Reviews YouTube; African Couch Potato - YouTube https://www.patreon.com/c/AfricanCouchPotato Gino Shelile’s profile • LetterboxdMember of the Film Critics Association of South Africa (FCASA)Produced by Ted Loukes and A10 Consulting [email protected] Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay© SANTE MEDIA 2025

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• S3 Ep17 ”Finding Optel” with Mikayla Joy Brown

  Where to after Silwerskerm? For 25 year-old Mikayla Joy Brown and her 30 year-old brother Jesse Brown the answer was the prestigious BFI London Film Festival.Their film Finding Optel just started streaming on Showmax last week so Gino grabbed the opportunity to chat to co-director, writer and lead actress, Mikayla, about what inspired her, how they pulled it together and what it was like being at the London Film Festival.The heartwarming, quirky detective story Finding Optel is all about teenager Claire Abrahams who runs a lost and found service. When the community dog, Optel, goes missing, Claire stumbles upon clues to another mystery much closer to home — the disappearance of her troubled older brother. Through quirky encounters, community secrets, and a trail of hope, Claire must solve her biggest case yet.Mikayla chats to Gino about the inspirations behind the film and her desire to paint a different picture of life on the Cape Flats, away from the usual stories of gangsterism and violence.“There is such beauty that exists in those communities. I wanted Finding Optel to portray a different narrative that is more hopeful than harrowing." says Mikayla.Yes? No? Send us a textLet us know what you think, what movie or series you would like to see featured, or just to tell us how brilliant it all is:instagram.com/africancouchpotatotwitter.com/[email protected] WhatsApp Channel: Mzansi Film News, Views and Reviews YouTube; African Couch Potato - YouTube https://www.patreon.com/c/AfricanCouchPotato Gino Shelile’s profile • LetterboxdMember of the Film Critics Association of South Africa (FCASA)Produced by Ted Loukes and A10 Consulting [email protected] Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay© SANTE MEDIA 2025

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• S3 Ep16 News, Views and Reviews

  Welcome to this week's serving of African Couch Potato; on the menu are some reviews and some news. As an appetizer, Gino looks at School Ties, nominated for an international Emmy and directed by previous guest Richard Finn Gregory, this alarming documentary series explores the culture of sexual grooming at all-boys’ schools in South Africa and is currently on Showmax. Our next course will also be on Showmax, an upcoming documentary series on the Angolan Bush war. Titled Unspoken War, the series takes a hard look at the over twenty year conflict between South Africa and the various liberation movements that eventually resulted in Namibian independence. The series drops on the 12th November.Another new show coming to Showmax is Slay Queens. Starting on the 31st October with new episodes dropping every Friday. Guess what it is about? Young women getting into transactional relationships with often older men for access to their bodies. But you knew that.As a side order Ngicela iVisa invites men to go on the show to publicly ask for a break from their wives so they can "tie up loose ends". It's going to end in tears.   To end proceedings, the National Film & Television Awards South Africa has announced its nominees for the 3rd iteration of the glamorous event. They include John Kani, Jerry Mofokeng, Albert Ntombela and Leon Schuster.Hopefully that has given you an appetite for some good old home-cooked content - get binging.Yes? No? Send us a textLet us know what you think, what movie or series you would like to see featured, or just to tell us how brilliant it all is:instagram.com/africancouchpotatotwitter.com/[email protected] WhatsApp Channel: Mzansi Film News, Views and Reviews YouTube; African Couch Potato - YouTube https://www.patreon.com/c/AfricanCouchPotato Gino Shelile’s profile • LetterboxdMember of the Film Critics Association of South Africa (FCASA)Produced by Ted Loukes and A10 Consulting [email protected] Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay© SANTE MEDIA 2025

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• S3 Ep15 News, Views and Reviews

  What's going down on the local scene? Welcome to African Couch Potato's News, Views and Reviews with your host Gino Shelile.This episode we kick off with Reviews, looking at three shows currently on Netflix.Monster - The Ed Gein Story - Season 4 of the anthology series about high-profile crimes or killers that captured public attention and notoriety. High Infidelity - Larissa finds out her husband is cheating on her with her colleague. She does the unexpected, forgives her husband and decides to team up with him to outsmart the colleague who's trying to destroy their marriage. But not everything is as it appears. Ruth & Boaz - a modern-day retelling of one of the most iconic love stories in the Bible. A young woman escapes the Atlanta music scene to care for an elderly widowed woman and in the process finds the love of her life and gains the mother she never had. While Gino was chatting to Brett Michael-Innes and Nick Ahlers for Showmax’s Khaki Fever, in a previous episode, they briefly touched on The Heart is a Muscle. Good news is, the film has been selected to represent SA at the Oscars. Sticking with silverware, Promax is about to grab the headlines, although this year, the ceremony will be online, which kinda takes the fun out of it all, and to wrap up, there are laughs a-plenty with a new show on Mzansi Magic, Fathers & Sons.And as they say... That's all Folks!  Yes? No? Send us a textLet us know what you think, what movie or series you would like to see featured, or just to tell us how brilliant it all is:instagram.com/africancouchpotatotwitter.com/[email protected] WhatsApp Channel: Mzansi Film News, Views and Reviews YouTube; African Couch Potato - YouTube https://www.patreon.com/c/AfricanCouchPotato Gino Shelile’s profile • LetterboxdMember of the Film Critics Association of South Africa (FCASA)Produced by Ted Loukes and A10 Consulting [email protected] Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay© SANTE MEDIA 2025

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• S3 Ep14 Zenobia Kloppers

  2025 looks like the breakout year for this episode's guest. With a starring role in Amazon Prime's Wheel of Time and her latest film, Finding Optel, having its international premiere at the prestigious BFI London Film Festival later this month, singer, actress, voice artist, writer and business owner Zenobia Kloppers joins us, via Zoom, from Cape Town to talk about her illustrious career.Widely acclaimed for playing the title role in 2019's Fiela se Kind, Zenobia's credit list on IMDB is quite a scroll, including Unseen, Khaki Fever, Lucky Fish, Blood & Water and many more . She took time out to chat to Gino about moving from theatre to the screen, working on Fiela with our previous guest, Brett Michael Innes (Khaki Fever, Fiela se Kind), directing, the difficulty of playing the tragic Sarah Baartman, and her new movie Finding Optel.The film tells the story of teenager Claire Abrahams, who runs a lost and found service where she locates anything and everything that has been misplaced. When the community dog, Optel goes missing, Claire must confront her brother’s painful disappearance to solve her biggest case yet.Finding Optel hits our screens on Showmax on Friday, 24 October.Yes? No? Send us a textLet us know what you think, what movie or series you would like to see featured, or just to tell us how brilliant it all is:instagram.com/africancouchpotatotwitter.com/[email protected] WhatsApp Channel: Mzansi Film News, Views and Reviews YouTube; African Couch Potato - YouTube https://www.patreon.com/c/AfricanCouchPotato Gino Shelile’s profile • LetterboxdMember of the Film Critics Association of South Africa (FCASA)Produced by Ted Loukes and A10 Consulting [email protected] Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay© SANTE MEDIA 2025

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