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Cape Town – Next week you'll see a unicorn on kykNET when not one but two brand-new locally-produced TV series starts on MultiChoice's Afrikaans channel from M-Net, that co-incidentally are both extremely well-done.
While the debut of an excellent TV show happens from time to time across a range of premium TV channels as first-run content, it's incredibly unusual to see not just one but two new series that are instantly highly-regarded, start at the same time on the same channel.
Lui maar op, Belinda kicks off on Monday, 8 July at 20:00 on kykNET (DStv 144), with Alles Malan a day later on Tuesday, 9 July at 20:00.
Both quality series get top marks for acting, writing, directing and editing based on preview screenings that happened ahead of their debut next week on kykNET, with both production companies that showed episodes to TV critics and the press for review purposes beforehand.
In another coincidence, both are single-camera shows – the one produced by Homebrew Films, the other by Red Letter Day Pictures.
Journalists and critics who are generally muted in exhibiting emotion during screenings and are deliberately guarded and shy away from giving instant-feedback immediately after press previews, laughed out loud several times during the Atlantic Studios filmed Lui maar op, Belinda; while the Paarl-set Alles Malan elicited spontaneous applause from the press when the credits rolled.
Lui maar op, Belinda, written by Chris Vorster, stars the iconic Brümilda van Rensburg and Annelisa Weiland, hamming it up with perfect comedic chemistry and who stand out as two of the ensemble cast leads in hilarious typecast-breaking roles, together with newcomer Wian Taljaard as the daft Dirkie.
The comedy details the antics of a famous fading actress forced to work the till – although she rarely does – inside a general dealer in George, along with the comedic coterie of staffers.
WATCH A TEASER HERE:
Alles Malan – from the husband and wife filmmakers Corné and Renée van Rooyen who also co-wrote the series and with Corné as director – is an instantly warm and relatable family drama, frontloaded with a beautiful Growing Pains-type opening theme montage of the various characters and a pitch-perfect theme song by Herman Kleinhans.
It stars Albert Maritz, Elsabe Daneel, Ivan Zimmerman, Nicole Fortuin, Marius Weyers and Sean-Marco Vorster as part of the ensemble cast, with newcomers Matheo Olivier and Greteli Fincham, as viewers are taken through a year in the extended family's interwoven lives.
SEE THE THEME MONTAGE HERE:
Both shows absolutely sparkle and deserve early renewals for second seasons.
