The Real Housewives Ultimate Girl’s Trip: Africa
Rating: 2/5
Whether your home was filled with the whimsical sounds of 7de Laan or Saturdays spent rehashing the advertising world in a Generations omnibus, soapies have always been a staple in some shape or form. Even South Africans wanted to know who shot JR Ewing, and pots were left burning any time Brooke Logan got involved with a Forrester family member in Bold and the Beautiful. As times change, the joys and lessons learnt from the genre have been passed on to reality TV.
A standout has been the highly successful The Real Housewives universe. One of its spinoffs has been Ultimate Girls Trip (UGT), which typically takes the cast members from different franchises and sends them off to a location that is away from their respective stomping grounds. The approach is typically more laid back, where we can see camera crews filming between takes, but effortless enough that it feels immersive.
In the first local season, housewives from all local provinces with a Housewives show were jetted off to Jamaica, delivering an incredibly memorable series. Even the late arrival of Londie London (which became its own storyline) was a great precursor to the Housewives of Durban debacle featuring Minnie Ntuli. It also brought more public attention to Mel Viljoen of the Tammy Taylor scandal.
However, their second attempt leaves a bitter aftertaste. Don’t get me wrong, UGT: Africa is the kind of chaos you should expect from a reality show, but through poor edits and overly self-aware castmates, it becomes wasted potential.
Like any soap, UGT: Africa has two heads, and the crown in this iteration went to Christall Kay and Catherine Matsitsa (popularly known as Dr C). The latter is reality TV gold and offers a masterclass throughout the series on how to best navigate a show of this calibre. From the very first group sitting (for the uninitiated, dinners and events are set up for drama, with excursions and coffee dates being hot spots for exposition) Dr C lays out a concise plan to assert herself as the lead of the show. The plan is adjusted accordingly when Zena Nyambu (her archrival from Housewives of Nairobi) makes a surprise appearance. When she becomes the bane of a fellow castmate, she promises to sway her into a friendship by the end of the show and does so with the calculated patience of a Portia spider. In a show built on glamour, quick wits and relatability, Dr C is wasted on a season that was starving for a meatier cast.
On the other hand, Kay proved she was, without a doubt, an icon of the local franchise. With her offbeat and ditzy humour, the blonde bombshell understood the art of reality TV entertainment. Her inclusion turns the trajectory of the season into the Christall Kay Hate Club. An issue that will forever define this season.
Through a series of bizarre misunderstandings, castmates Annie Ludick, Mariam Timmer and Princess Jecoco are dead set on having Christall on the outs. They wrangle in long-reigning Housewives of Durban stars Angel Ndlela and Jojo Robinson into a tight clique that operates to aggress against the Housewives of Johannesburg star. Instead of an entertaining 40+ minutes, episodes became overwhelming screaming matches.
Yes, this is the bread and butter of soaps and reality TV, but it’s the finesse of willing participants like Dr C that makes it worth the watch. The clique becomes obsessed with what other cast members did in their respective seasons. An odd thing to do in a show which functions as a well-choreographed improv session. As a result, they make watching each episode laboursome, like a fan club on a remote island with celebrities they carry obsessive hatred for.
The producers are also to blame for this, as they become a common fixture this season. Unable to juggle the powerful personalities, the show ends up with choppy edits and inconsistencies that make scenes jarring and confusing to follow. So much so that the root of the bullying that Kay eventually experiences feels like a blindside from the show.
The fancy trips taken on these shows are typically sponsored as an advertisement for the location they will be duking it out on. So it’s quite a let-down that very little time is spent learning about the interesting spaces they visit but rather focuses on trying to control the quarrelsome group.
Soapies have paved a path that led many to enjoy the escapism of reality TV. But watching this season of Ultimate Girls Trip, it’s more likely to pave the way to a society that would be keen on watching a real-life Hunger Games.
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