Isidingo

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Along with Generations, The Africa Channel runs Isidingo. First shown in 1998, Isidingo is seen as a more daring soap than many others, one that mixes glamour and high drama in with serious social issues such as homosexuality, domestic violence, and AIDS.

Isidingo has had the on-and-off adventures of Cherel, a woman who solved the problem of her demanding boyfriend by hiring a hitman to kill him and his entire family! She then sank her claws into Barker Haines, a Daniel Benzali lookalike who is deeply involved in the many crimes of Horizon Deep. Cherel was written out for a few years, I believe in a prison sentence, but is back now.

Contrasting Cherel is long-running character Nandipha, pool shark, talk show hostess, and infected with HIV after being raped. Nandipha stayed on the show for many years, and was in a wide variety of stories which entertained and educated viewers, including one where she and two friends got drunk and took too much coke and had a threeway! This was unprotected sex and both men spent months taking meds for possible HIV infection. Not the type of story you'll see on most soaps these days.

You have to sign up, but you can find episode synopses that go back to the early part of the 00's, or longer. They also have some character profiles, although they seem to be 2-3 years out of date.

http://www.isidingo.co.za/FrontEnd/HomePage.aspx

Edited May 29, 2011 by CarlD2

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The most confusing part of Isidingo is the opening credits, which are very very slick and full of action, danger, intrigue. Then you watch the show, and you get some of that, but you also get a story about a full-figured woman learning to pole dance. This same woman is in the credits looked terrified of some danger. I guess it was pole-dancing...

Isidingo has an integrated cast and there is much more violence and gunplay than on Generations.

The episodes running on the Africa Channel are up to November 2007.

The current stories are:

Letti, a young mother, was for some reason in the crosshairs of a crime boss, Bra Fox. He told his son, Cyprian, to kill her. Cyprian could never quite go through with it, but Letti was terrified at all times, and borrowed a gun from a friend. Cyprian ended up being shot by a cop, Alec, when Alec got a tip on his whereabouts and thought Cyprian had a gun (it was a torch). Alec fled. Cyprian then died, and his father swore vengeance. The cops weren't sure whether the shooting was justifiable, and Alec's girlfriend, Lee, daughter to Barker Haines, began to investigate for herself. When she tried to talk to him about it, he backhanded her. I'm so used to seeing violence against women on soaps that I was pleasantly surprised to see this shown as being unacceptable, and that no matter how much pain he was in, she could never forgive him. She broke up with him immediately. Alec was already on an emotional meltdown before any of this and it just got worse and worse.

Bra Fox still planned to kill both Letti and Alec, and the police couldn't get involved. Letti got a fake driver's license and went away to secretly confront Bra Fox before he could kill her. She used a stun gun on him and took his gun. He tried to get to her, but she held steady, and was about to shoot when Alec walked in and told her to leave - he'd take care of it. After she left, Alec shot and killed Bra Fox and disposed of his body.

There are also a lot of business dramas with Barker Haines and various employees that are hard to follow. His daughter Lee works for him, along with her mother figure, Harriet, a woman who looks like she had some very bad plastic surgery.

A lot of story revolves around some other twenty or thirtysomethings who all live together. Len, a controlling and insecure type who is a talk show producer, Paul, who is one of the talk show hosts, Lolly, Maggie, and Len's girlfriend, Farrow. They liked to do bets that ranged from silly (being a slave, pole-dancing) to dangerous (driving too fast, driving your car into a canal that has a damaged drain pipe). When this story waned, they got another roommate, Priya, a cop who may or may not be a lesbian and whose presence made Maggie spout negative remarks about lesbians and blather on about Will & Grace. Priya's sexuality wasn't clear, but she did say she thought men were responsible for all violence and hatred. Her arrival coincided with a story where Paul was in the paper, kissing a male DJ. He was subjected to vile anti-gay comments on-air and in his personal life, repeatedly being called a pedophile and other slurs. He began to have a breakdown and against Len's protestations, quit his job as a talk show host.

This story is all over the place but I do appreciate them dealing with homophobia and also repeatedly saying that just because the law forbids homophobia does not mean it goes away. The scenes where Paul and Nan were hosting the show, friendly, positive, and then these bile-laden calls come through, they really did hit you.

Edited May 29, 2011 by CarlD2

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Ashley Callie, who played Lee, died from a car accident not too long after the episodes currently airing (early 2008). She was a very popular actress and a huge part of the show. Ultimately the character was killed off, and the actors who played her friends and family grieved for Lee the way they had grieved for Ashley.

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Scenes from the episode where her character was killed off:

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A very interesting paper on how the show deals with HIV/AIDS and sex.

http://ruc-dk.academia.edu/NorbertWildermuth/Papers/385990/Isidingo_The_Need_A_mainstream_approach_to_HIV_AIDS_communication_extended_version_

2007 party photos.

http://www.tvsa.co.za/default.asp?blogname=tv&articleID=4073

Memorable moments.

http://www.women24.com/Templates/Articles/Article.aspx?sid=13&cid=2498&acid=2637&cb=TVAndGossip/SoapBox&aid=48501169082444d39023bb2a42c3a346

[SFK]

The opening sequence reminds me of the original Central Park West credits.

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Oh my. Indeed. Sounds like some very juicy stuff. So interesting how these shows tackle things that would never make it past the network in U.S. daytime yet I'm getting a sense that these shows are less sophisticated in nuts and bolts kinds of ways.

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How many times a week did/does this air in SA?

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Yes. It's the type of thing that few shows would want to talk about, yet it does happen.

Isidingo is one of the glossier shows, since they go on location (everything on Generations seems to be indoors, and if any events happen, like fires, they are referenced, not shown), but you can see the ramshackle nature at times.

Cherel also seduced Haines Barker's son to get close to Barker, then when the son (Duncan) caught on to her, she killed him.

This is the level of cold-bloodedness that most US or even UK soaps wouldn't go near, because they would be afraid of going too far or ruining the character, but generally, viewers will eat it up.

When I clicked on the episode synopses at their official site, it looked like 5 days a week, one episode a day.

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There is a fair amount of behind the scenes stuff (a bit tabloidy, but with some nice photos) here.

http://teeveetee.blogspot.com/search/label/Isidingo

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http://www.horizondeep.co.za/

[SFK]

Wow, more than I thought. I was actually hoping for less as it would be easier to hypothetically catch up someday. I was thinking the same thing about Cherel, how murder is almost off-handedly mentioned so many times in regards to her. Made me think of what was said about Nancy Pinkerton not having a future as Dorian as she wouldn't be accepted by he audience. As if!

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Sorry, hope I didn't give too much away. There's still so much we haven't seen (and probably never will - I'm not even sure how many episodes the Africa Channel shows or if they go in a loop) so I just read what I can. I wish more clips were available.

This talks more about the behind the scenes chaos recently.

http://www.iol.co.za/tonight/tv-radio/more-suds-for-hit-soapie-1.1056086

Edited May 30, 2011 by CarlD2

[SFK]

I love the names... Braam, Marlien, Cherel, Breyton, Charlize...

Oh no! I meant more episodes than I hoped, not your info. which is great!

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Oh, I see. Well even if you do get to see them you can probably skip a fair amount, as many episodes seem to have filler stories (bets or musicals...hopefully not called Isidingo-Crossed Lovers).