Blood and water is a South African teen crime drama television series, developed by Gambit Films for Netflix. The movie was set in Cape Town, with its 6-episode first season released on 20th May, 2020. In June 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a second season, which was released on 24 September 2021. The series won Best TV Drama at the 2021 South African Film and Television Awards as well as awards for cinematography and sound design.
The release of the 7-episode second season spawned a lot of excitement. This caught my interest and I decided to watch the movie. However, I watched the Season Two without watching the first season (this is not advisable). I was rather lucky to have watched the movie with my friends who gave me a detailed explanation of what happened in the first season.
The Blood and Water series follows a girl (Puleng) who transfers to an elite school (Parkhurst High School) when she suspects one of the students (Fikile) may be her sister who was abducted as a baby. Season one ended with Puleng telling Fikile that they were sisters.
Consequently, season two starts with Fikile getting a protection order against Puleng. However, as the movie progresses, it is evident that though Fikile acts like she is in denial, deep down, she starts doubting her life, parents and starts to make attempts to seek the truth. She took a DNA test and starts to see the school counsellor (Janet) who herself has some secrets to hide.
Meanwhile, Puleng continues her investigations which involves her going on dangerous sojourns, on one of which she was almost raped. Her friends, Wade and Zama, and even Fikile, were of great assistance to her, however she went through a lot of drama as her sudden change in behaviour put a strain on her relationship with her boyfriend, KB, her parents and brother. She was even caught with drugs and on the verge of being expelled from Parkhurst High School.
At the end of Season Two, the official DNA result showed that Fikile was Puleng’s half sister. Fikile’s mum was arrested and charged to court. Again, drama struck again as Fikile’s mum ended up being kidnapped. The last scene showed Fikile’s mother tied up, by Lisbeth (KB’s mother), telling her to clean up her mess.
In my opinion, there was a good balance of romance, crime and drama in the movie and the cliff-hanger at the end of the movie was a good way to end the movie.
