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City Press review: Tropika Island of Treasure
Rating: 3/5
Johannesburg - Tropika Island of Treasure (TIOT) is back for its eighth season, with a dynamic assortment of characters. The consumer contestants range from public entrants who claim to love drinking Tropika to personalities aspiring to have a celebrity status.
This season’s celebrity team includes Uzalo actor Nay Maps, Idols winner Karabo Mogane, host and actress Khanya Mkangisa, former Miss South Africa Melinda Bam, fitness guru Sbahle Mpisane, Afrikaans singer Brendan Peyper and radio personality Tumi Voster.
The strength of the production is the introduction of games master and presenter Katlego “Kat” Maboe, who brings an infectious burst of energy and rhythm.
The new season indicates how well TIOT has been received by local audiences and is big in terms of local reality show productions.
The show kicked off with an introduction to the celebrities and contestants, who received a hearty welcome at the Adaaran Prestige Vadoo, a private five-star luxury resort in the Maldives.
*Please remind me to enter the show next time.
It was all smiles and excitement for the consumer contestants, with the mystery of not knowing what to expect. They soon learnt that interaction with the celebrities was forbidden. They would be paired up with their celebrity partner later and together they’d compete for the R1 million prize.
They then had to compete in three individual challenges – sort of like auditioning to win the hearts of the celebrities for partnership opportunities. I think they were taken for an unnecessary ride here.
The face-off between consumer contestants kept my eyes fixated on the screen. Ultimately, Lihle Ngubo, Mark-Anthony Bingham and Lisanne Lazarus came out tops in the challenges and won a spa day, and the opportunity to choose which celebrity they wanted to be paired up with. Lizanne chose Melinda, Mark went for Karabo and Lihle took Brendan. The four remaining celebrities were left with the awkward choice of picking partners from the losing contenders.
As a first time viewer, I expected more fire and captivating television from TIOT, but the production value is really high. The challenges were well thought out and the pieces to camera were done pretty well. The show is still in its early stages, but it has the potential to keep the attention of the audience.
Watch Tropika Island of Treasure every Monday night on SABC3 (DStv channel 193) at 19:30.
