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Cape Town - Totally real, or completely fake? Cleverly edited, blatantly scripted, or truly spontaneous? Who cares? You won’t be able to take your eyes off these delicious reality series.
Stream these series for your ultimate guilty-pleasure binge-fest this weekend.
1. Trippin With Skhumba (Showmax Original)
With two episodes of this comedy-reality series, the first vernacular Showmax Original, ready to stream, sit back and treat yourself to a good hour’s worth of banter between Skhumba and each of his guests, plus an insight into how Siya Seya and Mashabela Galane got their start in comedy. Every week, Skhumba goes on a road trip with one of seven of SA’s top stand-up comedians to visit their hometowns and to discover the people and places that made them who they are.
2. Boer Soek ‘n Vrou (Showmax)
All 14 episodes of the most recent season of this Afrikaans matchmaking reality show, plus four previous iterations, are available for you to cringe/binge-watch. With entries for the next season closing later this month, now’s your chance to stream as many episodes as you can cram into one weekend - call it research to figure out if you have what it takes to find love while the entire country and their mother watches, judges and assesses you. Or just watch it for the fun of it.
3. The Bachelor SA (DStv Now)
Speaking of finding love in front of the entire country - the women who are competing for the affections and the floral tokens of admiration from South Africa’s first bachelor, fitness model Lee Thompson, have to have nerves of steel. We do not envy a single one of them for a single second (except maybe Michelle R, who has managed to emerge as the “belle” of the ball every time we see her, whether she’s doing an aquatic obstacle course, attending a cocktail party, or being goaded by the other contestants for being fake) - and this sense of relief is partly why this is such a delight to watch. Lee takes his shirt off sometimes, and that’s nice too.
4. The Voice SA (DStv Now)
Which South African music star would you want to coach you on your way to fame and fortune? Riky Rick, Riana, Francois van Coke or Lira? The four coaches sit atop their thrones and bid for the singers who audition before them by turning their red chairs when they hear something they like. So far, Francois van Coke’s a few singers behind the others, with only five members on his team, while the other three have each brought eight amateurs into their care. That means they’ve only got four more spots to fill each, and Team Van Coke’s got seven open places. Who will they recruit this week? It’s singing, it’s drama, it’s music, it’s fluffy and it’s feel-good, and how many things in your life are this uncomplicatedly fun?
5. Sacha Baron Cohen: Who Is America? (DStv Now)
Sacha Baron Cohen created, produced and stars in this comedy that hits a little close to home for NRA activists, politicians and infamous Americans, who, unbeknownst to them, are being punked by Baron Cohen in disguise as a number of new characters. Let loose on modern-day America, he exposes the gullibility, prejudices and abominable beliefs of those in power - from gun lobbyists to talk show hosts to politicians - in his latest satirical comedy.
6. Queer Eye (Netflix)
Binge the first two seasons before Season 3 arrives later this month. This is tear-jerking, feel-good TV at its most fabulous, with the five hosts dishing out all the feels as they coax hopeless real-life men out of their smelly, messy, hairy comfort zones and towards living up to the potential they didn’t even know they had. It’s so much more than a makeover show.
7. Tidying Up with Marie Kondo (Netflix)
Out with bullet journals, in with the KonMari method. Apparently container stores are being swarmed by inspired homemakers since this joyful reality series appeared on Netflix. Watch the diminutive tidy guru Marie Kondo transform lives, families and marriages with her simple philosophy. And be prepared to want to get rid of all your stuff - because if it doesn’t spark joy, it’s got to go.
