After seeing the first episode of Netflix’s new series Blood and Water, I was hooked. When I got to episode two, despite my anxiety kicked in and I had to shut down the show. I’ve been living with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) my whole life, but I’m not entirely sure of what is going to trigger an anxiety attack or cause me to be so stressed out that I can not function. While Blood And Waterthe story is compelling and the actors are amazing, it is the way that the story begins to unfold and that made me in favor of something “fluffy.”
Blood and Water follows high school student Puleng Khumalo (Ama Qamata) in search of his sister, Phumelele, who was kidnapped at birth. She ends up bumping into a girl named Fikile Bhele (Khosi Ngema) in a match that bears a striking resemblance to his lost sister, although it is not until her father’s arrest and his transfer to the prestigious Parkhurst the University that things really start. It is also the right of all this time in which we can get an idea as Puleng is going to go about the discovery of whether or not the Fikile is actually his sister.
Between stumbling across Fikile in an intimate moment, the theft of your mother, credit card information for a DNA test, and trying (and failing) several times to collect the DNA, unknowingly, Fikile, I could not stop shaking. Not only that, but the stress of not knowing exactly how the show would proceed had me on edge. Even drama I normally live to — as a possible love triangle between Puleng, Wade Daniels (Dillon Windvogel), and Karabo “KB” Molapo (Thabang it was cool) — I had difficulties to go ahead due to all the extenuating circumstances of development in the actions of the characters.
Does this mean that I’m not going to give the show another chance? Not in its entirety. As I said before, the actors are phenomenal and the story is worth telling (in addition to the soundtrack is absolute fire). While I am a fan of true crime, now I’m starting to fictionalized versions. Much as I avoid gore in the horror movies, by the reading of their Wikipedia pages, I most likely just check out a spoiler-filled recap so that I can be aware of what is coming on the show, and will be able to fast forward without the fear of losing something important.
