I beg to differ from u a bit,people want different things out there and remember that that is home to Karabo and Queen.This is obviously not rare to find among black people,people stay home till they are whatever or even die esp if they don't c any need to move out.As for Anne and Busi,it shows ke that it's an act,don't they ever feel they need the space and to give people their space.Again I guess it's one of those things u never understand.

if you never watched isidingo i suggest you do !i'm not trying to market isidingo or wat...but everything i said its not happening in generations you'll find it happening ...and i'm not saying they must do as guyz from isidingo are doing ,but they must be a bit realistic it mustn't be so obvious that its for TV entertainment (by the way i'm a very big fan of generationz i watch every episode )...but if you take isidingo for example its unpredictable and it reflects the life than we know..thats why they took and still gonna take all the awardz...You said people tend to leave their lives differently in da case of Busi and Anne ...Do you know of anyone (in real life) who leaves their lives like them ? i don't think so ...

if you never watched isidingo i suggest you do !i'm not trying to market isidingo or wat...but everything i said its not happening in generations you'll find it happening ...and i'm not saying they must do as guyz from isidingo are doing ,but they must be a bit realistic it mustn't be so obvious that its for TV entertainment (by the way i'm a very big fan of generationz i watch every episode )...but if you take isidingo for example its unpredictable and it reflects the life than we know..thats why they took and still gonna take all the awardz...You said people tend to be different in the way they do thingz, in da case of Busi and Anne ...Do you know of anyone (in real life) whom they reflect ? i don't think so ...

The problem with Generations is not so much that the character make-up/lifestyles in the soapie don't reflect real life that South Africans live, and I actually don't think that's necessarily the point for TV entertainment. The problem is the fact that the scripts are so badly written that the actual story lines to make sense at all, more especially when they get rid of a character or when introducing a new one. It becomes so annoyingly obvious what they (the producers I guess)are about to sway the direction of the developments.

Generation is the most pathetic soapie i have ever seen. I mean the soapie is unrealistic.For example, i watched it last week monday, Karabo was working at her bar (Tsalanang) and Anne was having a lunch meeting with a client, wherelse the Mashaba's were about to go to sleep (Dineo tried to seduce Kenneth and Keth Said " Dinny it's late lets sleep". I was like oh my word! Anne is having a lunch meeting and the Mashabas are about to sleep. Generations come on, I mean really.

That is so funny and I don't know how many times we've had these discussions at work about such errors on Generations. I say blame the editor for the final product because he should see this mistakes.

what errors are u talking about?

1. Kenneth Mashaba speaks North Sotho, his children speak
Sestwana whereas his brother speaks Zulu.
- Living in the same house, Karabo, Queen and Busi, yet
Karabo and Queen speak Sestwana and Busi speaks Zulu.
- all these people talk to eachother without ever
compromising and its ok.
2. Black people nolonger give their children English names. Christina???

The criticism leveled at Generations is absolutely correct to the last detail. The problem we have with Generations producers is that they don’t listen and they have a captive audience, especially with the Zulu and Xhosa people who often have no alternative because of strict bilingualism, unlike Sotho, Venda and Shangaan people who are often than not more than just bilingual.

As an aesthetic consideration, I despise and loathe studio-bound one-take serial dramas, popularly known as “soapies” after California ads companies that used to advertise in this non-credible genre. I never watch or follow what’s happen in them. The only time I got to watch them was when it was required by my beat for the newspapers I worked for. It’s a pity that in this country for acting in order to survive is to degrade their craft by acting in such a lousy TV genre.

However, at it goes Generations has a captive audience that can not watch SABC 3, SABC 2 or e.TV, which is primarily thrash Hollywood-driven and aimed at English-speaking Coloureds with the Africans a less of a consideration except uppity Africans in urban metropoles. SABC 2 has problem of programming; too often SABC 2 programmes looks like community TV programs; SABC 3 serves primarily a miniscule white audience and is out of sync with the South African reality. So SABC 1, through its local content for which the public has an enormous hunger, is able to programme horse shit alongside some sublime production.

Generations is, as various contributors has noted, pathetically incongruous as to be almost surreally funny. That Kenneth Mashaba speaks North Sotho, his brother speaks Zulu whose child is a Coloured, is plain idiotic. Ditto, for brothers Zamani and the other Ajax who speaks Zulu and Xhosa. Well, as for the dashing people working in high profile jobs living in a student-ish commune is absurd. The absolute lack of research into newsroom politics and high media politics on which the plot is based seems at best sketchy.

And, oh, there is the constant record-deal chaser as if black kids is all they ever do – chasing to get the record deal yet without showing a single record label and how it works – remember there was a guy whose looks was unappealing before who was kwaito star or something before this Ajax who is a wanna-be rapper.

What is also irritating is that this Generations that purportedly lauds black people’s achievement is a both an indictment and disgusting innuendo suggesting that black people have to do something evil in order to reach the heights of capital power. It is not clear how Kenneth got to have such economic muscle, but its dimly suggested that he obtained his monies in an illicit fashion in such a way that he has to maintain some shady characters in order to remove anyone who blocks his way. There was Jack the Murderer hired by everyone for their shady activities. Menzi was a power-monger who would stop at nothing to satisfy his ambitions. The takeovers he initiated left some families mourning. Ditto, for Kenneth who tricked the servants out of their dutifully gotten heirloom from a nasty Tau.. Now there was Karabo, the former paragon of virtue who would do no wrong, buying stolen babies –as if stolen babies were not silly enough in high-powered media environment. Generations does not serve escapist material at all; it is simply an infantile mind’s fantasy.

I do not know Muvhango and Isidingo enough, but from what I can see they have some “realness” of a South African story. Muvhango even goes shooting scenes outside of studio to give background and authenticity, which is a luxury for a one-take serial drama. It has the authenticity of rustic themes and current socio-issues to black people, such as BEE and how to maneuver in the corporate world, though the latter theme isn’t tackeld convincingly.

But Isidingo tries hard enough to be “relevant” by incorporating topical issues, which at times is, er, a bit cheap and tackily populist. Mining, a central plot for Isidingo, is a high capital world with little relevance to most South Africans, especially the coastal people, though it is hugely important in the economy; secondly, mining has such massive – socio-political implicatin that one cannot be seriously real without ever touching on these issues on the storyline, something I have never heard mention in the same breadth Isidingo – there is no labour issue and unions in Isidingo, if I’m not wrong, how real to SA is that when unionastion began in the mines? White journalists and uppity black viewers, who want to appear as if they know the genuine article when all they want is acceptance among white people by praising a lousy, ahistorical storyline of Isidingo must not fool us: Isidingo is simply a whitewash of South African history that white people want us to know.

WOW! Mduduzi that was a mouthful. As a Journo and aspiring scriptwriter I really like to get together with you to brainstorm a few ideas. Great comments but too long....