Synopsis: A financially-challenged teen finds himself in a world of luxury after a prestigious scholarship sends him to an exclusive school for the one percent.
The series was quite entertaining, good storyline (if you overlook all the coincidences), and cinematography was great.
Acting and casting were the biggest wins for this movie. Young and fresh talents and they all did really well. Special accolades to Ishaya (played by Mike Folarin), he owned and interpreted his role perfectly. I really liked the fact that they allowed the young talents shine while the older Nollywood stars were just supporting in the background.
The series had some really cute scenes that would just make you go awwwwwwwn, especially every scene where we had Reggie and Zina (those people were so cute!).
What did I not like?
The story. Sounds like I am contradicting myself yea? But the truth is that while the storyline was not bad, it was not great either. I felt like they just picked familiar tropes from different teen and young adult movies and joined everything together. Too many clichés. I personally felt like they did not try to add anything new or original. I rolled my eyes several times while watching this movie.
Also, I did not really appreciate how the plot progressed. One of the worst things a show can do is create plot-points in a vacuum first , and then twist and bend character behaviours into totally unbelievable shapes in order to force an unnatural progression of the story. This was very common in this movie, even when things did not make sense, they would conveniently make it work.
Look at Adufe for example, what nonsense did they do with that character??? One minute she is just a teenager dating another teenager, she feels bad because her boyfriend didn’t share his travel plans with her and the next minute she is at a club dancing and boom, she is suddenly a gang leader’s wing woman (Iyawo Oga 😭), next thing she is organizing kidnaps, she is overthrowing a gang leader and keeping him in a cage. How?????
Watching this series, I had so many questions
- What kind of school is Wilmer Academy? Secondary school or A levels? Adesua the art teacher even referred to the school term as a ‘Semester’ and I was like abi it’s a type of University?
- Considering the level of freedom they had and how matured they looked, let’s agree that Wilmer Academy is for A level students. The truth is that a random girl in Isale Eko has most likely never heard about “post secondary school” and even if she has, after finishing her own secondary school education (if she attended secondary school- since there are so many free schools in Lagos) she would have been thinking about gaining admission to Unilag, why exactly would she want to attend a post secondary school institution?? How is that her dream? I did not get the “my dream is expensive” line to be honest, it seemed forced.
- Since they knew that Ishaya cheated, why did they not just expel him from the beginning? They could have given the scholarship to Denrele regardless, who would question them
- Did Ishaya attend secondary school before Wilmer? It wasn’t clearly stated if he had some sort of education but I was looking forward to seeing him struggle to fit into the school for the rich, seeing the fish out of water experiences but they suddenly abandoned his schooling experience (except the art class) and it became a crime thriller. Why?
- Ishaya stole just 150k and 2 big gang masters left their club to go to his house to harass him but Joe stole drugs worth millions and disappeared and everyone just moved on and forgot about him. Why???
- They installed cameras in the school but Frank was kidnapped in broad daylight, in a school for the nation’s 1%, the kidnapper did not even bother to use a mask and the police did not go to the school to get the footages. Why???
- Ishaya confessed that he kidnapped Frank but Frank still allowed him and his family to stay in his house, and his mother just agreed like that? After paying 20million ransom, how??
- Ishaya also confessed to his other crimes; and nothing happened??? They just forgave him like that? He even still won the art grant, how????
Besides the issues mentioned above, there was another problem. Attention to details did not work for me. Let me explain;
Far from Home talked about poverty without actually showing poverty. Even the house in Isale Eko looked too doctored, the cracks seemed too intentional, it did not look lived in, it looked like a set. They were not able to capture the vibrancy of living in the heart of Isale Eko, the neighborhood was just too quiet to be real.
An ambulance came to pick and drop Ishaya’s father because of his back pain, where??? In which Nigeria?? Even people that are not poor don’t have access to ambulances except in life and death situations. For Rahila’s birthday, she wore a cone shaped birthday hat and they had a cake with lit candles, where????? That might be international best practice but that’s not how birthdays are celebrated in the trenches o, DFKM! (It’s the tiny details)
Oga Rambo stormed Wilmer Academy with thugs to kidnap Carmen (that part did not make any single sense but let me not talk) and these thugs wore corporate shirts and trousers with actual leather belts, one of them even wore suspenders and to make matters worse, they had tasers! Haba! Nibo?? (Where) How??
On the other hand, they wanted to show the children of the “one percent of the one percent”, and that was all they could come up with to show luxury and affluence? I was not impressed.
The language was somehow. The dialogues sounded like an adult’s idea of what teenagers sound like. Even Government, a gang leader was speaking big English, baba said you have the “temerity” to steal from us.
Then it hit me!
The main reason why i did not like this series was because It lacked authenticity. (Don’t even let me talk about the absence of nostalgia)
The biggest flaw with the series Far from Home was the fact that it was actually far from home. Far from the reality, cultural and environmental nuances you would expect from a movie showcasing that aspect of Nigeria, it was not relatable at alllllll, the tiny but familiar elements were missing.
Personally – I was irritated by the stunning lack of originality and the endless clichés, so yea, it was not my cup of tea.
Is this series a win for Nollywood? Maybe But NMR says it was not a bad watch. As a matter of fact, many would absolutely love it – impressive production values helped by good acting. This series is available on Netflix.
Rating: 6.8/10
Have you seen it? Do you agree with this review? Share your feedback in the comments section below.
Read the review of Blood Sisters here.
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