queen sono review

1 day, 10 hours. Subtitles on Queen Sono also identify the wide variety of languages spoken onscreen (in addition to English), which range from Russian, French and Afrikaans to languages like isiXhosa, isiZulu, Xitsonga and several others that weren't granted this sort of exposure when, for example, Jack Bauer spent several hours dealing with child soldiers in "Sangala." More Like This. Queen Sono sees Thusi play the heroine, a woman who is a field operative of the Special Operations Group (SOG). Sitemap | © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Queen Sono Season 1 - Review. Queen Sono is the first African original Netflix series, and its story is compelling from minute zero. There's a top gear the show keeps not being able to reach, whether it's a limitation of editing and fight choreography or a failure to find scale at what couldn't have been a towering budget. Elite spy Queen Sono fulfills an intel mission in Zanzibar and makes a shocking discovery about Hendrikus, the man imprisoned for her mother's murder. by The title character, played by Pearl Thusi — she was the lawyer and C.I.A. Queen Sono, … ), Queen is an ace at hand-to-hand combat, but she, and the show, are saddled with an omnipresent back story about her mother, an activist killed in mysterious circumstances when Queen was a child. 1. Or, like The Black Panther but make it make sense? … has become a more important inducement for viewership than, "Hey, that show is in a language I speak and populated by actors I recognize!" On the other hand, if you do have some experience with African TV — the glossy, unapologetic melodramas of Nollywood or the viscerally brutal action thrillers of South Africa — you may find “Queen Sono” unsatisfyingly in-between, a halfhearted and problematic attempt to dress up a soft Western-style drama. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Queen Sono, a series inspired by modern espionage movies laced with high-tech and swift-cut fist-fights, made its global debut on Netflix on Friday. Queen Sono tells a spy story from a South African point of view; the country’s history and its relationship with other countries are at the core of … Read the recap of the first episode. In six episodes, the series does more than diversify the spy genre, it expands the very nature of it. “Queen Sono” is Netflix’s first script-to-screen commission from Africa, another small step in the streaming giant’s takeover of international television and a significant leap in the visibility of African-made stories in America and elsewhere. With gorgeous costuming and a colorful soundtrack, there’s little the show gets wrong. (Its size — five core members — makes you wonder whether the budget for “Queen Sono” wasn’t as generous as it was for other Netflix series. The real colonizer, of course, is the one behind the screen: Netflix, where the six episodes of this sprawling, earnest, likable show debut on Friday. Hailing from creator Kagiso Lediga, Queen Sono stars Pearl Thusi as a field agent in South Africa's secretive Special Operations Group. | California Privacy Rights FACEBOOK March 11, 2020 Jean Henegan Comment(0) If you’ve ever felt nostalgic for Alias, the early 2000s ABC spy drama that launched Jennifer Garner’s career, Queen Sono is definitely a show for you. Review: With ‘Queen Sono,’ Netflix Enters New Territory A spy thriller about a South African secret agent is the streaming monolith’s first … That framework is certainly a serious part of Lediga’s conception of the show, and it serves a similar purpose, in terms of setting a mood, as do the more anonymous conspiracies and injustices of American or French noir. Netflix may not have been a big winner on Oscar night, but part of me wonders if the streamer deserves at least a modicum of credit for the relative ease with which audiences were able to embrace Bong Joon Ho's Parasite. Summary Netflix’s Queen Sono Season 1 is an exciting African original series about a spy desperate to learn the truth regarding her murdered mother 25 years ago. And at only six episodes, there isn't nearly enough time for the myriad less successful elements to become serious impediments. Terms of Use | Queen Sono makes sure to grab your attention and never lets go. The narrative is fueled by the optimism that greeted the post-apartheid revolution in the mid-'90s, subsequent disappointments and the multi-century history of European colonialism and corporate control of the entire continent and its often ruinous effects. This spy thriller series follows femme fatale Queen Sono, a beautiful secret agent with a troubled past (is there any other kind?) | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Hailing from creator Kagiso Lediga, Queen Sono stars Pearl Thusi as a field agent in South Africa's secretive Special Operations Group. Privacy Policy | Review: Queen Sono Queen Sono is Netflix first original African series. When it’s time for a fight, there’s a fight. Read full review Sarandos is doing so as the streaming giant’s first African original series, the spy-drama “ Queen Sono,” is released worldwide February 28. If so, you can take heart in another aspect of the Netflix international effect: Its next African original, the teenage mystery “Blood & Water,” is due later this spring. + by Zaid Kriel Updated March 3, 2020, 9:49 a.m. Posted Feb. 28, 2020, 5 a.m. This review of Netflix Series Queen Sono Season 1 contains no spoilers. Pearl Thusi plays an undercover agent for a South African intelligence unit in “Queen Sono,” Netflix’s first wholly produced African series. Netflix’s QUEEN SONO, Africa’s first Netflix Original, has gained popularity with the viewers, not only from Africa but most other continents. Queen Sono is thrilling and fun to watch, and while there are plenty of classic spy tropes to keep it firmly planted in the genre, it’s absolutely unique in its focus. Her mother, Safiya Sono, was a revolutionary whose efforts to free her country from apartheid made her one of the nation’s most revered heroes. Her anger and guilt over her mother’s death tie into the show’s overall mood, a simmering anguish in which the ecstatic promise of South Africa’s liberation under Nelson Mandela has ebbed into stasis and corruption, with former heroes now busily pocketing bribes. Even if you ignore the transgeographical flow of the series, Lediga made a concerted effort capture a linguistic collage of Northern and Southern tongues in the continent. Queen Sono, the much anticipated first African Netflix original, dropped on the streaming service today. All rights reserved. The past is very important to Queen Sono and not just in the mid-season episode that's told entirely as a flashback. The show isn't as effective capturing or justifying the cover-story side of Queen's life, and that leaves the characterizations really thin for Ramabulana and for Enhle Maphumulo, who plays Will's girlfriend, Nova. SOG, which itself has pre-apartheid roots and probably isn't exactly what it appears to be, sends agents throughout Africa on missions overseen by Miri (Chi Mhende), who I think is Queen's cousin, and Dr. Sid (Sechaba Morojele), but the organization is mysterious enough that Queen can't even tell her nearest and dearest what she does for a living. And for the unfamiliar viewer, they’re also in the locations — not just Johannesburg but also Zimbabwe, Kenya and, in a Bond-style opening, Zanzibar. The Gist: Queen Sono (Pearl Thusi) is a spy for a South African organization called the Special Operations Group; their mission is to improve the lives of … Queen is unpredictable, headstrong, street-savvy, and doesn’t like to play by the rules. South African spy Queen Sono finds herself in a nefarious web of business and politics as she seeks to uncover the truth behind her mother's death. Queen Sono review: Season one, episode one “Elite spy Queen Sono fulfills an intel mission in Zanzibar and makes a shocking discovery about Hendrikus, the man imprisoned for her mother’s murder” Episode summary by Netflix. Series created by Kagiso Lediga that premiered on Netflix on February 28, 2020, 5 a.m series! Rape, murder of EC teen on my review to see which one will be the show gets.. 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