What Could’ve Been Done With House Of Zwide

House Of Zwide has been on our screens for over a year now and as entertaining as it has been for some months, there are things I wish they could’ve done with the Telenovela.

In this post I’ll be taking you through 3 things I believe eTV could’ve done with the telenovela to sort of avoid the hate it is receiving now and may receive if it continues.

You can check out my review of eVOD’s Daryn’s Gym

Less Single Character Centric

What has made other Telenovelas like Skeem Saam, eTV’s Scandal! and even Rhythm City is that they were never really focused on 1 or 2 characters throughout their lifetimes, they were focused on a certain community or town within its world. House Of Zwide tries to do this but the series is still very much an Ona and Ntate Zwide story which makes whatever it tries to do very limited, they can’t bring in too many characters that’ll take away the attention from the main story and they cannot completely end the main story because where do they go from there?

I think it would’ve been a better series if it quickly finished the Ona and Funani Zwide story and allowed itself to explore other stories with the characters it has and also introduce new characters without worrying about going back to the main story too much.

The series I mentioned before have the freedom of coming up with new stories that don’t have to be connected with everything, Skeem Saam can do an Alfios story and end it and then do a Lehasa story and then end it and jump to the next character while staying kind of progressive. House Of Zwide can also do an Isaac and Faith Zwide heist story and end it but have to return to the Ona and Funani story because well, it hasn’t been ended yet.

I wish they hadn’t dragged out the story of Ona and Funani so long because they could’ve unlocked so many opportunities for the series and opened the field for the introduction of new greater characters. There are currently some entertaining storylines we’re seeing now but for me the thought of returning to Ona and Funani for what? The 6th time this year?? It’s so annoying.

A eVOD series

If you don’t know what eVOD is, it’s a Video On Deman streaming service from eTV and I think House Of Zwide could’ve been a 20-episode series on eVOD and it would’ve made more sense than what it is right now. I say this because of the story, the telenovela having a main story with little branch stories is what makes me believe this.

Series on streaming services can drag out stories for as long as they want because there’s always a break between seasons and as I was watching House Of Zwide, I could point out moments where I believed the season can just end on a pretty interesting cliffhanger and the episodes after that would feel better if a person were to watch them after a 6-month break off the series.

The episodes that come after the big secret is almost revealed always feel a bit repetitive and honestly boring especially when you get 3 moments like that in the space of fewer than 4 months, As an eVOD or even Showmax series it all would’ve been a bit satisfying and the big secret would still be a big secret instead of what it is now, general knowledge that the characters prefer to be dumb about.

More Characters?

Telenovelas like Rythm City, Scandal! and Skeem Saam have a huge collection of different characters, hell, at some point Skeem Saam brought in characters from other series (Uzalo) and made it make sense (well kinda) and sort of enjoyable. I do wish House Of Zwide had more characters because that would’ve opened the potential for other stories beyond just Ona and Funani Zwide.

This one is not a big deal though, it’s just something I pointed out to my aunt and she agreed with me so I thought I should add it.

Conclusion

That’s about it, that’s all I believe they could’ve done with House Of Zwide, the telenovela was interesting for the first few months but now, over a year after its release, the series has moments that make it extremely annoying.

What do you guys think of these observations? What do you agree with? Would you have tuned in if it was on Showmax or eVOD? Let’s talk down in the comment and if you enjoyed the read, leave a like and share the article.