Eight years later, The Wild is still one of my favorites. This series will take you through the extremes of emotions, joy, fear, apprehension, pain, and much more. The themes covered include conservation, family, love, tradition, and politics.
This is one of those series you watch when you are going through tough periods. The series has over 600 episodes of around 20 minutes each and some of the best actings I have seen.
Available in English on Showmax
Watch The Wild Episode Now
The Story
This series is created on the backdrop of a game reserve that tells the story of three families (the van Reenen, Tladi, and Lebon) who are connected by this land. Their past, future hopes, and current relations all interconnected in a cocktail of competition, love, secrets, and family. The hotel run by the Tladi family is central to most of the stories.
Actors
The casting director did a great job on this one. For the years I have repeated this series they still draw joy and tears no matter how often I repeat a scene. They all did a great job but I especially liked Ian Roberts’s role.
What stands out with this series is the quality acting when bringing out painful moments. One such incident is the death of the chief and Itumelaeng, his first son’s mourning. Having gone through a period when everyone around him could not relate to his action really getting to understand his actions does not only break the characters in the series but breaks the viewer’s heart.
Another incident is Karel mourning for his daughter. Without shedding a tear, this character acted by Ian Roberts made me mourn all my dead relatives again …
The Cast
Amber van Rensburg – Amber van Reenen
Brandon Lindsay – Paramedic
Briony Horwitz – Zoe Harris
Clayton Boyd – Paramedic1
Clementine Zitha – Mama Rose
Faye Peters – Bernie Cupido
Gail Nkoane – Mabalane – Lelo Sedibe
Hayley Owen – Angie
Ian Roberts – Karel van Reenen
James Gracie – Tristan van Reenen
Janna Ramos-Violante – Mrs. Green
Josette Eales – Sarah van Reenen
Keenan Arrison – Ashwin Fernandez
Lele Ledwaba – Dixie Lebone
Melusi Yeni – Isaac Tladi
Michelle Bradshaw – Lindsay Barnes
Milan Murray – Kate van Reenen
Nathaniel Ramabulana – Khumo Lebone
Putla Sehlapelo – Tiro Lebone
Sam Phillips – Rratladi Tladi
Sarah Kozlowski – Alicia Le Roux
Shona Ferguson – Itumeleng Tladi
Sinazo Yolwa – Victoria
Tessa Jubber – Nina Rawson
Tumisho Masha – Modise Tladi
Tyrone Keogh – Jack van Reenen
Wandile Molebatsi – Blessing Dlamini
Zakeeya Patel – Amita Kahn
Technical Construction
I do not think there was anything special with the cinematography. However, this did not hinder the story. If anything I believe the simplicity in cinematography gave me the opportunity to give focus on the quality of acting. Saying it is simple does not really mean there was no skill involved bt that the work was so skillfully done that the transitions were so smooth and enhance the story. Several Cameras are used in most scenes
Editing: Done well and with the use of several cameras the transitions within scenes and across scenes were done smoothly.
Production design: there are different color schemes used for the different locations Whether at the Village, DinaLedi, the Lebone home, or the van Reenan home. This makes it easy to know where the scene is being shot.
Sound: The theme music is memorable and the use of sound within the movie for the different scenes is great. I especially like the enhanced sound of footsteps. I don’t know if this is intentional or not but I find I can tell the mood of the person from the pace and strength of the sound of the steps.
Conclusion
This episode not only covers the basics in entertaining but I find it very educative on a wide range of topics from relationships, conservation, character development, human pain, understanding people in a way I have not seen addressed in other series. I think as much effort was done doing research as much as creating the series.
Rating
This is one of my favorite series. I give it a 9/10
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