Review: All Hail The ‘Country Queen’

Country Queen! Country Queen! Country Queen! Those are the loud chants of praise, which filled all social media account platforms.

15 July 2022, ushered the premiere of the first ever-Kenyan TV series on Netflix, and this news brought a lot of excitement, optimism and to the larger extent of the Kenyan viewers – curiosity. The production budget of 150 million Kenyan shillings, attracted viewership from TV fans and critics alike, with the one common goal being, to validate a simple provocative question, will Country Queen be worth it?

Country Queen is a six-part drama series from produced by Good Karma Fiction and directed largely by Vincent Mbaya, with Tosh Gitonga (Nairobi Half Life) and Brian Munene (Morning After) directing an episode each. It is a story of a young woman, Akisa (Melissa Kiplagat), living in the busy city of Nairobi as she runs her event planning business. Unbeknownst to her, back in her hometown of Tsilanga, a rage of chaos is brewing because of the rich source of gold that is the sole envy of a mining company, Eco-Rock. Run by a strong-minded, unscrupulous and power driven Vivienne Sibala (Nini Wacera) and by her side, her husband Max (Blessing Lung’aho).

Akisa is a perfect realist audience surrogate, her train of thoughts, next action and emotional roller coaster feels relatable throughout the story. We see her two worlds collide, the present – riddled with uncertainty, and the past – filled with a tormenting secret. When she returns home after 11 years due to her ailing father, she is faced with the shocking revelation of the extent of damage that the mining company has done to her village.

The chain of events that follow is one that pushes the viewers to choose an allegiance. This is no different from the people of Tsilanga, who are split between the ones who would sell their parcel of land to the company at a throwaway price, the likes of Titus (Eddy Kimani) and Musa (Joel Otukho), and those who courageously stand up and defend the land from this iniquity, spearheaded by Melvin Alusa’s Kyalo.

This is a story of the modern day David taking on Goliath, in this case, capitalism and economic exploitation. This harsh reality and broader social commentary spreads out throughout Country Queen’s entire six episodes; cleverly navigating through the high-stakes and obstacles that each character endures. It’s interesting to see that even when Vivienne stands to lose everything, including her company Eco-Rock (by episode 3), she still pursues her plans to trample on the people of Tsilanga, who equally, are about to lose everything they own.

With other numerous themes such as child labor (the overworked, food-deprived kids working in the mines, is a sight of deplorable nature), interfamily relationship, romance as well as betrayal, one is left wondering: did Country Queen perhaps, bite off more than it can chew?

With each episode of Country Queen lasting roughly 1 hour, the pacing of the entire story plot has to be right. Give too little information, the viewers lose interest. Give too much and they are in a confused state as to which story line to follow. The series writers tried to add creative stylistic devices that regrettably work against the entire pacing. Addition of too many flashback sequences, over exposition in dialogue ( for instance, the conversations between Vivienne and Max, regarding his contribution to the company drags on) and quick in-and-out of new characters right before we get to make sense of their input to the plot.

The basic visual effects and camera work are distracting to fully allow oneself to be immersed into both worlds. Some of the tracking shots feel unnecessarily dramatic, and the angles needed to capture the cinematic feel are misplaced. The visuals on the other hand, bring out a washed-up look throughout, which doesn’t quite leave an impressionable outcome.      

However, the actors make up for these shortcomings, with their exceptional performances. It is quite a thrill to watch good acting on screen with not just one performer, but the entire ensemble pulling their weight to immerse themselves in their roles.

In fact, an interesting perspective, which slowly shines its light within Country Queen, is the age-old phrase, ‘every man has his price’, and no character bring this out more than the journalist Joe Murage, when he is forced to choose between integrity and love. This role is captured brilliantly by Olwenya Maina. God rest his soul.

Country Queen is by far one of the most captivating drama series that has recently aired on our Kenyan screens. This is simply a good case study of all the stars align to your favor. Great cast – check, great story – check, great crew – check. Then you top it all off with a lot of cash – Check! Check! Check!

When Netflix signed a 2-year MoU agreement with the the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology in May 2022, the partnership presented many possibilities ranging from great local content funding, skill-capacity development, creative sector infrastructure and finally, global stories platform.

With the launch of Country Queen, one can easily agree that from this partnership, the pressure to level up to Netflix standard is so high. It’s almost equivalent to the one coal goes through to become a diamond, which is exactly what we needed to produce amazing content.

Country Queen is a series with immense potential to soar to unimaginable heights. As the pacesetter, there are high expectations from viewers for future seasons, because we can all agree: Country Queen is definitely a diamond in the making.

Side note: Would it have been great if the entire cast of Country Queen had new faces made up of equally amazing talent, as opposed to the already existing actors who have simply been, typecast to play to their strengths (This would have been an additional win for the industry). Just a thought.

Country Queen is available to stream on Netflix.