I recently had a mild debate about the rapidity of DVD series consumption. The debate happened to come amidst my viewing of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. The discussion focused on how can people today can watch an entire season of a TV show in one sitting? The simple answer is because it’s fun.
Anyway, I have been watching the first season of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency for the last couple of days. The show is based on the series of novels of the same name by Alexander McCall Smith. The books and the series follow Mma Precious Ramotswe as the first female private detective in Botswana. It’s a story of female empowerment on a continent that has historically held women back.
I have never read the books, surprise, surprise, and hadn’t heard of the series, which premiered in 2008, because I was actually in Africa when it aired, until just a month ago when it was suggested to me by a friend because of my addiction to all things Africa.
The show, so far, has aired only 7 episodes. Right now it’s in a kind of production limbo because the two executive producers are Anthony Minghella (The English Patient ) and Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa ) who both died within a few months of each other in early 2008 and during the run of the show. This was in fact the last project Minghella worked on.
The show is fun. It’s a simple story of a woman and her assistant solving crimes in the Botswana capital of Gaborone. Each crime showcases something about the culture of Botswana and usually ends with a lesson of tolerance, forgiveness and charity. So for all the cynics out there this may not be your cup of tea. I often fall into the category of cynic myself. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I am negative a lot, most often on this blog, but anyone who knows me knows that I’m still a very optimistic person. A show like The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a refreshing change to the harsher shows it has to compete with on its home network of HBO.
The point is, if you like watching strong women standing up for themselves in the male dominated world, then you should rent this series. After that join a group of like minded souls looking for nothing more than to preserve the spirit of female empowerment. (I’m only saying all of this because I recently got engaged. So I’m trying to be the perfect fiancée. I’ll get back to my old bitchy self when I’m married and have control again.)
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