NR’s 5 Favorite & Least Favorite Things About iRokoTV’s “Ojukwu”

*THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS*

So today, I sat down in front of the screen and thought I was going to only watch a few minutes of Ojukwu. Six hours later, and I found myself seated trying to comprehend the sentence on the irokotv site that states “Episode 7-13 coming 1st November”.

Do they mean “…coming 8th October”?

Ojukwu is an epic series from Rok Studios about a small village called Ojukwu or “Umu-Ojukwu” and its inhabitants.Its starts off with a fight between two villages and then pans out to different storylines of many different people in that village. The series stars Ernest Obi, Francis Duru, Uche Odoputa, Kenneth Okolie, Uche Ogbodo, Sambasa Nzeribe, Mary Njoku, Eve Esin, Obi Okoli, Joshua Richard, and Charity Onah amongst others. It is directed by Eneaji Chris EnenG, created by Mary Njoku and written by Vivian Chiji.

We could tell you the story, but what fun is that? Instead here are…

Our Top 5 Favorite Things about “Ojukwu” from Episodes 1 – 6

1. The Immersion

The opening scene of Ojukwu jumps right into the action. We see villagers running to a village square and gathering as they prepare to watch a fight between a fighter from Ojukwu and one from the neighboring village of Umu-Anam. The action begins. Characters are introduced but beyond that the stage is set. Slowly and surely, with the costumes, the hair and make-up, the sounds, the setting, the music and everything else the audience is drawn into this new world and as episode by episode goes by you find yourself rooting for characters and hoping for the downfall of others.

2. The Writing

One of the greatest weaknesses we mention about new nollywood movies is the lack of connection between audience and character, but in a series there is no excuse for it to be lacking. In this series, it’s nowhere near lacking because you love Adanna even though you think she is a dunce. You root for Uru and cannot wait for her happily ever after to arrive and you pray in your heart for Iheanocho to miraculously get healed one way or the other. And a huge part of this is thanks to the writing. The writing that gives each character a persona, and the writing that understands the timing. No story arch (at least yet) has reached a point where you wish the characters away from your screen, yet you feel an equal investment in each character’s story.

3. The Atypical Casting

However, I am particularly partial to Sambasa’s character. I squealed out loud during his first line of romantic dialogue because it was something I was entirely unprepared for. We have gotten used to seeing Sambasa in ‘weird’ and ‘atypical’ roles (See Tatu) that the idea of seeing him romancing is confusing at first, but the pairing of him and Mary make it impossible for you not to cheer them on.

And while we are on the matter can we talk about Joshua Richards. We have seen him in many roles prior to this but there’s something about seeing him here – in a role that is out of character for him – and watching him possess it and annihilate it that excites us all for his future as an actor. So far, this series is creating prime show-reel opportunities for its actors.

4. The Oldies

And since we are talking about actors and casting, we must mention the choice of actors. Francis Duru, Ernest Obi, Uche Odoputa and Uche Ogbodo. Seeing those names sliding across the screen during the opening credits of an epic themed series, brought joy to my soul. And if you are a lover for the original nollywood, it probably brought joy to your soul too. The casting of people from “old nollywood” was a great way to pull in emotional appeal, and then the decision to cast appropriately and not have Ernest or Francis or Uche pretending to be young men is the kind of wisdom that young men usually don’t get even if they climb an iroko tree (‘wink’)

5. The ‘Nnodim’ Factor

And while we are on the matter of climbing trees, what kind of tree did the casting director have to climb to find and identify Muonagor Collins? Muonagor plays Nnodim, the comic relief drunkard of the village. However, he is not just a comic relief. This guy is a plot moving device. His character’s wisdom is bountiful but beyond that, the actor that plays the character has impeccable timing. If you are not looking at the screen closely when he comes on you might think that Osuofia (Nkem Owoh) is a part of the cast. The resemblance is uncanny from voice to mannerisms to movements. It was impressive. And if you ask any Osuofia fan, we know that’s a high compliment.

Our Top 5 LEAST Favorite Things about “Ojukwu” from Episodes 1-6

1. The Subtitles

Most of this series is in English but occasionally the characters make statements in Igbo. The problem, however, is that for the 10 times a character speaks in Igbo the statements are only followed by their English translations 3 of the times and followed by subtitles another 3 of the times. That is to say that forty percent of the time that characters are speaking in a foreign language in this series, non-Igbo speaking audiences are left wondering what the characters are saying. It’s 2018. Let’s do better. The end.

2. The Cinematography

The series is airing on Rok TV on DSTv in a year where another epic is airing on AfricaMagic. I hate to be one to make comparisons but if there’s one glaring shortcoming of this series, it is the cinematography. There is a tangible lack of art in this picture that it makes you wonder how much greater it would have been with better cinematography.

3. The ‘Kenneth Okolie’ Factor

Hmm… There are other characters who recite lines in this series but they are not main characters. So its painful to watch Kenneth reciting these wordy lines that he has with little tact or skill. We mentioned earlier, Richards’ strengths as an actor but that was mostly visible in this series because you realize how good an actor he has to be to be to be able to hold a scene down and remain in character when Okolie seems to be going through the motions and reciting lines.

4. The “White Man” Story Arch

In a part of this series, Agu (one of the counsel members) is seen trading with a white man whom he later on proceeds to kidnap villagers for. It was an interesting story arch to present and it will be even more interesting to see how the story is resolved. The problem though is that that scene does bring up a bit of a logistics question. The white man is speaking English, the translator is speaking random bursts of English words, Francis’ Duru’s character is speaking English. So… first of all, why do you need a translator? And secondly, hmm…

5. The Wait

And of course, the most unbearable thing about the whole thing entirely is that ROK studios expects us to wait until November for the next 6 episodes. But we’ll be here waiting.