THE SEASON OF MORE! NR’s Review of Skinny Girl In Transit Season 5

Oh what a season it has been!

We were all over the moon last year when we heard that Skinny Girl in Transit was finally coming back for the 5th season. Then we saw the trailer – in which Mide says that he is cancelling the wedding – and we all proceeded to loose our collective minds. If only we knew then that there would only be the beginning of our troubles this season!

We are calling this season of “Skinny Girl In Transit”, the season of many “MORE’s”. There were more characters this season, there was more conflict, arguably more character development, definitely more scenes and concurrently way more screen-time. The initial excitement of a longer run-time after episode one was soon dulled by many complaints about the season seeming a bit more dull. In the initial episodes (as you can tell from our reviews), we weren’t there with the rest of the audience. We were glad for the little things – we were glad that Wosi was getting some character development, we were glad to get a little bit more insight into the deeper things like the dynamics of the inter-religious relationship between Mohammed and Shalewa amongst many other things.

Then there was the increase in cast – another MORE. This season saw guest appearances by Sophie Alakija as Mohammed’s betrothed, extended cameos by Daniel Etim Effiong as ‘friend of Mide’ and Deyemi Okanlawon as the counselor, and then it saw a new cast addition with Nick Mutuma as Chris. While many of these cast additions were well-intentioned, many of them still had holes in characterization that weren’t completely dealt with by the end of the season. The first hole would be with Daniel’s character whose purpose was mostly uncertain until the scene in episode 11 where he helps to settle Mide. But then you would think that if they had such a strong relationship, he would be one of the groom’s men on the wedding day? That aside, the bigger hole was with Chris’ character.

Chris joins the company this season as a talent import from Kenya who arrives to help with the new TV station that Mide is trying to launch. He immediately butts heads with Derin as expected, and she marks him as her second life target – after Tiwa of course. One eventful night, he runs into drunken Derin at a club and one thing leads to another and they spend the night together. He then proceeds to use this interaction to taunt her at work constantly – like an elementary school kid. Leaving the undertones of possible sexual abuse, immaturity, and emotional abuse aside for a minute, later in the season – out of nowhere – Derin looses her father and Chris is showing up to the house going on walks with her in the dark. How did you guys progress so rapidly from sworn enemies to buddies? I don’t understand. From the moment Chris showed up on the line-up we knew he was going to end up as Derin’s love interest. The problem is that the journey from there to here was rushed and/or poorly developed.

And then there was Farida. Farida, played by Sophie Alakija, shows up this season as Mohammed’s betrothed from the north – here to get her man. The only problem is that her man is now in a relationship with the Christian Shalewa who he has developed strong feelings for. But his brother is not having it. He will not let Mohammed ruin his family’s name by getting married to this non-Muslim girl from Lagos when Farida has been waiting all this time. Pheew! I guess we all saw this coming from the first moment Shalewa introduced Mohammed to us, right? No, you didn’t? That’s because SGIT from previous seasons has been heavy on the light, with little focus on any deep issues. But not this season. This season of MORE, also meant more depth. Hence, for the majority of the season Shalewa and Mohammed find themselves in a spat that could have potentially ended their relationship. At the end, they make it through – but something tells me there’ll be more of that next season *wink*.

Then there is our main couple who saw MORE and MORE drama this season than ever before. The season started off with the usual cutesy-ness between the two with trivial woes like a lost ring and self-imposed celibacy. Then as the season progressed it got real – enter Theresa and her son. Theresa is Mide’s ex who contact him to inform him of a son that might be his. This drama proceeds to plauge us for the majority of the season, but it plagued Tiwa the most.

We got to see a different Tiwa this season – a less happy, less reasonable, quicker to anger version of Tiwa. Granted! Tiwa is human and is allowed to have emotions and to deal with them however she deems fit. However, for some reason, it seemed as though Tiwa had become less reasonable and arguably less mature this season. Or was it both Tiwa and Mide that were being completely immature this season? Here’s why we think so:

Evidence 1: Theresa contacts Mide about his son. It changes Mide’s countenance. He starts to act different around Tiwa  (his fault but also natural). She reminds him that they promised each other to keep no secrets from one another. He opens up to her. She storms out of the car (very much within her rights as a human). She comes back to meet him in his office but she still has an attitude and provokes a fight. Sorry but what is that about? He didn’t cheat on you and he also just found out about the boy. Granted, Mide’s decision during the fight to bring up Fabrice was also immature.

Evidence 2: Mide’s father passes. Tiwa is consoling him in his office. She gets a call from ABC Studios about the contract. Mide tells her that she can go. She actually goes (this was possibly the funniest thing to me this season). Then she returns and he continues to push her away as he mourns, and Tiwa reacts by getting angry with him and taking him up on his implied threat of cancelling the wedding.

I can’t actually tell if it was the counseling sessions by our brother Deyemi that was causing all this tension between the two this season. But whatever the case might be, both Tiwa and Mide were acting very childish this season – and almost unrecognizable. Does this have something to do with the change in writers?

Be that as it may, at the end of episode 12 we all finally got the ending that we had prayed for – we witness the union of Tiwa and Mide in Holy Matrimony. *In Mummy Tiwa’s voice* “we have prevailed over our enemies”. The wedding was a joy to watch especially because at this point we feel invested in their relationship, and some of us were surprised that they managed to make it through all their childishness this season. It was a beautiful wedding even though a part of me wished Kemi Adetiba had come and reincarnated her “The Wedding Party” sauce for the reception entrance scene – especially now that Beverly Naya is finally not a villain. 

So now that Tiwa and Mide have married, Derin has repented, and Mo & Shalewa are back together, what will Season 6 be about?

Share your theories with us!

One of our favorite parts of this season was the incredible music that followed behind the drama. Ndani TV has been kind enough to put it all together in a playlist. Listen below: