Go!, a new drama from South Africa, adds some high stakes to the usual “kid from the streets goes to prep school with rich kids” story, mainly because the teen going to prep school is trying to keep a recent incident from killing his chance at a better life.
GO!: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: “People say life is a marathon, not a sprint. I say, what’s the difference? At the end of the day, a race is a race.” A teenager runs in slow motion down an empty street late at night.
The Gist: Siya “Bolt” Gumede (Thandolwethu Zondi) is a teenager who has a gift: He’s extremely fast. His reputation is so well known, his best friend Mandla (Wonder Ndlovu) has made him trend on social media, and sets up street races in order to make some cash. The latest race, which attracts people from around the neighborhood, pits Bolt against a four-man relay team. Not surprisingly, Bolt beats the relay team handily. Of course, that makes the guys who did the relay none too happy, and later they chase Bolt and mug him for the winnings.
At dinner with Bolt’s family, we find out that Mandla and his sister Nthabi (Shalate Sekhabi) — who is also Bolt’s girlfriend — are generally on their own, with their long-haul trucker father out of the country on a job.
During dinner, they get an unexpected visit from a man known as Coach Arendse (Brendon Daniels); he coaches track at St. Jude’s prep school and witnessed Bolt race earlier that day. He thinks that Bolt can really contribute to the school’s track team and is offering a full ride for him to attend the school.
His older brother, Shuffle (Wiseman Mncube), gives him an expensive pair of Nike track shoes, which he apparently could afford due to his night job — which neither Bolt or his mom knows is criminal in nature. Shuffle is happy for Bolt but warns him to never forget where he came from.
After celebrating the night before he leaves for school, Bolt accidentally hits and kills a teenager in the middle of the road, with a drunken Mandla seemingly dead, as well. In a panic, Bolt calls Shuffle, who tells his little brother to put Mandla in the driver’s seat and run away from the scene as fast as he possibly can.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Go!, directed by Tristan Holmes with Kutlwano Ditsele as the showrunner, reminds us of other fish-out-of-water school dramas like Boarders.
Our Take: In its first half-hour, Go! establishes exactly where Bolt comes from and what he’ll be dealing with in his new surroundings at St. Jude. He’ll typically have issues fitting in as a scholarship student with his teammates and classmates, most of whom will likely be scions of wealthy families. But he’s also got something he’s running from, literally and figuratively.
While the incident at the end of the episode seems like a tragic accident, Bolt was distracted by Mandla and may or may not have been impaired at the time. Either way, both he and Shuffle know that none of that matters; the accident will ruin his chances of having a better life via attending St. Jude. So Bolt will have to manage the difficulties of being in this new environment while dealing with the guilt of implicating his best friend in the accident.
It’s an interesting situation that gives the series a little bit of juice beyond the usual “kid from the streets goes to prep school with rich kids” plot. Bolt isn’t running from a mysterious past; we know exactly what he’s trying to put in his rear view mirror, but given that Bolt is good person, he’s going to be tortured by what he did to Mandla. It’s a dynamic that will give the prep school plot a lot more depth.
Bolt is also going to struggle with how much influence his brother Shuffle, who is definitely not a good person, will have in his life. He seems to look up to Shuffle, but we’re not sure at this juncture whether Bolt knows what his brother really does. If and when he finds out, will he look at his brother the same way? Will the advice Shuffle gave him to implicate Mandla end up damaging their relationship?
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: We’re back to seeing Bolt running down the street, but now we know what he’s running from.
Sleeper Star: Shalate Sekhabi’s character Nthabi is going to be crucial in Bolt’s life; he’s serious about their relationship, and being away from her is going to be tough. But she’s also Mandla’s brother; how will she react when the truth comes out?
Most Pilot-y Line: You more or less knew that after Bolt won the race against the relay team, the guys on the relay were going to be pissed and beat him up.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Go! tries to subvert the prep-school fish-out-of-water genre by upping the stakes for the teen moving into the prep school environment, and the first episode lays those stakes out well.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Go!’ On Netflix, Where A Sprinter Gets A Scholarship To A Prep School While Trying To Run From His Past appeared first on Decider.
