Prime
And here comes Crossroads
What you need to know:
- The show is a creation of Atonga Media, the same people that gave Uganda Senchu Boss, Hotel Mara and above it all, Kony: Order From Above, remember that film?
Sanyu ended after three years and some months. Most of the time, when a show with such a following and longevity ends, there is a vacuum.
Not that TVs usually have nothing to put on; it is always hard to follow up on a show that did not only make people sing but also had several moments.
However, MultiChoice Uganda had something up their sleeves, a new show that they had teased for a while, Crossroads.
The show is a creation of Atonga Media, the same people that gave Uganda Senchu Boss, Hotel Mara and above it all, Kony: Order From Above, remember that film?
Yes, it was the first Ugandan film to get some Oscar buzz around it.
Crossroads may be a new show, but it has easily caught on like it has been here for months. For a show that is supposed to be a soapie, Crossroads is handling many topics and some are hard.
For instance, the first episode starts with a girl running for her life in a garden, only to end up being captured by her pursuer. At the moment, we understand someone has captured a girl. Later in the episode, we learn this is not the first girl who has been captured or disappeared.
As the episode goes on, we are introduced to McKenzie, a village celebrity who is also the voice of the community radio. We also meet his love interest, Kwezi Karungi, an ambitious radio producer who informs us about other missing girls when she asks McKenzie to do a story about them.
Meanwhile, the show also takes place in Kampala, where a successful media house is trying to keep up with the times of social media and going viral. The media house has a new boss, their founder’s daughter; she’s working around the clock to turn the station around.
The two storylines at the moment are taking place in a small village, where one rich man, Ponsiano, who may also be behind the missing girls’ saga, runs a community radio and has the village leadership eating out of his palms. He chooses who is innocent or guilty and what’s right or wrong. Ponsiano has his eyes on Kwezi, but he’s forcefully trying to marry her because her mother died before paying the money she owed him.
While in town, Abby Luwandaga, has to navigate the media business to keep the family business afloat, but at the same time, she has to go against many who believe they are more qualified than her.
The show has many new faces in the cast, such as Nicole Estella in the role of Abby Luwandaga, Rebecca Hope Iradukunda as Kwezi Karungi, Fidel Sankara as Ryan, Wilson Nsimbe as Ponsiano and Sheila Agonzibwa as Liz, Kwezi’s sister.
But, the show has some star power to it, Emmanuel Atuhaire who plays McKenzie is fresh from the successful musical, Phantom of the Opera, where he starred as Roul and Sanyu, where he was Cedric, Melisa’s fiance and later husband. Then, there is Michael Wawuyo Snr, as the media mogul, Herbert Luwandaga. Wawuyo needs no introduction, he is a legend and a double lifetime achievement recipient this year. He has worked on Hollywood, African and local sets.
Crossroads airs from Monday to Friday on Pearl Magic Prime.
