When I started watching the 'The Governor', I had hoped that, at the very least, I would learn a little about the Nigerian political system, or even just Nigeria in general, the way 'The West Wing' showed us the politics of the USA and Borgen showed us the political landscape of Denmark. I was sorely disappointed.
The show follows Angela Ochello (portrayed by Caroline Chikezie) as she assumes the post of Governor of Savannah State in Nigeria after the death of her predecessor.
Almost from the beginning, the show goes hopelessly wrong. IN an attempt to portray the main character as 'good', she is shown to be hopelessly naive, to the point that she is amazed at the existence of corruption in politics. This despite having been the vice-governor for several years. But that's the least of the show's problems. What is far worse is that the people producing it seem to be allergic to exposition or any form of conveying background information. After a whole season, I still have no idea what Savannah State is like. There are no panning shots, no discussion of its politics or economy. I don't even know what the main character's authority consists of! Half the time she seems to operate as a dictator, who can operate as she wants without having to acknowledge a local legislature or for that matter the national government. Perhaps people in Nigeria know all these things, but when you bring a show onto the international market, you need to educate your public. We're not going to watch the show with our computers open on the relevant wikipedia pages.
Add an almost soap-like framing of the shots and acting that borders on the ridiculous, varying between the wooden and the insanely theatrical, and you end up with a mess of a show. It;s a pity, because this could have been very interesting. But as it is, it's just total amateur hour.
