OLOTURE: THE JOURNEY (Now on Netflix) REVIEW

Hello everyone! Hope you're doing well!
This is my first post here.

Here is the mini series I just watch and I want to share with you.
It seems converting successful movie franchises into series sequel is the trend now. Kemi Adetiba did it with ‘King of Boys’, Kunle Afolayan with ‘Anikulapo’ & now Mo Abudu has followed same pattern with ‘Oloture’.

‘Oloture: The Journey’ is a 3-episode series serving as a direct continuation of the first film.

This is an engaging series. Engaging in the sense that it fills up its runtime with adequate adventure & drama to get the audience’s attention. On one hand, the plot takes us through Oloture’s ordeal through desert storms of Niger as she navigates a safe destination in the company of new friends. On the other, we witness the continuation of dirty intrigues of power brokers in the human trafficking underworld.

A tensely suspenseful atmosphere is easily set up watching Oloture as she faces unexpected danger that comes with such an unholy migration process.

The show held itself to good production values. The desert location added to the aesthetics creating the needed feeling of isolation for these lost souls.

However, as engaging as it is, it is all huff-and-puff experience with no real bite in the end. The show swings a lot at us but doesn’t take the narrative to a place that’s significantly different from where the movie ended.

The affairs of the underworld gang & prostitution thing are an unnecessary filler added to thicken the plot. Where they are going with it is unclear & it feels quite repetitive knowing that similar path has been explored in original movie.

In terms of performance, only Sharon Ooja seems to put her heart in this. The others mostly tagged along like it’s just another payday.

In all, I still don’t buy the justification for this sequel judging by the episodes released so far. It’s still a decent production effort though, I hope it pushes a more satisfying narrative progression in subsequent season.

Thank you.