Jenifa’s Diary – The Complete Season 1

I write this with a smile on my face.

I watched the movie “Jenifa” a long time ago and I understand why Nigerians were captivated by Funke Akindele’s breakthrough character Jenifa and sometimes in Nigeria when a song or movie results in a new slang or term, you know that the song or movie was a big hit. The term: “gbo gbo bigz girls” came from this movie- except if I’m mistaken.

Funke Akindele is the Executive Producer .This gives the impression that she wants to milk her cash cow for all that it is worth by turning Jennifer- sorry-Jenifa character into a TV series.

My fear was that after a while, the Jenifa character would be boring and would struggle to keep us entertained. Was I wrong! “Jenifa’s dairies” or “dairi” (as Jenifa would have spelt it) the TV series turned out to be the “October First” of Nigerian TV series.

The character development of Jenifa was beautifully done and so much attention to detail unlike most of our TV Series. From her arrival in Lagos with color riot dresses to a much toned down form of dressing from mingling with the so called big girls to her being a warm, loved character and not just for her bombastic grammar but her warm, cheerful and never- say- die attitude.

Not only Jenifa but her supporting casts, do us proud. Toyosi or “Toyo baby” as Jenifa calls her, played by Juliana Olayode is Jennifa’s host and good friend. She is nice and gradually learns to put up with Jenifa’s mannerism and often plays the role of an adviser to her, although most of her advice to Jenifa falls on deaf ears. Lota Ugwu (Kiki) plays the role of a rich homely girl with such conviction that I am inclined to believe she is only acting out her actual personality. I want to see her act out another role before I am convinced .If she is just acting, then damn she’s a great actress and her character is a good friend of Toyosi and by default ends up being a friend of Jenifa. Completing the circle of friends is Beverly Osu (Mercy) who just can’t stand Jenifa and can’t understand why Kiki and Toyosi put up with her. Together they tumble from one adventure to another in each episode.

The series theme music is lovely and for once we have a lovely song for a Naija TV production. The extras were also fantastic. The hostel scenes usually have up to 10 to 20 people moving around and not once did I catch anyone starring at the camera or acting out of place.  This was another plus for the series.

Maybe I am celebrating mediocrity or I haven’t been watching enough Nigerian TV or movie productions recently, but I was really impressed and can’t wait to watch season two.

Thumbs up Jenifa! Let’s go dia, catch ya larer!