Cape Town — It’s the last stretch to Christmas and an end to 2020 which devastated many with the novel coronavirus pandemic. Now what we all need is some cheer and a good laugh!
In the spirit of giving, Netflix is showing South African romantic comedy, How To Ruin Christmas: The Wedding, that will leave your ribs hurting with belly laughs. It will definitely leave you in stitches.
The three-episode series tells the story of Tumi Sello (Busi Lurayi), the family rebel and prodigal daughter, who returns home from Cape Town to Johannesburg, for her sister’s Christmas wedding. But her homecoming is filled with less than warm greetings and warnings of not ruining Beauty’s – played by Thando Thabete – big day.
Then what was supposed to be a happy day for the two families is filled with chaos.
And as expected, Tumi is to blame!
Tumi ends up being the reason why the wedding gets cancelled. She comes late for her dress fittings, forgets the towels she was supposed to bring and worse gets drunk and sleeps with her married brother-in-law Themba (Motlatsi Mafatshe). To make matters worse, she has a slip up and spills that her sister is pregnant which shocks both families and devastates Beauty as it was supposed to be a secret.
Even though she tries to make things right but seems like whatever she does chaos follows. Like seriously, what else could go wrong!
To make matters more complicated, her sister is marrying into a family who is wealthy, the Twalas. The wealthy in-laws with their uppity attitudes want everything to be classy and bougie as evidenced by booking a top-of-the-range hotel and hiring top chefs for catering. The father in-law Vusi (Lehlohonolo Saint Seseli) works for the government and is more concerned about social media and hashtags than the wedding. The mother in-law-to-be Valencia (Charmaine Mtinta) still can’t cut the cord and let her son Sbu (Sandile Mahlangu) go. She’s refusing to let Sbu marry into “that family”.
The series is relatable to many as it shows typical dysfunctional families, guarded family secrets, judgemental aunties, unnecessary drama, and class tensions and division between the haves and not haves.
Despite the drama, the limited series shows the diversity of cultures as the Sellos are Tswana, and the Twalas are Zulu. The directors show the elements to having a traditional wedding, for example, the slaughtering of a goat or a sheep, the beautiful Shweshwe attire and the delicious homemade food prepared by aunties over gossip and chattering.
How To Ruin Christmas boasts A-list stars that include the legendary Nandi Nyembe as Gogo Twala, Clementine Mosimane as Dineo, renowned actor Desmond Dube as Uncle Shadrack, Trevor Gumbi as Siya Twala, Rami Chuene as Aunt Grace, and Keketso Semoko as Aunt Moipone.
The series is directed by the Ramaphakela siblings, Katleho and Rethabile. They made their Netflix debut with Seriously Single.
This series is a festive cheer – go check it out!