Make a date with your couch this weekend - all 13 episodes of Skemerdans, a Cape Flats neo-noir murder mystery, are now available to binge-watch on Showmax.
The whodunnit is set at the Oasis jazz club, the center of a power struggle between two brothers, a scorned widow, and an organized crime syndicate.
An organic, hyper-local mix of both Afrikaans and English, the half-hour series was filmed along Voortrekker Road and at Club Galaxy, Cape Town’s oldest club, which opened in Rylands in 1978. Galaxy is doubling as both The Oasis and the Adams brothers’ strip club, The Velvet Room.
Early reviews for the latest Showmax Original have been nothing short of glowing. Africa is a Country says, “Every moment is loaded with tension,” adding, “While it feels like you’re walking into an old-time noir novel, the show is also viscerally relatable and immediate because we know these spaces… This noir series makes the familiar iconic... It is a mal interpretation of Cape Flats nightlife. We can’t wait to see the drama unfold.”
On Twitter, IGN’s Crushing On podcast host Caryn Welby-Solomon tweeted, “The writing is so good, the cast is fire, and I got so emotional seeing the inside of Club Galaxy again”, while TVMzansi tweeted that the series is “captivating and relatable… the most endearing look at Cape Flats nightlife.”
Skemerdans revolves around the Fortune family, whose eldest son Glenn (SAFTA winner Kevin Smith from Isidingo and Arendsvlei) owns The Oasis with his wife, Shireen (SAFTA winner Ilse Klink from Stroomop and Isidingo). Other members of the Fortune family are played by SAFTA winner Brendon Daniels (Four Corners, Sara se Geheim, Arendsvlei); SAFTA nominee Vinette Ebrahim (7de Laan, Binnelanders); Carmen Maarman (Arendsvlei, Lui Maar Op, Belinda); rising star Trudy van Rooy (Die Byl, Sara se Geheim); and Ceagan Arendse (Suidooster, Arendsvlei), who tragically passed away in February 2021. The first episode is dedicated to Arendse.
As Daily Vox says, “Skemerdans is more than binge-worthy; it looks like it will be repeat-watchable.” The edgy show has a 16 age restriction.
Watch the trailer right here :
