Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Miseducation’ On Netflix, A Dramedy Where A Teen Tries To Repair Her Social Reputation At A Small-Town University

One of the things that seems to be key to coming-of-age college dramedies is that the ensemble needs to be strong. It helps if the characters are well-established from the jump, giving the show’s creators a lot of story possibilities. A new college series from South Africa does just that.

MISEDUCATION: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Fireworks go off, including one that spells out “#MBALI19”.

The Gist: Mbali Hadibi (Buntu Petse) is throwing herself a lavish 19th birthday party, and she makes sure she’s live-streaming the festivities as she flits around greeting her friends and embarrassing her high school ex, who gets up on stage and raps a song he wrote for her. Then her mother Brenda (Baby Cele), the Minister of Grants for the South African government, shows up wondering why there’s a party at her house. Soon after, the Asset Forfeiture Unit arrives and starts taking things out of the house. Apparently, Brenda has been embezzling from the grand funding she managed.

Though Mbali knew nothing about her mother’s activities, the humiliation of the incident has fallen on her, to the point where she deletes her Instagram account (gasp!) rather than see all the online hate. It’s to the point where she knows she can’t show her face on the campus of the university where she’s intending to go. But with her mother’s assets frozen, all she has is her father’s money to get her to a new school. She ends up going to Grahamstown University, in the small town of Makhanda.

When she arrives at Grahamstown U., one of the first people she meets is Sivu Levin (Lunga Shabalala), a star on the rowing team who won a bronze at the last Olympics. He asks her to vote for him for SRC president, and, given the immediate spark between them, he’ll help Mbali get into the house party thrown by Raeesah (Nicole Bessick), the most influential student on campus.

Mbali immediately comes into conflict with her roommate Aphiwe (Luyanda Zwane), whose scholarship fell through, meaning she has to work to pay for school. But she hits it off quickly with Jay (Prev Reddy), who is out to everyone except his parents; he also uses his parents car for a rideshare business for students wanting to go out and party without worrying about driving.

Mbali is starting to feel she might be able to rebuild her social status at this out-of-the-way school, until Natalie (Micaela Tucker), a former high school classmate and daughter of one of the school’s professors, shouts her name into a megaphone by accident.

Meanwhile, Jay goes on a “date” with a Grindr match, and is surprised to see Caesar (Mpho Sebeng), current CSR president and resident douchebag. But when Jay refuses to do any more than make out, Caesar punches him.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Miseducation feels a bit like a South African version of campus-based shows like The Sex Lives Of College Girls or grown-ish.

Our Take: One of the things that the creators of Miseducation, Katleho Ramaphakela and Rethabile Ramaphakela, did well in this series’ first episode is set up the ensemble well. In a campus coming-of-age series, the ensemble is critical, and as Mbali establishes herself on campus, we get a good picture of the other main characters, as well.

Mbali rolls into town thinking she can hide from the scandal that sent her there and become the social force she was in the city. But she learns fast that social media makes obliterates that notion; we are looking forward to seeing if she makes adjustments to her party girl personality in order to make her way through campus life, or if she barrels through with the same personality she’s always had.

The more dramatic side stories, like Sivu failing to stop a freshman rowing hopeful from being subject to some painful hazing from the team, or Caesar becoming violent and threatening Jay, sometimes feel a bit out of place with the rest of the episode’s lighter tone. But it’s not enough of a tonal shift to lead us to think that those stories will even themselves out as the season goes along.

Sex and Skin: Aside from the scene between Jay and Caesar, which doesn’t show much, there’s nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After Sivu defends Mbali at Rae’s party, he gets into a brawl. As he’s writhing in pain, a girl comes over to see how he is, Mbali asks who she is. It’s his girlfriend Pearl (Mamarumo Marokane).

Sleeper Star: Michaela Tucker is funny as Natalie, mainly because she has to deal with her very feminist, sex-positive mother, who is a professor at Grahamtown.

Most Pilot-y Line: In an ethics class, the professor looks at Jay and says, “It’s not a moral dilemma to have to choose between 500k and dinner with Jay-Z.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Miseducation is a fun show that does a good job establishing its ensemble right away, giving the creators a lot of room for different stories during its first season.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.