SPOILER ALERT: Here’s a link to Episode 8 of Skinny Girl In Transit, if you haven’t seen it, and if you have, lets get cracking.
Eight episodes in and we’ve had to endure all kinds of fuckery being passed off as comedy on season 2 of Skinny Girl in Transit, proving well and truly that the sophomore curse is real.
The new episode of Skinny Girl In Transit starts with an episode that reminded me of that episode of the Game of Thrones where Cersei gets her long overdue comeuppance. Tiwa, her father and mother stand in judgement over Shalewa accusing and disgracing her for having the audacity to kpansh a married man. Baba Tiwa decrees that Shalewa wont get an allowance and she has to get a job. Even better, she has to take public transportation to all her interviews.
In case you’re wondering, this is counter-intuitive, considering Shalewa supposedly started dating Maxwell for the money and the perks he offered her. Wouldn’t cutting off Shalewa’s access to money and the finer things only push her into Maxwell or another married man’s arms?
What do I know sha. Tiwa even gets some flack on the side and we find out that Tiwa’s car is actually her father’s.
Tiwa lives with her parents and drives their cars, so much for an independent woman.
The next time we see Tiwa, she’s rounding out her morning show. Didi, the ratchet best friend comes to the office to hang out (as always) and we find out that she actually has a real job; Operations manager. Didi on Mide’s orders has organized a ‘retreat’ for all the staff of the station, happening in the office (much to Tiwa’s dismay) and the new head of programming will be announced during the retreat. Even with all the small talk, the shows starts getting perilously close to passing the Bechdel test, when next thing Hadiza comes to the studio and we’re back in high school.
Hadiza brings up Mide, and the office retreat. She has had her eye on the open position of programmes manager, and even brings a bottle of champagne for some pre-emptive celebration. But of course, even with a job that Tiwa doesn’t want, she and Tiwa are still pointlessly catty. At the expense of free booze. I don’t understand these women.
At this point I just forward through the scenes where the three musketeers have speaking lines, all they ever do, is give me a migraine.
When Tiwa gets home, Mama Tiwa is watching television. Shalewa is still in solitary confinement and Tiwa tries to bargain for Shalewa, explaining that she was naive. I dont understand though why they keep pointing out that Shalewa is 23 as though 23 is the new 15. Shalewa is an adult and it seems everyone on the show, even Tiwa doesn’t seem to realize that disliking Shalewa’s decisions doesnt give anyone the right to ostracize her for it.
Unable to reach her mother, Tiwa tries to make peace with Shalewa. And this scene, right here ranks as one of the worst, most tone deaf scenes on the entire show. This was a great opportunity for the writers of this show to show Shalewa as a full-fledged, full realized character but instead they portray her as a money hungry floozy, whose only joy comes from free cash.
Tiwa explains to Shalewa and us, that she is ‘more than a pretty face’, and tells her to get a job, so that she learns the joy of ‘achieving something’. But Shalewa has a bachelor’s degree and made her way through university on merit. But no, Shalewa is all weepy until, Tiwa slips her fifteen thousand naira and some fast food. She literally lights up and forgives Tiwa for embarrassing her like a child and setting their parents on her.
I wanted to barf.
It seems the writers of the show finally remembered that #SGIT was originally a show about weight because they throw us a scene with Mama Tiwa ‘exercising’ with the maid. And of course, Mama Tiwa is only trying to get fit, because she is afraid another woman is trying to ‘steal’ her man. Has there been a scene in this show where any of the overweight characters trying to lose weight for themselves? And somehow, they manage to drag Shalewa and Maxwell into this too. Don’t they ever get tired of writing the same tired tropes?
There’s drama at the office, when we see Tiwa next. Didi the ratchet side kick and Tiwa meet up for some water cooler gossip about Hadiza. Hadiza apparently spoke out of turn about an Instagram celebrity’s baby and after spawning a twitter roast the celebrity whom Hadiza inadvertently set some Twitter trolls on turns on her, dragging her in the mud and giving her a ton of negative press.
Tiwa of course, doesn’t hesitate to attribute this to Hadiza being a ‘dumb pretty girl’, like Shalewa her sister; which is ironic considering Tiwa is nowhere near the smartest kid in the class. But pretty = stupid, keep up guys.
Tiwa and Mide are having one of their meetings in the office, when she suggests that since she is finally sure he isn’t trying sabotage her show, they can stop their weekly meetings. To which he says ‘You’re tired of me already, huh?’. And when Tiwa tries to get him to elaborate, he admits that he ‘likes’ their meetings. And while Tiwa is giving us one of her annoying asides, Mide’s ex-fiancee ‘drops’ by because she was in the ‘neighbourhood’.
Tiwa excuses herself and drops by the studio, where Hadiza is holed up, wearing sunglasses inside and ‘weeping’. Tiwa condescends at her, while Hadiza exhibits the unique shortcomings of horrible scriptwriting and characterization. And we’re supposed to learn some ‘life lessons’ from this episode.
Tiwa even tells us she is ‘losing’ weight, even though we haven’t seen her actually try all season.
And just in case anyone was actually getting suckered by this episode, Didi our walking gag reels bursts into the studio, ready with what is supposed to pass as comic relief. Eish.
Okay, at this point I have to ask, is Didi going to do anything else but try out different ratchet stereotypes in an effort to make us laugh, because the actress who plays her has done some stellar work elsewhere. Why waste her talents so thoroughly in a bit role?
LIFE LESSON: Fat girls are smart, Pretty girls are dumb. Keep up.
Semira Bello is lacking in conscience and lives her life on Youtube. When she isn’t watching Iroko TV, she is writing ‘serious’ articles about fashion and pretending to apply make up.
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