In 2021, when Accelerate TV first aired The Olive, a story of family, relationships, secrets and espionage, on their YouTube platform, it must have taken viewers a while to grow into the web series. At that time, Accelerate TV—unlike the likes of Netflix, Showmax, and Amazon Prime Video with apparently more visibility and marketability—was still marking its filmmaking territory in strict terms and needed to warm its way into the hearts of Nollywood fans first. So, having Dami Elebe (known for Up North and Skinny Girl In Transit, and later to be acknowledged for the bubbly YA drama series Far From Home) shoulder the screenwriting responsibility for the series paid off as that made the show narratively inviting.
Directed by Yemi “Filmboy” Morafa, The Olive follows the life of Anayo (Ibrahim Suleiman) and his three children Adaora (Faith Stanley) Kele (Phillips Francis) and Kosi (Angel Unigwe). Having lost his wife Ehi (Theresa Edem) to cancer, Anayo is forced to embrace life as a single parent, as he also keeps up with friendships. At some point, he decides to preserve his wife’s legacy, which is her restaurant business. Unknown to the all-too-good father and husband, his late wife has a string of secrets that includes links to the underworld, and his curiosity leads him towards an investigation.
Even though it’s a hefty piece of thriller drama, there are two translucent segments to the first season as viewers come along with it: the dramatic world of Anayo’s family, which is infused with a considerable measure of love, innocence and ignorance; and the fuzzy, brutal, subterranean world of Ibrahim (who doubles as Benson Attah) and his cohorts. Ehi bestrode both worlds.
The narrative structure of the series is engaging enough, as the director Filmboy, even while attempting to retain the atmosphere of suspense by unravelling Ehi and Benson in bits of information, keeps us in touch with Ehi’s dual existence as the scenes juggle her posthumous reality with flashbacks involving the storied woman. Interestingly, this is achieved by starting every episode with a moment culled from Ehi’s lifetime. The two-faced, dynamic depiction of Ehi contrasts sharply with Anayo’s predominantly straitjacketed personality. It’s easy to be in touch with people like Anayo as presented in this season because they look just noble enough in stature and simple-minded in thought to be taken for a ride. This is why when Adaora acts spoilt we often wish the man would really put his foot down. It is, for instance, annoying that Anayo cannot get his daughter to be cool with having to complete her education in Nigeria.
Also, how can a man be so hospitable that he exposes his children that much to a supposed uncle that the family did not know about until only recently? When Anayo’s initial suspicions quickly dissipate and Benson draws closer to the family, our senses become alert as we seriously hope that no harm comes near the Dikes. As the season ends with the family intact, we sigh in relief. Going by the ending, another rising concern, apart from the lurking shadows of Benson, is the sudden discovery that Ehi is, after all, alive. Viewers may not have missed her the way her family did, since we do not even meet her alive from the outset— and that detracts from her appeal, but the confirmation of her existence is proof to expect more thrills, perhaps some uber-espionage vibes, in Season 2. We wonder what Ehi’s reconciliation with her family would look like.
With the suggestion that Ehi has retrieved the mystery, power-defining ledger, it won’t be surprising anymore to have her challenge Ibrahim for the leadership of the clandestine group in Season 2. Unfortunately, if she does this, her family would probably be endangered more and what remains of her secret dealings might eventually be fully exposed. How soon the exposure happens depends on the showrunners, as it is considerably linked to how many more seasons they might be willing to engage fans with. A series of this nature, with its overarching plot approaching a phase where there is increasingly more lighting-up and fewer blights, must not overstay its welcome, or else it starts to become jejune.
Tensions have been quite well-managed in Season 1 that sometimes, you feel the need to reconsider the series as a half-blooded crime thriller. It seems as if the showrunners are averse to bloodshed, and would rather make their audience appreciate the beauty of a crime story with less ill-fated action at all costs. Viewers would have thought that, by the time the season ended, Angelica’s intrusiveness would have led to her death at the hands of the bad guys. When she does get a second chance to live, it is with the hope that she would be instrumental to Ibrahim and his men. Well, for the time being, this is what a decent show does: veer away from what is predictable.
Perhaps it is this tendency to bypass predictability that is gradually helping Accelerate TV gain a foothold in the streaming market. In The Olive, the showrunners present an anti-conventional scenario of a woman who seems to be the master of her own game while she plays dead. You may claim that a film such as Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys has given us a more badass female lead character. However, with The Olive, the female could have been constrained by a wholesome family of her own (three children and a husband), yet she still gets the mental strength to dissociate from them for God-knows-how-long, only keeping a remotely CCTV eye on them. Another ironic twist is that while Anayo looks indecisive and too easy to be manipulated, Ehi is portrayed as a craftier figure. Thus, traditional gender expectations in heterosexual relations are ditched.
As fans preoccupy themselves with the currently running Season 2, it would be interesting to see how Ehi’s moves further influence the plot and affect her family. The power tussle between Madam Elaine (Joke Silva), Ehi and Ibrahim (Chico Aligwekwe), amplified by the mystery of the ledger, will probably be the more intriguing aspect to look out for, as we seriously hope the Dike family are put out of harm’s way.
Season 2 is currently available for viewing on Accelerate TV YouTube and Accelerate Plus app.