...but that doesn’t mean you can’t immerse yourself into other cultures. International series on the various streaming platforms allow you to travel the world, if you know where to look.
Let’s start with South Africa.
“Queen Sono” has been available on Netflix since February and is one of the first south African shows commissioned by the streaming service as a “Netflix Original”.
Queen Sono is a secret agent working for the Special Operations Group (SOG). Her boss, Dr Sidwell Isaacs may not always be OK with the way Queen improvises when on a mission, but he lets her off the hook as she brings results.
Queen’s mother was killed because of her fight against Apartheid. The man responsible has been behind bars for years, but he tells Queen that there’s more to the case than she knows and of course she makes it her own personal mission to find out what exactly happened.
The show moves from Zanzibar to Harare to Johannesburg. South Africa is portrayed as a modern, colorful and most of all confident country where a lot of different cultures get along, more or less. This is especially obvious if you watch the show with the original sound, because apart from English the characters communicate in some of the other 10 official languages.
Although the story has been done before and – admittedly – better and with more budget, “Queen Sono” has a very special charm and is different enough from the usual fare to warrant a viewing.
“Queen Sono” is available on Netflix, until now there’s one season with 6 Episodes.
From South Africa to Istanbul, Turkey.
Hakan is a young man helping his uncle manage a small shop while trying to find financing for his most recent project. When his uncle is killed, he finds out that he has been chosen to be the “Protector” of Istanbul. His mission is to protect the city from the immortals that seek to destroy humanity.
“The Protector” is a fantasy series, telling the story of the unwilling hero who’d rather live a normal life with his love than fulfill his destiny. But there are the “loyal ones”, Kemal and his daughter Zeynep whose mission it is to keep their hero on track.
The writing is sometimes a bit inconsistent and dialogue not always coherent, which may be due to translation, as the original soundtrack is Turkish.
The city of Istanbul plays a big role in the story, the contrast of old, historic buildings like the Hagia Sophia against the modern high-rises mirroring the conflict in Hakan, where traditional duty clashes with his modern dreams.
“The Protector” is available on Netflix, there are three seasons, with a 4th planned and 25 episodes total.
