weekly critique by Mutwiri Kiambati

My name is Alfred Mutwiri and I will critique the show Tahidi High

Tahidi High is an action packed high school comedy and drama, full of intrigue, love, infighting as well as the usual battle of the sexes. Based on a high-class secondary school, Tahidi High brings to fore the daily conflicts between teachers, students and parents in a typical Kenyan setting. It’s a story about students' struggle to tackle life's dilemmas and challenges and teachers struggling to bring sanity to the institution and those within it. It airs on Citizen TV at 7.35 pm and repeats are on Sunday afternoon. It is a rather genius plot with a seemingly stable storyline. What makes this one class A drama is not the brilliance of its writer but the comic presence of its actors. A cast consisting of the likes of Omosh (Joseph Kinuthia) and the younger brand of OJ and the rest has done nothing but scoop TV awards all along its running. Congratulations to one Catherine Wamuyu for bringing to us this invigorating and intriguing look at high school life. And also kudos to the Tahidi High's hilarious cast.
The programme has some main characters and this include OJ, Omosh, Johnny, Miss Morgan, teacher Chebii, Shish among some occasional ones like Julia, Ratai, Andy, Veroh, and Debra. An episode is about 24 minutes and has about 12 to 14 scenes. This is quite a challenge as the show is a weekly programme and so it is shot under quite a bit of pressure. Shooting one scene can take hours as the cameraman has to shoot using various shots that will be used to make the visual interesting. The actors always have their lines memorized and this makes it easy for them to meet the target of shooting the whole show before start of the week.

31st Jan
The programme has a very distinctive and enticing signature tune. Those who are familiar with it almost instantly tend to be jovial as they wait for the programme to start and the crazy shenanigans created by the students to begin. They always try to begin the show with a well placed establishing shot to show or announce the school. On this particular show OJ was up to his old tricks of trying to impress Tanya. Unfortunately for him she is a very classy and uptown character who has little or no time for him.Oj buys her a necklace just to try and show her he cares. She despises the necklace for being too cheap when in actual sense for OJ it was too expensive. The episode is about how angry she was and how different characters react to the issue of spending excessively on the opposite sex. To try and show Tanya’ beauty she is brought to us through OJ’s eyes. This is achieved by the cameraperson using a long shot of her approaching then dolling her as she moves towards the audience and OJ. Before they speak a full body shot of her is introduced. The cameraperson then tilts up and focuses on her face to emphasize her beauty. This may seem to take up an ample amount of time but it actually brings out great emphasis and suspense in the audience. I think the commercial breaks between the programme are too many. Although the station has to make their money, we end up having even less than the 24 minutes and at times it really is irritating.
7th Feb
In this episode, the show begins with an interesting high angle shot of Omosh lying down on the lawns just lazing around. His eyes are shut as he enjoys the morning sun. Then suddenly a hugely beastly figure blocks the sun. He shouts and vents in dismay and anger only to realize its Mr. Tembo who has caught him lazing around. The cameraman first uses the high angle shot to show who has blocked off the sun. This tends to show authority or superiority. He then uses the extreme close up to focus on his stern face as Omosh quickly springs up from his position. This helps us as the audience to feel as if we are the ones who have been caught or have caught Omosh. Omosh then fakes how he is not feeling well to avoid doing much of his work but since he can’t miss a days pay he opts to stick around rather than go home. The camera person also widely uses the over the shoulder shot. It’s quite creative and creates uniformity and brings the audience into the conversation. Again the commercials tend to make the programme short and I have also realized at times scenes left hanging from the last episode are at most times never concluded. It is a creative device but to others can be a real bother.
14TH Feb
In this episode a new young and vibrant teacher is introduced to Tahidi high. Her beauty and youth dazzle all the male students but none more than Johnny. The dilemma is that he does not know that she is a teacher. He goes about flattering and welcoming her to Tahidi high and offering to show her around. She plays along and entertains his approaches. As they move around the school different shots are used. The cameraperson mostly uses the long shot to show us their position while also panning from right to left to establish a form of movement. As the story develops, Miss Morgan realizes that the male students are all gaping and perplexed by the new teacher’s looks. To show her anger, the cameraperson gets a close up of her face then switches to a tilt up and down of the new teacher. She then goes on to warn the new teacher that if she wishes to work anymore at Tahidi High she should change her wardrobe. It was a bit ironical since Miss Morgan was in an even smaller skirt. To get our suspense, the final scene is when she is introduced as a teacher in Johnny’s class. The extreme close up used shows Johnny in awe and shame as he thought she was a student. Another extreme close up shows the teacher putting up a cunning smile.
21st Feb
The episode did not run due to an advertisers live event.

28th Feb
In this episode, its time for the Science congress. The whole school has to be involved in the occasion and so the teachers organize an exhibition to get the best experiment to send to the show. All students must then partake in this exhibition much to their dismay. The classroom shots are excellent. The first one is from the students’ point of view staring at the teacher. It has an aspect of high angle to show that the teacher is the authority. From the teachers point of view we are given an over the shoulder view in order to give us the feel of being the teacher.As usual Johnny, Veroh, Julia and Tony try to be devious and pay Omosh to do the experiment for them. he obliges willingly due o the lovely amount of cash.Eventually everything goes wrong and the whole plan backfires due to the unenginuity of Omosh.the lighing odfthe programme is excellent as most of it uses natural light and so its easy to adjust the neutral display of the camera.the comical antics of Omosh are well covered and well done. the editing of the programm eis also of high quality. rarely have i seen a misplaced shot or even a major error on set the editor does take ample time to scrutinize the finished piece before it is aired.