M-Net’s ‘Reyka’ impresses, here’s why

A gripping crime drama and new series Reyka, developed by M-Net, has received wide acclaim after airing on Sunday evening.

Actress Kim Englebrecht stars as the lead, Reyka Gema, a flawed criminal profiler. Haunted by her past because she was abducted as a child during the first democratic elections in 1994, while her mother Elsa (Anna-Mart van der Merwe), was working as a photographer for a local newspaper. Her abductor, Speelman, played by Game of Thrones star Ian Glen is soon to be released on parole.

However, in the series, this is just one of many Reyka’s concerns, as she is also trying to track down a serial killer causing fear in the cane fields of KwaZulu-Natal. Her detective team include Constable Nandi Cele acted by Thando Thabethe, Hamilton Dhlamini as Brigadier Kenneth Nkosi and junior detective Samuel (Mavuso Simelane).

Other familiar faces are Nokuthula Ledwaba as Portia, Desmond Dube, former Isidingo stars Leeanda Reddy and Jack Devnarain.

The acting from the cast is top notch, Englebrecht probably has a career highlight role in this series which assists her cast members collectively.

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Directed by Nee Ntuli (Hard to Get) and Catharine Cooke (The Girl from St Agnes) they capture Reyka’s anxiousness as she tries to track down a serial killer, the reality of police officers in crime scenes, finding limbs, following bloody trails and suspicious suspects. It also tackled authentically South African dark stories, gender-based violence, rape, crime, with all of this, it is just good television.

The complexity of Reyka as a character is great to watch. From piecing the crime puzzle, her need to heal, find forgiveness for Speelman and trusting the people around her, the layers work well.

Audiences were just as gripped with the first episode.

Stephen tweeted: “Watching #ReykaSA. Love the world-building. Reyka is such a complex character. There’s a lot of trauma there that reverberates through all her relationships & interactions. Also, the sugarcane fields remind me of Memories of Murder a bit, one of my fav crime thrillers.”