, it’s clear that connecting gleeful, even goofy, spiritualized comedy to soap opera-ish scenarios is this pair’s stock-in-trade.,” the latest project from Bioh and Ali, uses a similarly soapy sudsiness to tell a giddy, romantic, comic tale of 1990s Nigeria, its then-bourgeoning film trade and the serious lifelong hopes of all of its passionate players.
Along with the sisters quibbling for position and paramours, there is the totemic, Oprah-of-Lagos talks how host, Adenikeh, played by the equally grand and singularly-named Abena . There is Nigeria’s hottest-ever leading man, Wale Owusu . Then, there is the former couple, currently at odds: the childhood sweetheart-star looking for a fresh break, Fayola Ogunleye , and Nigeria’s brand-name director Gbenga Ezie , hoping to cast someone outside-the-box in his newest melodrama, “The Comfort Zone.” .
In particular, Mensah and Abena play the grandeur of each of their characters with flighty lyrical highs, and deep, bold, swanning lows. As the glue that binds Nigerian celebrity in happily histrionic reverie, Abena’s Adenikeh is dazzling as she twitches, kvetches and lusts after her guest charges. Either Abena gets a role in a new streaming comedy immediately, or the flashy Adenikeh character gets her own talk show, stat.