On Thursday, 29 March 2023, Netflix South Africa premiered Unseen. A crime-thriller series which is based on the adaptation of the Turkish 2021 crime-thriller series titled Fatma. As such, the premise of the local adaptation is that of a cleaner who sets out on a killing spree when she discovers that her husband is missing after being released from prison.
Gail Mabalane was the title character of Zenzile Mwale, who has received applause for her breakout leading role. This is as in the past, Gail had played main supporting characters and had never been afforded the chance to lead an entire production.
Ahead of the premiere of Unseen, Gail has shared her thoughts on landing her first leading role when speaking to TrueLove Magazineby sharing in part:
“It is such a surreal moment. This is my first lead role, it is something that I don’t take for granted for one second and for Netflix to trust me with such a strong and intense character, it is an honour. I have done a lot of shows, I am excited because it is something I have never done before and the audience will get to see me in a way that they have never seen before.”
However, following the availability of the series, it seems that Gail Mabalane had nothing to be worried about. This is as social media users took to their platforms to boast about the originality of the series. Moreover, they have given Gail her flowers for her ability to carry the show as the lead which includes the likes of Dineo Langa, Vuyo Dabula, Colin Moss, Mothusi Magano, and more acclaimed and veteran acting talent from South Africa.
But it seems that it was not only the South African audience that were enamoured by Mabalane’s performance given the recent milestone the series has had.
Gail Mabalane’s Unseen Number Four on Netflix Int.
Given that Netflix releases new series and movies every week, the platform shares its top performers of the previous week at the beginning of every new week. Hence the surprise when Unseen was revealed to not only have been a popular watch in South Africa but across the countries where the paid subscription video-on-demand platform is available.
This is as the crime thriller managed to make the Top 10 trending shows on Netflix. More than that, it made it to the fourth spot with over 24.3 million hours watched of the series between Thursday, 29 March 2023 and Sunday, 2 April 2023.
Moreover, the top spot on the trending shows and movies on Netflix was the sequel Murder Mystery 2. The comedic film features Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in the leading role. However, the main supporting lead male actor is none other than local legend and Black Panther star Dr. John Kani.
As such, the legend took to Twitter to celebrate the feat his film managed to achieve internationally, which continues to assert Kani as a film star.
