Maria

You’ll never get depressed, feel down, or bored watching Maria.

An epic family drama, it’s the best series I’ve ever seen on Kenyan or East African Televisions. It has glued around 90 percent of the Kenyan population to Citizen TV each weeknight – and has gained popularity in other East African countries.

Besides being the most popular show in Kenya in years, it’s one of the most emotionally stirring I’ve seen, and it will, at times, make you cry. It delivers realistic and well-written dialogue, gripping action scenes, and an addictive storyline.

Maria is an uneducated orphan, a humble, beautiful, teenage dreamer from the ghetto who gets adopted by an affluent family known as the Hausas. The problems begin when the two Hausa boys, Victor and Luwi, both fall in love with Maria.  She only loves one of them in return, and he’s already legally wedded to another woman, the evil Sophia.

The show sheds light on the stark contrasts between life among the poor in the slums and Africa’s urban rich. The juniors to the aged ones are all fans of Maria and its exceptional actors. The juniors learn to look beyond their assumptions and immediate world by associating themselves with the story’s younger characters. For the older viewers, they learn something by comparing their lifestyles with that of the Hausa family.