The River has earned the kudos of viewers as it shone a spotlight on the dynamics of elderly love with Mohumo and Flora’s blooming romance.
Mohumo and Flora

1Magic’s The River took to Twitter on Wednesday, 4 August 2021, to confirm the blooming relationship between Mohumi and Flora. The characters are portrayed by Seputla Sebogodi and Tinah Mnumzana. The storyline was welcomed by fans, as it is one that is not usually portrayed in this manner in most of the leading telenovelas and soapies.

Locally, it is a telenovela and soap convention to have an elderly couple featured as leading characters. However, the couple is usually portrayed as so-called ride-or-dies who might face difficulties, but eventually end up together. Alternatively, the story may have an elderly woman, the wise old sage, who does not venture into a new relationship as it is explained that the love of their lives has since passed.

The River has highlighted that the elderly can also find love. Moreover, it introduced the story by highlighting the reasons why the storyline is not usually explored in most other telenovelas and soapies of a similar format. Elderlies finding love is not a convention used to draw viewers into a storyline, more so when the elderly characters involved in the storyline are not upper middle-class characters falling in love with affluence as a backdrop.

Hence to have Black working-class elderlies falling in love on national television is heart-warming to see, particularly as it reflects the realities of the demographic that watches the telenovela. Comments highlighted how the storyline spoke to one that reflects the story of their parents and grandparents, or how viewers wished that their parents and grandparents could have taken the chance to find love again following the passing of their lovers.

See the post below.