‘Unseen’ Review: A Gripping And Captivating Crime Thriller From Start To Finish

Unseen is a new thriller Netflix series and a remake of a Turkish series that premiered on the streaming platform a couple of years back titled Fatma. This new South African adaptation is helmed by Daryne Joshua and Travis Taute, the creative duo behind another South African Netflix series, Blood and Water.

The series follows Zenzi Mwale, played by Gail Mabalane, a woman who struggles to make a living as a domestic worker. The day finally arrives when Zenzi’s husband Max, played by Vuyo Dabula, is supposed to be released from prison. However, when her husband is nowhere to be seen, Zenzi embarks on a search for Max only to find herself thrust into the volatile world of organized crime. Eventually, other aspects of Zenzi’s life become entangled with her search for her husband as well. Her strained relationship with her sister, her tumultuous arrangement with her slumlords, and her reliance on one of her employers, an investigative writer, all get sucked into her predicament with organized crime. This weaving of multiple subplots and character arcs into the larger overall narrative is one of the many things that this series does brilliantly. Their inclusion is not merely thrown in in order to justify having a full season of television. Rather, they are utilized as tools and sources to mine in an effort to add more conflict, raise the stake of the events transpiring on screen, and thus, to evoke a greater amount of tension from the audience.

Of course, much of this is due to the strong script we got from all six episodes. In addition to Joshua and Taute as the showrunners, the series was also penned by Sean Drummond, Tristan Atkins, and Meesha Aboo. It was very clear that in this particular writer’s room, there was a level of communication and collective coherency that many other series do not have as every episode is intricately tied into the events that take place in all the others. Every action has a consequence, and every event leads to another. For one thing, we are given a very empathizable protagonist in Zenzi, a woman who, through no actions of her own, finds herself in a difficult and deadly situation that she seemingly can’t get out of. Through the entire season, we as the audience have a hope in the back of our minds that Zenzi can potentially make a clean exit from this situation. From her job to her landlord to her dilemma with the mob, Zenzi never seems to catch a break. Additionally, many of the supporting characters are just as fleshed out and carry a believable on-screen presence as well. Lufuno, an author and one of Zenzi’s employers, played by Mothusi Magano, is a character who is naturally inclined to learn about human beings and their behavior as is a major part of being a writer. Raymond Hendricks, played by Brendon Daniels, is an impulsive mobster who sometimes acts out of anger but otherwise out of fear and we see throughout the story how that type of mindset plays out.

The series also cuts back and forth between events in the past and in the present. The events of the past aren’t necessarily full sequence blocks, but rather small scenes sprinkled in throughout each episode. This could have felt very jarring or unnecessary altogether, but fortunately, that was not the case. If anything, the flashback cuts, being short and succinct, kept the story from dragging too long or straying off into directions of pointless detail or exposition. They were included to convey the information that they needed at the time in which they were shown and then immediately, we were thrust back into the events unfolding in the present. This decision kept the momentum rolling and did not stifle the tension at all but rather increased it, if anything. There were a couple of short flashback scenes that if were perhaps cut out would not have detracted anything from the overall plot, but they were few, far between, and relatively short. Otherwise, the series handled its various time jumps pretty much as effectively as it could have.

But what can really be appreciated about Unseen as a whole is that it actively avoids doing what many other stories, especially in the crime thriller genre, do. It does not try to present itself as some sort of grandiose or thought-provoking type of story nor does it attempt to play around with its narrative to make itself seem smarter than it actually is. Rather, it focuses on its primary engine, that being a woman searching for her husband through an organized crime syndicate, and builds off of that premise as the narrative progresses. The story is fairly simple and that is not meant in a degrading way. The events that unfold and how they tie into everything else are digestible and easy for the viewer to comprehend. This is something that many other crime shows don’t seem to understand. Many try to shoehorn in as many twists and turns as possible, most of which fall flat as they make little sense within the context of the story and feel included as a cheap way to evoke tension from the audience. On the other hand, Unseen manages to achieve that result the old-fashioned way, that is by having characters that are believable and multilayered, a premise to get invested in, a solid script, and very fine actors. When it comes to storytelling, sometimes simplicity is the most resonant tool a filmmaker can use.

As mentioned, one of the show’s signature strengths is the acting across the board. In Zenzi, Gail Mabalane brings to life a woman who is thrust into this deadly criminal underworld out of the actions of her husband. Also mentioned earlier were the performances of Magano and Daniels. Both actors, especially Daniels’ portrayal of a mobster who must always be on edge at every turn, played their roles with the precision and degree needed to convey these characters as believable individuals. Additionally, Dineo Langa as Zenzi’s sister Naledi plays a character who is almost completely polar opposite from her sister in terms of personality and is an absolute force of nature on screen. Waldemar Schultz as Detective Morkel was another big standout throughout the show. With that character, we had a detective who at this point is used to doing this kind of work for a living and no matter how accustomed he is to solving murders and criminal cases, something always still seems to surprise him. Colin Moss, as the lawyer Reuben Theron, is also a scene stealer with whatever screen time he’s given.

There are a couple of minor inconsistencies that don’t add up in regard to certain character decisions. In addition, there are moments when things happen to certain characters and they then make a decision that feels somewhat out of place for them or inconsistent with everything we know about their behavior. However, these moments are very few and have little to no effect on the overall story. In the first episode or two, the pacing initially feels a bit slow and feels like it drags a bit, however, we later understand that some of those scenes were necessary for certain events to process in the manner that they did and thus, did not come off as slow in hindsight. To summarize, whatever issues this series may have had are nothing more than minor nitpicks in an otherwise thoroughly well-crafted narrative.

The series also ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger with still a few loose ends left unresolved and while no second season has been officially announced, it is difficult to imagine the creators behind the series wanting to leave the story where they did. They have an opportunity to capitalize on the momentum they built over the course of the first season and expand on what they created by taking this series to an earned and well-resolved endpoint. Otherwise, if this was intended to only be a six-episode limited series, then the vague and open ending of the finale leaves the viewer somewhat stuck.

But as it stands, Unseen effectively takes the fish out of water story of a cleaning lady who finds herself caught up in a criminal power struggle and churns out a compelling narrative with strong characters, a solid script, brilliant acting, and captivating conflict from start to finish.