Greetings, people!! This right here is a review of some very special series…
So, once you’re familiar with the site, you definitely know about the series labelled ‘Original M & D Series’. And there’s a reason why I’ve labelled them as such.
So in my earlier days of blogging, I had a blog titled ‘Machshabah & Dabar’. Where from this name, you ask? They’re the Hebrew words for ‘thought’ and ‘fiction’ respectively. And I was being pretty ‘spiritual’ with the title, to be honest. You know, since it’s in Hebrew, I’m making it more connected to God or something like that…
Yeah, let’s not go too deep into that.
Anyways, so it was on this blog that these stories were birthed. It was these stories that really gave rise to the emergence of Dabar. Without them, I’d have stuck to articles and the like. But as the new site was created, I knew I couldn’t discard these old babies of mine; they had to be in there (yeah, old babies. I know it sounds terribly weird, but I guess you get the drift).
So for this review, I look back at the creation of these series, and what they’re about…
START OVER
This is the one that really kickstarted the whole writing craze! The funny thing is, it wasn’t even supposed to be a series; it was just a one-off story when the idea came for it. Yet, I had a number of friends not satisfied with that one-off story. One thing led to another, and it became a full series! And I won’t lie, even though I didn’t have much of an initial plan for it, it came out better than I would ever have imagined. I’m glad I kowtowed to that pressure.
So what was the inspiration for it? Well, let’s just be honest: I was still kinda butthurt about a potential relationship suddenly going bad, and it was my little way of dealing with it. Yeah, I was very much used to dealing with heartbreak through writing stuff, and this was a very nice one, to be honest.
Seriously, I found one really old heartbreak post called Pent Up Resentment a couple of years ago, and trust me, it was acidic! But that’s a post for another day.
So this story chronicles the love triangle between Marcus, Allison and Temwani, and honestly, it was quite an interesting ride.
My favourite moments? The various moments with Sefakor, who is definitely one of the most hilarious characters on the State. The last episode, was gloriously beautiful, as Marcus and Temwani reunited after spending a year and a half away from each other. And of course, when Temwani switched from sweet to tough on Allison. The girl was not playing!
LONG JOURNEY
For this story… there’s an interesting twist to it.
So this was created in 2017, as I looked to build on the success of Start Over. After the 7th episode, though, laziness took over, and I forgot about it. For months.
It was somewhere in 2018 when a new friend named Rachael checked out Start Over, loved it, and convinced me to finish this one. And finish it I did. So we can all thank Rachael for kicking that laziness out of me.
Anyway, what was the inspiration for this one? I just pictured what it would be like if a guy ran away from a pregnancy he’s responsible for, only to meet the child he abandoned. So that’s what it’s about: a gentleman called Chris who runs away from taking responsibility for a pregnancy, wastes his life and comes back to meet his son all grown up.
My favourite moments? Weeellll… there’s the very beginning. I still consider “That Last Fight” to be one of my best starts to a series, with the showdown between Evelyn and Chris. The girl really stood her ground, and I love it. Then there’s the gradual transition of Chris, from a genuine a-hole to a reformed person. You just wonder how good it would have been had he experienced that change of heart before going to fire his own cousin. Ugh!
OF VOICES & VERMIN
So after being cured of that bout of laziness and finally completing the previous series, it was time to get busy with 2018’s actual series. To be honest, I had barely done anything on the blogosphere that year. Aside from a tribute post to my friend who died at the beginning of that year, I largely neglected it. So I had to get active.
With this series, let’s say it was a spinoff of something I created much earlier before. You see those four friends – Sidney, Kwabena, Jesse, and Steel? Yeah, they were the main characters in my actual very first series, which was called World Of Young People. It was mainly about their lives in university. I had a special WordPress blog for that series, and it was back in 2010. Unfortunately, for reasons I can’t remember, I deleted the blog, and I never managed to retrieve the files from the laptop on which I wrote it. So yeah, that’s that.
But if you want me to consider it in the future, let me know…
Anyways, the inspiration for this one? I’ve written a story about someone dealing with guilt in a similar position, and so I decided to develop it further (and to be honest, there are many series on the State which started out as short stories. I’ll tell that story one day). I decided to have it revolve around those characters from World of Young People to make it more enjoyable for me.
So this story is mainly centred on Sidney’s younger brother, Nii Ajei, who was in prison for an accidental killing, and is dealing with those demons in his head, as well as a psycho of an ex best friend who suddenly hates him for no reason. To be honest, I look at Razzie and I see one very puzzling and illogical character. A problematic human being in all ways.
Favourite moments? Definitely, the times that the quartet was together. That brotherly love between the four of them is one of my favourite things to write about… and now that I think about it, I should consider rewriting World of Young People. Yeahhhh… I’m sure a properly written series by a matured Qwamenah would be awesome. Alright, people, it’s on my list! Expect it one day!
So that’s the Original M & D series review part 1! Part 2 will be coming up shortly!