Author: Katlego Marungwana

Richard Gere stars in this acclaimed thriller as Max, the owner of one of the world’s most influential media empires and he uses his power ruthlessly. His son Caden is editor of Max’s mouthpiece, The National newspaper. But Caden is crumbling under the pressure of his father’s expectation. When Caden’s excess causes a massive stroke, he’s left like a helpless child. For Kathryn – Max’s estranged wife – this is a chance to reconnect with the sensitive boy Max ripped away from her. And as Max and Kathryn fight for the soul of their son, another fight is about to begin, a fight for the heart of the nation. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Episode 1 – Monday, 14 October 2024 

US-born Max is at the heart of British politics and power, owner of a media empire that includes newspapers and television stations. His aristocratic ex-wife Kathryn has frozen out of the family and spends her days working at a homeless shelter. Their son, Caden, is at the heart of Max’s operation, editing broadsheet newspaper The National Reporter – but he’s out of his depth and the strain is showing. When Caden suffers a catastrophic breakdown, the fragmented family is pulled back together.

Episode 2 – Tuesday, 15 October 2024

With their son Caden fighting for his life in the hospital, we discover the story of Max and Kathryn’s relationship, and their battles for control over the future of their son. We start to sense that beneath the sheet of respectability there are terrible secrets waiting to be unleashed within Max’s empire, ones that could threaten its very existence. And when Caden wakes from his coma Kathryn finds her son has suffered a serious brain trauma. He is a baby again. But what kind of man is he about to grow into?

Episode 3 – Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Caden has been moved into a cutting-edge military rehabilitation facility. Kathryn dedicates herself full time to her son’s rehabilitation, making up for the years she missed when Caden was a child. As Caden painstakingly relearns basic skills, growing up for a second time, he falls for a brilliant and damaged military intelligence agent, Orla. Meanwhile, Max’s enemies are beginning to circle, sensing that his British media empire may be weakening. It is time for a decision on Caden’s future

Episode 4 – Monday, 21 October 2024

With no prospect of returning to the role he had spent his life being groomed for, Caden has nothing to live for. He spirals downwards until his equally unhinged companion Orla suggests a suicide pact. Kathryn reconnects with a volatile man, Scott, with whom she had established an intense connection at the homeless shelter. Max weighs the political candidates as the general election looms – but has his judgement been impaired by his son’s illness? When Kathryn learns some of Max’s dark secrets, she too has a fateful decision to make.

Episode 5 – Tuesday, 22 October 2024

Twenty years of family hurt, and betrayal comes to a head as the mother, the father and the son gather at a remote rural house near Caden’s rehab facility. Kathryn discovers the truth of the upbringing that Max inflicted on Caden – the creation of a man taught to feel nothing. She realizes how profoundly she failed her son by losing him to Max. This is a chance to fight the battle she lost during Caden’s childhood – emotion against machismo, idealism versus pragmatism. Will the family fight take the world stage?

Episode 6 – Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Having chosen their sides, everyone digs themselves in for the impending war. Caden finds Orla to warn her that she may be caught in the crossfire – her secrets deployed as ammunition against Caden. Kathryn and Caden meet with journalists to get Caden’s story on record – an expose of the practices at Max’s newspapers. Max conducts a root-and-branch reform of his newspapers, but how will he deal with the threat posed by Kathryn and Caden?

Episode 7 – Monday, 28 October 2024

The prime minister’s son has been murdered and Max’s newspapers are being blamed. A riotous atmosphere develops across the nation and a variety of factions emerge, some more sinister than others. At Caden’s Rehabilitation Centre, Orla has been transferred to a secure unit following a second suicide attempt. And Kathryn must decide whether she is willing to sacrifice her son for the sake of destroying Max’s empire.

Episode 8 – Tuesday, 29 October 2024

Caden leaves the rehabilitation centre, returning to London and an uncertain future. Kathryn ponders the offer that Max has made to her. How will Caden react to the news? Can she ever trust Max to keep his word? And where will the nation find itself after the most divisive of election campaigns?

For more information and publicity images please contact S3 Publicity.

Open Up with MotherFatherSon from Mondays to Wednesdays at 21:00, only on S3. 

A bewildering bougee brunch caused a stir on MasterChef South Africa Season 5. Front-runner and fan favourite Naledi bade the show a sad farewell.

Based on the latest startling MasterChef South Africa challenge results, it’s anyone’s guess who will win the gruelling cooking contest and scoop up the R1 million prize money.

Refe Dimbaza, the wild card who re-entered the MasterChef kitchen after being ousted in the Top 10 round, surprisingly presented the best dish of the day. At the same time, three contestants frequenting the top rungs of the culinary ladder fell to the bottom, awaiting their fate.

The trio that failed to impress the judges this week was Muldersdrift homemaker Naledi Matshitse, whose marvellous meals earned her an elimination-free spot on the gantry an unprecedented four times, as well as MasterChef South Africa’s two youngest contenders, Bridget Mangwandi and Nabila Shamshum.

Ultimately, Naledi, a forced-to-be-reckoned-with and firm fan favourite since her triumph at the first official challenge of the season, had to say her goodbyes.

The challenge that sent Naledi home.

This week, guest judge Chef Ebie du Toit, the hip head chef at one of the swankiest restaurants in the country, The Pot Luck Club in Rosebank, Johannesburg, gave the Top 7 a glimpse of his bespoke bougee brunch spreads savoured by millennials and Gen Z. In other words, those beautifully plated bite-size delights accompanied by Mimosas and cocktails that turn heads on Instagram.

The Season 5 s were then tasked to take inspiration from Chef Ebie’s spread, creating three bougee brunch items to take him and the show’s three judges –

Zola Nene, Chef Katlego Mlambo and Justine Drake – on “a trip to Flavour Town”.

The required dishes were a brunch classic with some swag, a reimagination of a classic brunch cocktail presented as a dish, and a luxurious riff on avo toast.

To whip up their luxurious, eye-catching bites, the Top 7 had full access to the Pick n Pay Pantry, and the Avo Grower’s Association delivered a stash of top-grade avocadoes. However, the scary time limit for this assignment was a mere two hours.

How the challenge played out.

Despite being born into Gen Z, the challenge put 23-year-old Nabila in a tailspin. Instead of fluttering the digital-crazy social food scene, the young artist and teacher is a homebody who prefers painting and spoiling her mixed-heritage Afrikaans and Arabic family with spicy, hearty dishes. Furthermore, Nabila, a teetotaler, was stressed about the cocktail dish.

Refe, who prides herself on her rustic, ample servings, also entered the challenge, doubting her ability to pull off the finesse needed for such upmarket food fare. Meanwhile, MasterChef South Africa’s oldest home cook, 68-year-old Penny Rider, a Baby Boomer, was cognisant of the generational culinary cliff she had to climb. Even social media influencer Chanel Brink was spooked by the challenge, wondering if she would live up to Chef Ebie’s high standards.

However, nobody was more freaked out than Naledi. “Bougee, bougee! What is bougee?” Naledi panicked. “With three kids in the house, we don’t do bougee.”

Initially, the flustered Naledi had no plan, but after some serious self-talk, she decided to breathe and just elevate the food she makes at home. That’s why she attempted a Piña colada with pap for her cocktail dish. 

On the contrary, Eastern Cape’s Lona Rode was not too fazed—until he had to reconceptualise some flops on his menu.

But Bridget, a bougee aficionado herself, was as cool as a cucumber throughout the challenge. The cook-off was right up her food alley. By the time the contestants served their cuisine to the judges, she thought combining Durbanville Hills Champagne Sec with oranges was a stroke of genius. Not to mention using crayfish on her avo toast. Bridget rated her nouveau avocado offering as an 8 out of 10, her Crayfish Eggs Benedict as an 8.5, and her Mimosa as a 9.

Chef Ebie and the judges didn’t mince their words.

For the first time in the competition, the judges were gutted by the overall standard of cooking. Their critique was harsh, and judge Justine was particularly irritated. She commented that despite the fantastic ingredients in the Pick n Pay Pantry and riotous amounts of fabulous avocadoes, they ended up with an enormously disappointing delivery. “What we got was confusion. It was almost as if they took the luxury ingredients, tossed them over, overcooked them and then called it something else,” Justine said. 

Bridget’s spread was not as beautiful and appetising as she imagined. “It just looks sad,” Chef Ebie commented. She would definitely not be named “the face of bougee”, as she envisioned. Although Bridget waxed her dessert, her other dishes were clumsy. Chef Katlego couldn’t cut the avo toast, and the hollandaise was raw. 

Despite Nabila’s design background reflecting in the plating of her tasty, sweet dish as well as her Salmon Seviche, she overcooked the fish, and her Avo Flatbread was an afterthought disaster, as Nabila expected. It lacked seasoning and proper knife skills.

Naledi was a bundle of nerves when presenting her brunch, and for good reason. She didn’t crack the bougee brief at all. “When Chef Ebie sent everyone on a flavour trip, the bus was going north, but this bus went south,” Chef Katlego sighed. While the judges loved the flavour of her Piña Colada and pap dessert, her knife skills didn’t do her justice and putting forward a sandwich for a bougee brunch was not good enough. The caramelised onions were lovely, but the bread was overtoasted, and the disheartening and dry chicken lacked seasoning.

In this round, even challenge winner Refe’s serving was not perfect. Even though Chef Ebie wanted to steal her Grapefruit Mimosa Granita, and her Shakshuka with chorizo and quail eggs were a taste bud sensation, Refe’s avo and chocolate truffles confused the judges.

MasterChef South Africa,Season 5, proudly sponsored by Pick n Pay, where fresh ingredients take centre stage, premieres on S3 on Saturdays at 19:30. The rebroadcasts are on SABC 2 on Sundays at 18:30 and S3 on Wednesdays at 18:00.

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