Far from Home review: A compelling, well-paced binge

‘Far from Home’ is a miniseries revolving around the story of an aspiring artist, who gets tangled in a web of illegal activities.

Story

Ishaya comes from a low-income family. His ambition is to become an artist under the tutorship of Essien, a well-known London-based artist. He saves up enough money to fly to London and become Essien’s apprentice. But his parents, Ishaya Sr. and Patricia want him to put his artistic ambitions aside and focus on earning money.

On his birthday, Rahila notices a commercial for an open application process for the prestigious Wilmer School, where a scholarship is available. He offers to accompany her, but she declines because she is unable to pay the application fee. In the midst of this, Ishaya works two to three jobs per day to earn enough money to travel in private.

Ishaya becomes distraught after his family depletes his savings to assist one of his father’s many health issues. Ishaya is more determined than ever to travel abroad.

He overhears a father telling his son Denrele that he has the Wilmer entrance exam answer key and that the scholarship includes a $10,000 prize at one of Patricia’s wealthy cleaning clients’ homes (worth about 6 million Nigerian Naira).

When Denrele, who believes he can get in on his own, tosses out the answer key, Ishaya picks it up and formulates a plan: he’ll ace the test, win the scholarship, and then travel to London with the $10,000. However, Ishaya is still required to steal money in order to pay the fee for the exam application.

This compels Ishaya to steal money from another boss’s “money cage”. The club owner is Government. Ishaya takes the risk despite witnessing Government and his right-hand man, Oga Rambo, murder someone for “getting high on our supply” and feeding the dead man to a hungry hyena.

In the midst of this, Ishaya’s ex, Adufe, is insulted by Ishaya’s plan to visit London, primarily because he never told her about it, and dumps him in favour of hanging out with Oga Rambo. She, too, is entangled in the drug trade.

Ishaya aces the entrance test and gets the scholarship. But much to his disappointment, the money he ultimately receives is not even close to how the sum he was expecting. To add to the pile of problems, Mr Government catches him for the theft.

In order to punish him, Mr Government and Oga Ramon take away Rahila. Ishaya must now attempt to save his sister and deal with the drug lords. He makes a deal that he would sell drugs at Wilmer High and repay all the money he stole. Soon enough, Ishaya becomes a puppet in the drug circle.

As time passes by, there comes a point where Ishaya feels compelled to assist Adufe in kidnapping one of his close friends and classmates, Frank. Adufe does this to make up for the money she lost when she lost her molly stock, which she was supposed to sell.

Adufe strikes again once she sees the benefit of this and realizes Ishaya’s closeness to another classmate, Carmen – the popular girl in school. Out of spite, she intends to kidnap Carmen next. Ishaya tries to stop her but fails. He even involves Mr Government but that does not help either.

After a shambles, Ishaya tells the school authorities the truth about Oga Ramon and Mr Government. Action is taken to apprehend the two, but only Mr Government is apprehended. Oga Ramon swears and attempts to kill Ishaya. However, Adufe eventually defeats Ramon and takes over his empire with the help of Baido, Oga Ramon’s bodyguard.

‘Far from Home’ concludes with Ishaya being evicted from his home by his father due to the problems he has caused. Nonetheless, his idol Essien announces his art on television. Carmen is forced to go to rehab because of her drug and alcohol addiction. Mr Government remains imprisoned, and Ramon has been imprisoned by Adufe, the new leader.

Performances

The casting for ‘Far from Home’ has been refined. Each actor seems to be hand-picked and polished for their character – which is rare to find in most miniseries. The performances put forward by the actors have added more layers to the already complex storyline.

Mike Afolarin, who plays the role of Ishaya, has been one of the best picks for the miniseries. As a viewer, one cannot help but feel pity for the deranged character because of his brilliant performance. Other actors such as Bucci Franklin (who plays the role of Mr Government), Elma Mbadiwe (who plays the role of Carmen), and others have done a beautiful job.

Positives

‘Far from Home’ is a very well-directed miniseries. The storyline has the charisma to hold the audience’s attention. There are thrills and excitement tied into every episode.

A lot of situations have been very nicely stitched into just five episodes. Equal importance has been given to Ishaya’s home life, school life and work life. Similarly, other subplots got their rightful highlight as well.

Negatives

There could have been more emphasis on Oga Ramon. Who is he? How did he attain such a lot of power? Such questions and more could have been answered to give a clearer look at the character’s backstory and motivations.

It seemed too easy to dethrone Oga Ramon. He is a drug lord and has massive assets. A question lingers as to whether Ramon has been a weak leader since all it took was to befriend the bodyguard, Baido, and have some of his money.

Verdict

‘Far from Home’ is an exciting journey for a viewer. It has all the elements that are required to make a miniseries work, with the brevity of the runtime adding to its binge-worthiness.

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