Streaming miniseries review - Trompoppie

Trompoppie *** (out of 5) The title of this darkly comic murderfest is Afrikaans for drum majorette. We first meet aspiring gymnast Luna (Melissa Myburgh), whose mom died leaving her with a drunk, depressed and broke dad. Poppa wants the best for her - a top-notch gym academy in Russia – but they can’t even cover their daily overhead. During a workout, she’s seen by a wealthy local celeb, Jill (Marion Holm), who decides to pay for Luna to attend the city’s posh high school and live with her family, in exchange for adapting her skills for the majorette squad her daughter Zanne (Celeste Loots) is due to captain. There’s a competition that means the world to Jill and the school, and Luna seems like the element needed to boost them from also-rans to champs. That contest seems far more important to them than it should.

The privileged jock milieu isn’t what Luna aspires to, but she agrees because it’s the only possible path to her own goal. Luna is warmly embraced by Zanne, but immediately spurned by the rest of the relevant students – especially Mindy ((Elzet Nel) – the current captain and leader of the pack. Mindy is straight out of a Mean Girls clone, complete with intimidated minions in the roost she rules, and contempt for the new girl from the poor side of town. Luna perseveres, with Jill’s staunch backing. She’s a strident Karen among Tiger Moms, and throws her weight around liberally and loudly. She also looks uncomfortably like Eddie Izzard in his drag mode. As a veteran soap opera star, Jill can throw her weight around more forcefully than most, and without reservation.

For ten 50-minute episodes, we follow a tragic accident, a desperate cover-up and a string of consequential murders, with suspense about who is doing the rest of the killing. Suspects ebb and flow among members of the squad, their handsome coach (Armand Aucamp), Jill’s surly other adopted daughter, Elke (Luca Human), Zanne’s short-fused beau Tomas (Cantona James), and others. We root for Luna because she’s as pleasantly earnest and sympathetic as Lindsay Lohan’s character from Mean Girls, and pushed for doing the right thing after the initial incident, but was outvoted and outmuscled by Mindy and the rest of the squad, ala Heathers.

Etienne Fourie apparently wrote and directed the entire miniseries. His effort contains considerable merit, including some effective misdirections and twists. The wry, morbid humor is effective. The media frenzy and fickle reactions of the public add a fine social satire element. Jill’s high profile and central involvement make the ongoing situation a big attention-grabber. Performances are fine across the board from a large cast of featured players. On the downside, this would have been much better if compressed to seven or eight episodes. A lot of fat could have been excised without losing any of the meat. The acts of violence and their results occur mostly off-camera. For those expecting a bunch of titillating scenes of young lasses in skimpy outfits, locker rooms and shower scenes, cool your libidos. There ain’t many such cheap thrills to be found.

There’s a lot to like, including some laugh-out-loud moments and a satisfying ending. Perhaps others will have more patience than I for the winding path to reach it.

(Trompoppie, mostly in Afrikaans with subtitles and some English, streams on MHz Choice as of 8/5/25)