If we’re talking about TV shows overall, it would be tough to deny that the news dominates in Uganda, with NTV Akawungeezi news broadcast likely being the biggest of the bunch. Not only does it command strong viewership on TV, but it also has many followers and watchers on social media platforms, like Facebook and YouTube – boasting 375,000 subscribers on the video platform, in fact. The news scene is also where we see battles for talent, such as when anchor Hatma Nalugwa Sekaaya switched to NBS Television shows.
While the news scene is gripping and strangely entertaining, we’re here to look at content that’s strictly made to be entertaining. Movies often headline the picks, such as with the mega-stack from 2019 in the PML Daily top list, but now, big-budget and popular TV shows look to be making a huge comeback. We’ve already seen the likes of The Last Kingdom, Gomorrah, Pam & Tommy, Euphoria, and Winning Time snatch headlines around the world in 2022, but the best is yet to come.
Power of Legacy
Starting with a much-loved, home-grown show, Power of Legacy was a hit when it was released in 2019. Naturally, NTV Uganda hypes up one of its biggest entertainment products, calling it “a must-watch,” but it’s been a while since we returned to the drama created by Edris Matu Segawa. So far, the show starring Jonan Kisibo, Tania Shakirah Kankindi, and UFF Awards winner Sarah Kisawuzi (Lifetime Achievement Award) has run for two complete seasons, both in 2019, with the third season from 2020 going on a break. Initially pegged to run for 24 episodes like its predecessors, season three of Power of Legacy was put on hold in 2020, with indications being that it’s been closed off and that a season four is more likely.
The last time that the PoL Facebook page posted was September 2020, with a trailer for the mid-season finale going up on September 27. On September 28, a still-pinned post reads that “Power of Legacy will return soon.” The page followed by 39,752 people has since been dormant. Its creator, Segawa, has been rather quiet on the matter but is still active on social media. The @EdrisMatu Twitter account did reply to a fan in November 2020, saying that “the show is on a break until next season.” Now that it’s been 18 months since the last Power of Legacy, fans would hope that the long-anticipated next season or next half of season three will be on its way in 2022.
House of the Dragon
While long-running, big-money TV shows in the US have earned a bit of a legacy for having unsatisfying endings, Game of Thrones will almost certainly be remembered as provoking the most backlash from fans. Regardless, creators HBO remember the good times, seasons one to five, and maybe six, and have committed huge sums to prequels and spinoff series. In fact, NME reports that they spent $30 million on a prequel that they quickly axed. In 2022, however, the world of Game of Thrones will return with House of the Dragon. Likely to be streamable via an HBO Max subscription, it takes place 200 years before the original series and is certainly creating a lot of hype.
As mentioned, the show didn’t end well in 2019, but the show’s rise to prominence as a pop-culture cornerstone was nothing short of incredible. Time describes it as “the world’s most popular show” in 2017, which is certainly tough to dispute. Its upcoming spinoff is just one hint to this. Not only are there Jet2Holidays packages for tours of the show’s shooting locations in Croatia, but it also spurred a very popular set of online casino games. Chief among them is the most recent Game of Thrones slot, Power Stacks, which features Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, the Night King, Tormund, and the Iron Throne. If a big win comes in, Drogon will also burst onto the screen to flame-blast the coins into the bank balance. While it is coming in 2022, a final release date hasn’t been made official yet.
Rings of Power
Sticking with the big-budget fantasy shows, the show that nobody particularly asked for – but that fans are still very excited for – is The Rings of Power. Set in the Middle-earth universe created by J.R.R. Tolkien, it looks to capitalize on the enduring affection for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies by Peter Jackson, which The Numbers lists as grabbing $5.8 billion at the box office. Like Game of Thrones, but arguably to a greater degree, The Lord of the Rings has transcended its novelizations and movie adaptations to become gargantuan of media. There were once several video games, board games, and action figures, and even now, the Rise to War app game boasts a huge player base. Knowing this, it doesn’t come as a surprise that one of the biggest companies in the world was willing to pay record sums to produce the upcoming show.
Amazon Prime Video has spread around the world, acquiring licenses to localize parts of its library, now being available in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria, among 239 other countries. As such, it can afford to slap down what The Guardian details as a $1 billion bet on this new Lord of the Rings TV show. While production was delayed a few times over, Amazon has finally revealed the exact date for its subscriber-luring new show. At the Super Bowl, they dropped a huge trailer showcasing several stories that’ll take place in The Rings of Power, which Den of Geek analyzed at the time. Without question, its September 2 release date has been input as a task on the calendar apps of everyone who watched the Peter Jackson movies, as well as those who have read the original novels.
Just in case the highly-anticipated Power of Legacy doesn’t make its long-awaited comeback in 2022, we can at least see two massive budget fantasy shows compete across two colossal streaming platforms. An honorable mention also goes to Atlanta, with season three in 2022 being its penultimate one.
