Full disclosure: this review is based on two episodes and not the whole series.

For a whodunnit to be spellbinding, you need to deeply care about the characters – the deceased and the living. Their lives and heartache must to be real. That means a) your actors must deliver and b) the script must be convincing. St Agnes has neither of these two components going for it.

Let me clarify that. The supporting cast, apart from a few green newcomers, is mostly terrific. But the lead role of Kate Ballard, played by world-renowned model Nina Milner, is supposed to be the glue that holds it all together. I am being polite when I say she is unconvincing. She does not read as a traumatised teacher who lost a student she cared about. She comes across as a cool amateur sleuth, who struts around and, incidentally, pouts a lot.

The red herrings are too obvious. Everyone is dodgy, everyone has a secret to hide. Apart from the mother, there should be at least one other character that you know is innocent, flawed and interesting, but innocent.

Then there are the too obvious clues – Lexi’s gold chain that is missing, the blood on someone’s shirt, the puzzle of the wooden butterflies that is immediately solved…

The dialogue is cringeworthy at times. How are you? is asked way too often. Then there’s ‘Don’t get murdered, please’. Or ‘Everything about her was so special’. When Lexi’s mother realises the chain is missing, she insists on the school finding it, because ‘I want every part of my daughter back with me’.

It is beautifully filmed. The sound design is clear. The location, the Natal Midlands, is striking. That’s about it.

After Tali’s Wedding Diary I had high hopes for Showmax Original Content. Tali was edgy, dark and a really funny spoof. It renewed my faith in South African streaming audiences. The girl from St Agnes is a big let-down. Still, I must commend Showmax for trying something different, and not keeping to the stale recipe that KykNET follows. I could only watch ten minutes of Desember, one of KykNET’s new made for TV movies, before switching to my next dose of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel.

I trust this is only the start of Showmax Original Content and that they will grow from strength to strength.