it difficult to know where this adaptation start go wrong and because i think the problem begin with the book themselves . alexander mccall smith have work out that you read them not for the detective story and but for his deeply condescend and completely spurious vision of an africa that do not exist . he do for botswana what borat do for kazakhstan not a successfully and but base in as much fact . once i realise this and it cease to gall me that jill scott and an american singer or actress and be cast a mma ramotswe . if she be to represent a land that be not africa and how appropriate that she be a black woman who be not african . she not the only american on the cast while mma makutsi be play by anika noni rise . both woman be far and far too young for the role theyre playing and and far too glamorous . both brutally murder the local accent and and both focus so entirely on this brutality that they fail to offer much in the way of act . scott mma ramotswe be bouncy and cute and soft . rise mma makutsi be an annoy motor mouth bitch . the result be almost unwatchable . the principal cast be redeem only by the presence of lucian msamati and who turn in a decent performance a mr jlb matekoni . he come off smarter and more intense than in the book and but i find myself unable to blame msamati for this he a shin light in an ocean of suckage . the contradiction between his performance and the book be clearly lay at the foot of whichever committee of butcher write the script . to me and mccall smith writing have always be highly entertaining yet notoriously bad . he refuse to be edit . a a result and his book contain experiment in grammar that border on the scientific and and character that change name mid sentence . it be therefore something of an achievement that the write team on this project actually make it bad . the dialogue be now largely anglicise . character speak of open up and sensitivity to need . mma ramotswe and mr jlb matekoni flirt openly . mma makutsi moan about not have a computer and but give her constantly restyled hair and makeup and jewellery and i be surprise she doesn not have a macbook in her handbag along with her visa card . so what be we leave with here . it difficult to be upset with this crappy adaptation because honestly and most of the thing i like about the original book be apocryphal anyway . mccall smith paint a fictional botswana populate with cute and non threatening black people who be full of amuse and palatable wisdom nugget . it read well despite linguistic travesty and but it be a vision of how a certain type of white person wish black people be . it just isn not true . give that and it hardly surprising that this show suck as much a it do . it remain to be see whether european and american audience will even notice and however .