Scout's Safari

Describe Scout's Safari here... Well, where to start?

Elizabeth, nicknamed Scout, is a white girl from New York City who moves to South Africa to live with her mother, step father and step brother once her father goes off taking photos around the world. While she's adjusting to the major culture shock, she reconnects with her Forgotten Childhood Friend Bongani Sabisi and at first tries to hide her psychic ability to connect with animals. However, African people are far more accepting of her gift than Americans are, and so the show follows her and Bongani solving problems, having major cultural dissonance and growing closer. The show has heaps of Character Devlopment for Scout and, while not having any major story arcs, is best viewed in correct order. It currently is complete and reruns can be found on Discovery Kids.

This show provides examples of:
Relationship Writing Fumble: Scout's friend Sherna and Bongani practically fall in love with each other. The writers realized it wasn't quite what they'd been asked to do - write an epsidoe where Sherna visits - but they left it in because it makes Scout's jealous rant all the more believable.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Tyler, and how.
 * Black Best Friend: Bongani, Nani to a later degree. This being South Africa, pretty much all Scout's friends are black.
 * But Not Too Black: Averted as hard as possible. Bongani is Zulu and the show did research into what that entails. He's very dark skinned as well, avoided the light-skinned-black thing many children's shows indulge in, and since the show is set in Africa many, many black people of all classes are present.
 * Character Development: Scout, in spades. Bongani is already a mature person when the series starts, but he arguably gets more serious near the show's end.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: Any time the show uses Swahili chanting or traditional African drum music. Used for a Crowning Moment of Funny in one episode when Bongani does a booty-shaking soccer victory dance to said drum music.
 * Hair Decorations: Scout does this rather frequently.
 * Eyes of Gold: Scout when having a vision/connecting with an animal.
 * Fan Preferred Couple: Scout and Bongani.
 * Flashback: To the days where Scout was little and lived in Africa.
 * Friend to All Living Things: Sort of. Scout gradually grows to fit this role as the series goes on, but her ability to communicate with animals does not mean they're her friends.
 * He Is Not My Boyfriend: In one episode, Tyler sells a photo of Bongani holding Scout close to the school newspaper. They get voted the cutest couple in school, prompting Scout to freak out and declare this line loudly to anyone who would listen. Bongani's response was to get contemplative and ask her why this idea was so horrible.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Scout and Bongani. Scout's step father and Bongani's father are also extremely close friends.
 * Hot Shonen Mom: Scout's mother.
 * Last Minute Hookup: Kind of left open to interpretation. They may or may not be in love and may or may not have confessed it to each other during the last episode. It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Magical Negro: There is a black woman who shares Scout's power and thus qualifies. Another case involved a black witch-doctor-esque woman who informed Tyler's father that she just made up a ritual to get rid of his nightmares because all he needed was to have confidence they wouldn't come back. It worked, too.
 * Missing Mom: Bongani's mother is never mentioned.
 * No Such Thing As Bad Publicity: Tyler believes this wholeheartedly and recites this to his parents as an explanation for some of his hijinks. They disagree.
 * Perky Goth: Sherna, Scout's BFF from America who she talks to via webcam.
 * Politically Correct History: Averted. Scout's grandmother and Bongani's grandfather were very close and virtually no one during that time approved, especially when they ran around having adventures alone with each other in the wilderness for weeks at a time. It was actually considered a great shame during said time period.
 * Ship Tease: During the final episode, Bongani embraces Scout, holds both her hands, presses their heads together and whispers that she's a part of him now. She says she feels the same. It's actually done pretty well in spite of how cheesy it could've been, so kudos to the actors.
 * Stepford Smiler: Pre-season one Scout is heavily implied to have been pretty miserable outside of being with Sherna but very good at pretending she was okay. When things go wrong in season one she has a tendency to act like nothing's wrong, but Bongani usually calls her on this.
 * Two Teacher School: When we see the characters in school at all.
 * Where Da White Women At?: Exactly why the writers refused to have Scout and Bongani be a couple. They felt it was too stereotypical, although they relented somewhat in the last episode and had a Ship Tease as mentioned above.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Scout's reaction to elephants, initially. Bongani helps her overcome her fear by the end of the episode by leaving her alone with one for a while.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Bongani is a mixture of this, a goofball, and a soccer nut.
 * Unfortunate Implications: The implications of the writer's stated reason they refused to have the main characters be a couple are not pleasant.
 * Values Dissonance: All over the place between Scout and Bongani, and American culture versus Sotuh African culture.