Not all that glitters is gold...
Tinsel a production of MNET-DSTV. It started with its Season 1 in 2008. The show is centred on Fred Ade Williams, a major player in the glamorous world of the Nigerian film industry. Shot in Lagos and shown across Africa, Tinsel premiers solely on M-Net West Channel 102 at 8:30 pm on the Dstv platform.
Tropes shown on Tinsel
- Affably Evil: Sunom Idibia.
- And Now You Must Marry Me: Kwame makes this clear to Telema in Season 4 when he orchestrates things so that her on-again/off-again boyfriend's prison sentence depends on Kwame's testimony.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Brenda Nana Mensah.
- Anyone Can Die: A lot of the headliners have bitten the bullet unexpectedly: Monica and Reginald.
- Ziggy.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- Amaka Okoh is pregnant for at least 12 months.
- In Season 4, Fred's Trauma-Induced Amnesia falls under this as well.
- Big Sister Instinct: Tare to Telema Duke.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Although there is a generous use of subtitles...
- Cain and Abel: Amaka and Phillip are this.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Brenda Mensah finally does this to Fred Ade-Williams in Season 3.
- Cartwright Curse: Amaka Okoh. She even gets called out on it by her mother-in-law.
- Clear My Name: Angela Dede in Season 3, after being wrongfully accused of murdering Reginald Okoh.
- Continuity Nod: Phillip catching Amaka's hand mid-slap and telling her that he's been slapped so many times, he's learnt to anticpate them. Also doubles as a Shout-Out to fans.
- Crappy Holidays: Amaka and Angela are always guaranteed one: either by spending the New Year in jail, or as hostages to a lunatic.
- Crossover: Crossed over with Jacob's Cross during the brief engagement between Phillip and Chi-Chi Nwachukwu-Abayomi.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Reginald Okoh in Season 3. Monica Ade-Williams in Season 2.
- Fetus Terrible: Amaka goes back on forth on whether her unborn baby is this.
- Now Enfant Terrible. She still hasn't made up her mind.
- Lampshaded by ''Masters'' in Season 5.
- Idiot Ball: A lot of Sheila’s and Ziggy’s conversations towards the end of Season 3 when they are discussing Reginald’s murderer definitely fits this.
- I'm Not Hungry: Amaka and Angela when held hostage by Sunom.
- It's All About Me: Kwame calls Angela a thief and actually threatens to call the police on her for breaking into his office and stealing her medical files - the same medical files that he's been blackmailing her with and that he stole from her doctor's office in the first place! It's only when Angela tells him point-blank that he would need to explain how he had them at all, that he backs down.
- He also genuinely believes that he can make Telema happy and is willing to blackmail her into marriage to do so. The fact that the last time he tried to make her happy resulted in her being raped and ostracized seems to have completely gone over his head...
- Jerkass Has a Point: A lot of the stuff Masters says in Season 5 to Angela. He might be evil but when he tells her that she keeps letting herself be used by people who don't give a damn about her, fandom stood up and cheered.
- Long-Lost Relative: Shalewa is this to Titi K and Dan Ade-Williams. She doesn't know this when she arrives in Tinsel-town, leading first to Luke I Am Your Mother with Titi K and then Who's Your Daddy? between Dan and Fidelis, which is finally resolved by a Daddy DNA Test.
- Love Triangle: Soji/Telema/Kwame. Sunom/Amaka/Reginald.
- Dan/Titi K/Fidelis is an older generational one.
- Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal: Mrs. Etuk point-blank refuses to believe the truth about her son, Daniel Etuk a.k.a. Sunom Idibia.
- Mr. Fanservice: Supposed to have been Gideon Okeke who played Phiilip, but after Kwame Mensahs's shirtless scene, the showrunners have proven they have a hand on fandom's pulse.
- Nepotism: No matter how talented Phillip is, it doesn’t hurt that his father owns Reel Studios.
- Parent with New Paramour: In Season 3, Fred starts going out with Sheila, the Mirage Spa owner. Phillip doesn’t take this well.
- Police Are Useless: Averted. Sort of. For a member of the NPF, Detective Sanke is surprisingly competent when she is not wrongfully arresting the wrong person.
- Pregnant Hostage: Averted in Season 3. Amaka is pregnant when she's held hostage by the baby's father but it's unknown to both of them and not a factor in the crime.
- Promotion to Opening Titles: Happens to Ireti Doyle (Sheila Davenport-Ade Williams) in Season 4.
- Put on the Bus: Chuks in Season 4 due to the actor's medical issues. He came back, though.
- Tega, as well, apparently. On a bus to Mauritius! With Alex, too.
- In Season 5, Telema Duke.
- Rabid Cop: Detective Sanke. What is she smoking?
- Real Life Writes the Plot
- Out of Focus: It's a big ensemble show so it's bound to happen to every character now and then but it's particularly jarring for Amaka Okoh in Season 5.
- Written-In Absence: Brenda's alcholism in Season 4 eventually ended up with her in rehab... and gave Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi enough time to have her baby and get back.
- Telema Duke's actress, Damilola Adegbite, quit at the end of Season 4 and so Telema has been in the UK shooting a film for half a year now. Some fans argue that her absence has been more influential to the other characters and storylines than her physical presence ever did.
- The Rival: Bimpe to Telema. Kwame to Soji.
- Token White: Alex.
- Wham Episode: Season 4 finale wherein Masters returns and Ziggy and Bartholomew die.
- Where Did We Go Wrong?: Fred to his son, Phillip in just about every season.
- Also Fred to Brenda in Season 4 when the former suffered from amnesia.
