Unless you have been under a rock, you have heard of the Drake fueled London based crime drama Top Boy. Well, here’s my two cents…
It’s the best crime drama anywhere and that’s against many of my favorite shows including Gangs of London (which was my favorite until this season dropped, but I digress), Snowfall, Power spinoffs, and The Chi. I dare say it’s the best series since season five of HBO’s The Wire and that’s no small feat.
What I love about the show is that the writers and director don’t rely on cheap tricks like graphic sex scenes (though I don’t turn away) or long drawn-out dialogue to set things up. They get straight to street shit we want to see, violence and revenge — which means even more violence.
Don’t get me wrong, the acting is superb. The main characters are fully developed and their performances are so believable, it’s hard to believe the actors aren’t moving weight when they’re off-set.
Many of us know a Dushane, Sully, Jamie, and even a Jaq. We have seen or at least heard the stories play out, even here on our side of the Atlantic.
Top Boy may be fiction, but the happenings are reality based. Whether we agree with the choices the characters make, the consequences for those choices are as real as they come. These things happen every day to and around people we know and love.
If you like characters and story arcs you can believe, this show is for you. I promise you won’t be disappointed. We don’t normally do reviews but I may make an exception for this show.
Be’n Original
