Top Boy has been on my watch list for a couple of years now but then my friend Lanita decided to binge watch it. This will not do, I do the binge watching in our twosome and she's the one that puts things off until I give up on trying to make her watch something that's dear to me. She clearly doesn't care for our friendship as much as I do because the night after she told me she'd finished the show I decided to watch the first series which was time well spent. I'm not going to start bashing the Harrodians or the Etonians of the world because I do genuinely enjoy watching them on our screens in quality programming but at times it does feel like that all we see on our screens is upper class people with upper class troubles. I am partial to a little bit of costume drama but I did not shed any tears when Downton Abbey ended, I don't watch Downton but I know it ended because I would have to be living in a hut in an Alpine land to avoid that news. If you like Downton fine, but there needs to be a light shone on little gems like this.Below is the synopsis of Top Boy taken from www.imdb.com:
A thriving but underground drugs business is being run by Dushane (Ashley Walters) and his friend Sully (Kane Robinson) to become the richest men on the block. To live rich Dushane and Sully go into partnership with top don Bobby Raikes (Geoff Bell). Rivalry with Kamale (Scorcher) and his gang results in their loan from Raikes being stolen, and they swear revenge. Thirteen-year old Ra'Nell (Malcolm Kamulete) gradually gets lured into the gang and drug business as his mother Lisa (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) has a breakdown and is hospitalised - with devastating consequences.That synopsis just barely scratches the surface, as I mentioned before I've only watched the first series but even I know that the show is so much more than this paragraph here. It gives a bleak look at what life is like on a council estate in East London where there are very few options and the drugs trade is rampant. The police often turn their heads and I know that seems shocking but that is the truth in some areas. People can't rely on police to help them and rely on their community which at times often involves people that are deemed lesser members of society such as thieves and drug dealers. I'd say Top Boy is the perfect depiction of this that I've seen in recent years, the characters of Dushane and Sully are the leaders of the drug industry in their area and are seen as the ideal for the youngsters of the estate with some even describing them as family. They may be in a dubious industry but they are always reliable to the people they work with and they live what seems to be the high life, who wouldn't want to be like them?
Fortunately the show does show the downside to this sort of life, the major one being how it escalates. Dushane originally wanted this work to make money quick and get out so he doesn't have to spend the rest of his life struggling. He and his partner, Sully, are the top dogs of their estate but fairly low on the totem pole outside of it and they yearn to move up in the world. They are confronted with what they'd have to do to get what they want which includes theft and murder which Sully seems to be at peace with but Dushane is not. Dushane wants the perks that come with his occupation but shows deep regret for his actions and the repercussions of what him and his partner do. The children in the show, Ra'Nell and Gem, show the corruption of innocence with Gem wanting to immerse themselves in this idealistic adult world but then seeing the darker side of it too late and Ra'Nell rejecting it and wanting to make his mother proud but being dragged into it as he has no other choice.
I'm not saying this is the first socially real drama on television because it's far from it but it is one of the best I've seen in a long time. With compelling stories and actors that are able to flex their muscles with the material it truly is a must watch. The show also made me realise that I've seen Ashley Walters in a multitude of different things and I've never been disappointed whenever I watch him on screen, and even though I usually hate child actors I must admit they play their parts well. It's nice to see the side of Britain that we rarely get to see on screen, sure other shows pop up every now and then but they never seem to last long. In Luther we see the more urban settings rather than the regular tourist attractions and I love Luther but it's more of a procedural format than Top Boy which is true British drama.As of writing this I haven't watched the second series and I was planning on waiting for my next day off but I don't think I can leave it that long, I might have to binge watch it tonight and be a zombie at work tomorrow. Unfortunately the second time I binge watch Top Boy will also be the last time I'll be able to do so as it hasn't been renewed for a third run which I partly feel responsible for. I didn't watch it during it's initial run and maybe that made a difference but I have watched back to back episodes of it on Amazon Instant video and I'm hoping others do as well. In the era of Netflix and Amazon picking up beloved shows I hope they take notice of this one.
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