"A thrilling and raw four-part drama about young lives lived on the edge in east London - an honest and gripping rendition of inner-city drug and gang culture"
'Top Boy' gives a terrifying and captivating insight into the lives of some of Hackney's youngest drug dealers. It portrays just how easily vulnerable inner-city youths can become involved in local gangs , and worryingly, the extents to which these gangs will go to in order to obtain money through drugs ('on the road' as they would say).
To an outsider, the drama appears at first to offer a shocking level of realism; a real sense of the scale of the problem. However, according to East Londoner, Stan Becker, who recently reviewed the 4-part series for the Observer, the show does not take into account the constant and watchful eye of the police on gang culture in the capital; “Every day you get stopped and searched by feds [police]. You can’t even stand on a street corner round this estate".
Despite this setback, 'Top Boy' is still undeniably an excellent and cutting-edge production on the part of Yann Demange, its director. It features some truly stunning visuals of the expansive, damaged landscape of Hackney in which its main characters (a marginalised group of ill-fated occupants) live. The screenplay too is intelligent, uncompromising and edgy, in fitting with its themes of gang warfare and murder and heightening the sense of danger experienced by viewers.
All in all, 'Top Boy' is not only an exciting and turbulent drama, it is also an insightful journey into the heart of London drugs crime, in particularly focussing on its corruption of the young and impressionable. Well worth watching.
7.5/10
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