Top Boy is a realistic fictional British crime/action-drama film series by Irish novelist Ronan Bennett, which has been running for over four seasons now, starting back in 2011, with a confirmed new Netflix season on the way. In its category, it has received some of the highest Imdb (8.4/10) and rotten tomatoes (95%) ratings to date, with which it is paving the way in this genre. The concept of the piece is simple, with Bennett creating cinematography displaying the fight for survival of both those trying to make an honest living and those who choose crime within the “ends”. This location, which is a location embodied by both socially and economically crippling neighbourhoods, is located in big cities like London and Manchester, where such cheap estate housing are the final footholds for some of the poorest members of society, with only these homes separating them from homelessness, infamous counsel housing, or even deportation for many of the migrant and undocumented residents.

 When I first sat down to watch Top Boy, the thought of this series being another wannabe impersonation of the UK “ends” theme was constantly crossing my mind. Nonetheless, I experienced a highly positive surprise from the start of the piece already, due Bennett’s selection of high-quality tracks, which intricately detail the “ends” theme in the lyrics, such as the tracks of those of Fredo, DiggaD, Dave, Headie One, Skepta, and other prominent UK artists, who all create raps based on their own experiences making it out the “ends”, referring to their struggles experienced as they hustled for their fame, money and respect as they came from practically nothing. In fact, I believe Netflix’s Top Boy manages to encapsulate this process perfectly, as not only do they depict the struggles of the characters on the streets, such as those of the “rising star” drug trafficker “Dushane”, who is portrayed by Ashley Walters, but Top Boy also shows how these men reeked great wealth, as the piece subtly, yet noticeably shows off the new cars and houses of these men. Similarly, Top Boy shows how they fall off to the bottom too occasionally, with there being no season to date where a key character hasn’t been killed off due to gang retaliation.

 In Top Boy, Bennett also uses fantastic camera work, cast selection, and makes use of soundtracks fantastically as I mentioned, in fact arguably to the highest level as compared to any other film in a similar genre. This is immediately shown to us in the first Top Boy episode, where in the opening scene as the camera pans over the East London skyline and its estates, AJ Tracy’s upbeat and rhythmic “Quarterback (Secure the bag!)” song plays, only for the beautiful, high-resolution camera (which since Top Boy “Summerhouse” has seen major quality improvements) pans onto a group of dealers hustling in a street market down below, in turn complementing the lyrics of the song flawlessly. Additionally, in season 1 episode 2, Bennett immediately connects his series even closer with the UK street scene by inviting prominent British rapper Dave as a fellow rival gang leader, who is against the main character Dushane Hill. In my opinion, I believe this was one of the best decisions of Bennett in his work, as through this he allows his viewer base to more closely relate to the antagonists as well, especially amongst Dave’s millions of fans, hence creating polarity among the watchers and establishing a more dedicated and intrigued audience.

 On the contrary, there are some minute details in Bennett’s Top Boy which I would critique to some extent, with my main issue being centered around the piece’s occasionally slowly advancing story line, that for this genre of film while unique, is an inherent factor that can incite the loss of the series’ viewer base. I believe this, as most people who have come to watching Top Boy from what I have experienced personally and among my friend group, are all individuals seeking an entertaining action series, for example something like per say “Breaking Bad”, just focused more around the aforementioned “ends” or “hood” scene. Subsequently, to fix this issue, I think Bennett should have used more interesting visuals for these filler scenes, which aim to connect different plots. For example, the characters should rather be talking in a Ferrari going through town, rather than an Audi sports coupe, making even these scenes more exclusive, even if slightly deviating from the situation’s realism.

 In conclusion, I would highly recommend Top Boy as it offers a great insight into the UK roadman scene, while simultaneously offering an enjoyable and visually pleasing form of cinematography, which we can now spectate on demand from the comfort of our own personal devices, since Netflix’s recent acquisition of the series from the British TV network ITV. What’s more, the brand-new season five has been confirmed and is on the way, being scheduled for early 2023, with this being the grand finale too, hence now is the perfect time for those to start watching as well, who prefer to speed run a series without any interruption.