By Bilal Aziz –

WARNING – POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It’s been six years since season two of Channel 4’s Top Boy ended on a shocking note and people wondered if this was the end of a story that effortlessly captures the intricacies of street life in London. Yet the demand for a new season was evident year after year. A lot has happened since Top Boy was last on our screens. Britain’s socio-political climate has shifted significantly, streaming services have started to dominate art and urban culture is championed in the mainstream where it was once effectively seen as taboo. All of these changes make it easy for season three of Top Boy to be a widely accepted and extremely watchable.

The emerging UK rap scene has been put into the context of London’s ongoing gang and knife crime epidemic and has had to deal with the fixated eyes of authority figures who do not have the genuine interest of the people at heart. What the new season of Top Boy does is use this epidemic as the context to tell the stories of vulnerable human beings who often go under the radar because they do not fit the narrative of mainstream media. The show ironically uses critically acclaimed rappers (Ashley Walters, Kano, Little Simz, Dave and Bashy) as actors who are the centrepiece of the story as if to send a message to the world that the content of their lyrics has genuine meaning. On the surface, Top Boy tackles the issue of gangs in London. The drug-fuelled war that drives people to destroy their moral compass and the chain reaction of tragedy their actions inflict on the people around them are the main themes of the series. However, the details are much finer than the violence and grit of estate life.

There were high expectations for season three. Six years is a long time for a story to be put on hold. It is a long time for interest in a product to remain at a high level. The marketing team behind the beast that has become Top Boy seemed to have worked overtime to prove the relevancy of a gritty drama in an age where realism does not sell as it used to. The hype was aided by the fact the world’s biggest artist, Canadian rapper Drake, revived the show where many felt it was dead in the water.

To tell the contemporary story of gang culture in London is quite difficult. But it is easy to produce a piece of television that glamorises the excess and indulgence of it all. Many have attempted before and have created shows and cinema that feel cluttered as directors and writers sprinkle in a bunch of senseless violence and unrealistic plot twists as if the audience are living their hood dreams through the narrative. It must be emphasised how different Top Boy is to this. Set in the fictional Summerhouse Estate in Hackney and its surrounding areas, Top Boy is an incredibly accessible show that provides audiences the right tools to follow a captivating narrative without ever thinking, “this would never happen in real life.” Because it does, and with alarming regularity.

The plot goes a little something like this. New character Jamie is the interim leader of a thriving gang in Hackney. He is the sole guardian of his two brothers who rely on his assurance to get by in life. Dushane’s story starts off in Jamaica, five years after he ran away from his former life in London, where he is struggling to make ends meet working for his cousin. Sully is in jail, on the final days of his sentence, desperately trying to avoid mistakes to prolong his torture as he is targeted by Modie (played by Dave), the original leader of Jamie’s gang. Jamie’s empire is threatened when Sully’s sentence is up and Dushane flees to London after a disastrous situation leaves him with no choice but to relocate. The partnership of Dushane and Sully is finally reunited to take back control over Summerhouse in the hope of becoming the top drug dealers in the area. They realise the roads have changed and they will have to adapt. The story continues to spiral into a different beast from there on in as chance encounters, scandals, violence and betrayal occurs with a distinctly London sounding soundtrack driving the story forward, aided by flawless cinematography, creating a sensational audio visual experience.

Top Boy has always thrived in being a relatable piece of art and with urban culture at the forefront in the public eye, this is the case even more so now. Season three is no different. Every scene has context. Every bit of dialogue has a purpose in telling the stories of the voices that are ignored by people who create opinions through surface level analysis.

The shifty tone of the first two seasons is exchanged for a louder, more urgent screenplay that successfully drums into the audience the variety of problems people face on a regular basis. What unfolds as a result of this is absolute chaos. The sound of a gunshot does not pierce the ears of people on estates, the screams of a man as he bleeds out lingers, the scene of a crime does not matter, they are all devices to show a city that is so out of control that even A&E can be the setting of a mass brawl between rival gangs. Authority is a laughable concept here. Murderers roam the streets without much pressure. Retaliation is encouraged. The next move is calculated and debated on. Advice is given through the experiences of morally inept individuals. The grooming of young children into already thriving gangs is effortless. The effect immigration services have on families is gut wrenching. The delicate way racism is dealt with by the characters is scarily realistic.

The writers could have easily made this into a cheesy, re-collective series where season one and season two’s iconic scenes molded the narrative. Instead, the audience realise that five years have passed in the story and the characters have changed with the times of the city they are hustling in, therefore making it a much different series to what it was back in the day. We understand Dushane’s (Ashley Walters) struggle to balance the tribulations of an ambitious man in London and holding what’s left of his family together. We empathise with Sully’s (Kano) traumatic jail stint and the mental health issues he faces when he’s thrown into the deep end of society when he is released. We admire Jamie’s (Michael Ward) tough love approach to his family and protest his merciless ways of approaching business. We smile at Ats’ and Stefan’s friendship and weep when the harsh realities of the roads threaten to tear them apart. And we certainly feel the pain of Jason’s (Ricky Smarts) demise in a burning building through the lens of Grenfell Tower’s hollow shell plaguing the hearts of Londoners, two years removed from the fire.

Yes, you can say that Top Boy shows all this with such ease on screen and makes it matter of fact. That’s because it is. It may be a story about street gangs and drug dealers, but it is also a humanised piece of television that highlights injustices people face at the hands of the state. Even at 36 years of age, Dushane and Sully have nothing else in their life that they can fall back on. It is road life or nothing. Which is why they are written as fearless individuals who need to be around a gang of ruthless criminals to integrate into wider society.

A stellar acting performance by Kano is by far the highlight of the show. The weight of his silences while playing Sully lifts an average scene into a memorable one. His mannerisms are consistent with what you would imagine a man in his mid-30s would be if the world disagreed with him. Not only is he a world class rapper, he is just as skilled as an actor. The depth of emotion in his acting arsenal can steal the show because he is honest to the characteristics that make up the complex character that Sully is. It would be great to see him do more roles on screen.

This show made a comeback just at the right time. A time where people needed to listen and observe. A time where people needed to visually experience a silent struggle. A time where lazy marketing campaigns are wrongly seen as solutions to a multitude of issues. It must be exciting for this generation of black youth to see people on screen that look like them, talk like them and have the same stories they live with. This representation matters and is much needed in order for society to evolve. And with the way Top Boy will inevitably evolve British television, society is surely not far behind.