Top Boy (Netflix)

TOP BOY (2019) on Netflix. Originally made in 2013 and then promptly canceled after a season, it has been picked-up by Netflix at the urging and behest of the show’s number one fan, Drake, who has signed on as an Exec Producer. The show follows multiple strands of young drug-dealers both in London and in Jamaica — how they overlap, which groups ellide, and the havoc their work creates to their families. The acting is freakishly naturalistic — as if Ashley Walters and the rest of the company are not acting but are players in a documentary. I can’t say enough about this tense yet tender piece of television. Notice how the three kids raise themselves as a family unit due to the mum working every hour god has given. A viewer would swear this is a real family in a cinema verité style film. Like a Ken Loach movie, sometimes I want to put the subtitles on, the accents are so thick; such uncompromising details make the storytelling incredibly true and truthful. It’s a must watch wherever you are in the world.