Tell your mom I said wagwan

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 TV shows of 2024

#2 :  Supacell

With the MCU taking off into the multiverse in recent years and DC Studios preparing to relaunch with a phase dedicated to Gods and monsters, Blue Story writer-director Rapman’s brilliantly original Netflix joint Supacell brings superheroes back down to Earth. Set on the streets of Peckham, Lewisham, Brixton, and Camberwell, Rapman’s show — inspired by the likes of Heroes and Misfits — follows five Black South Londoners who inexplicably develop superpowers. Far from aspiring Avengers however, what makes Michael (Tosin Cole), Sabrina (Nadine Mills), Andre (Eric Kofi Abrefa), Rodney (Calvin Demba), and Tazer (Josh Tedeku) such compelling leads — and the show so unique — is that they really are just ordinary people trying to get by in modern London. Seamlessly blending familiar genre features — Superspeed! Superstrength! PORTALS! — with character driven, street-level drama, Supacell has given its genre fresh juice just at the moment it seemed the well was starting to run dry.

Skipping over #3 because I've got a lot of catching up to do there - I started watching this and really enjoyed it, but never got round to finishing it (I'm very stupid at times) so I'm pleased to be forced into doing so.

And yeah, the enjoyment continued right up until the end. Empire has probably told you as much as you need to know above - "just ordinary people trying to get by in modern London" is accurate and calling out Heroes and Misfits as inspiration is a good shout. The other thing I'd say it does well is that it doesn't go out of its way to overly explain things, with it all being very unclear at the start and new plot strands being introduced cryptically throughout the season - just as you feel like you might be started to understand what's going on.  The powers are also reliably unreliable, which brings an added frisson to the action.

All the main actors do a great job - Tosin Cole (best known by me for Doctor Who, but he was also in Hollyoaks) is excellent, given more reason than the others to try and get to the bottom of things. The others all (initially at least) just try to make sense of their powers in their own way, either by ignoring them or trying to use them for good or for bad - I'd call out Eric Kofi Abrefa as a morally conflicted dad trying to lead by example but not always succeeding and Calvin Demba as an amusingly stupid drug dealer only out for himself (but not always succeeding). Of the non-superpower characters, Adelayo Adedayo is great as Dionne, Michael's girlfriend who gets caught up in a situation waaaay beyond her comprehension.  Someone else would also get a shout out but it would be just too much of a spoiiler - sorry, dude/tte.

I can't say that I'm particularly au fait with South London street culture (I know this will surprise you) but it's written in a very believable way and it seems likely that Rapman knows what he's talking about in this area. To have written it all by himself and directed it along with Sebastian Thiel is an impressive feat - it all hangs together very well with, in particular, the final episode (which I really can't tell you anything about) and the ending of episode four and start of episode five being a really well done meet-no-so-cute. 

There are however two things I found somewhat unbelievable.- they all drive incredibly nice cars (which I guess might be true) and they all know everyone's mobile phone numbers without checking their own mobiles (and there's no way anyone has that kind of superpower!). It also has to be praised for its use of quite strong accents for some characters (the Yanks will have needed subtiitles) and for raising the awareness of sickle cell disease, which is more prevalent amongst the black community.

Yes, this features superpowers, but it's not a superhero drama - it's a very human drama with well written characters with shifting sympathies dealing with challenges, opportunities and adversity in a relatable (and yet also completely unrelatable) way. I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I was dragged back to it - I pretty much watched the last three episodes in one go. I wouldn't say it's the best thing I've seen on the list so far, but it's easily in the top five so I'm happy enough with its place on Empire's list. It's a strong recommendation from me.

#4 - Not as good as it should be
#1 - Really good

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