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Reviews
Top Boy (2011)
Final season let the series down.
**FINAL SEASON REVIEW**
I absolutely love Top Boy, the early seasons of Summer House & also the two series after that, ( season 3 being my favourite out of all them ) however, gotta say that this final season is quite disappointing. I'm gonna start with the good parts.
The good
The last two episodes in the final season were thrilling to say the least. The fall from grace from Dushane & its literally edge of your seat stuff as you watch him try and predictably fail to escape. As always the acting was superb from all the cast, but especially Sully & Dushane. The scene where Dushane dies is very sad and just showcases the brilliant acting these two men have. Unfortunately there isn't much more to say about the good things in the series.
The bad
What it all comes down to, all the issues I am about to highlight, all stem from there only being six episodes in this final season. Top Boy deserved better. There just was far too many loose ends, plotlines that were actually boring and only think they were there to serve a purpose for the final episodes. I will start with the first episode, and the protest regarding Kieron getting served for immediate deportation out the country. What follows is a protest that not only bores me, but also makes me cringe. It was cheesy and the main instigator Mandy. Unfortunately, this wasn't the last protest, and it all happens again later on in the series. I do believe it was all written in to serve as a way for Dushane to escape in episode 5 when he is running from the police. So yeah, this plotline sucked.
The Irish
Oooh the Irish are so scary, 'they are bigtime' we are told time and time again and it is portrayed as such when in the first episode the Moroccon's heads are in the back of a truck for Sully to find. They are featured on the next episode for a brief bit when Sully shows Jonny their business, and then as quick as we know it they are killed and never to be seen again. Well, that was underwhelming, guess they weren't so 'bigtime' after all? Again if there were more episodes and they were featured more before they were killed off, this would have been much better.
Lizzie & Lilthe stealing Dushane's money
Right, this part of the series probably pissed me off the most. They steal all Dushane's money, a notorious gangster and get off scot free? I mean come on, they should have met brutal justice. Instead it was poor Jeffrey that met his grisly fate at the hands of Dushane. I have read a few comments from people saying this was 'Out of character' for him and the like. I actually agree but the point was Dushane was losing his sanity, his money was gone and Jeffrey was the man that had to pay for it. However this as I said really bugged me about the series that they got away with stealing his money, once again there probably wasn't enough screentime to add in any resolution.
Jaq stealing Sully's money and drugs
Did anyone else think this was just so bizarre and just didn't make any sense at all? Okay we get it, she had a breakdown once her sister died and didn't want to do it anymore, but she must have known if she stole from Sully that the rest of her life she would be hiding and on the run. It did not make any sense. I again, believe it was written in to tie in on the final episode climax with Dushane & Sully.
So in conclusion everything negative about this series comes back to the fact there wasn't enough episodes to cover everything and as a result there were far too many loose ends. But overall its still one of the best TV series out there and even though this season was disappointing, its still essential viewing for all Top Boy fans.
Rise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017)
Laughably bad.
This film is at times so bad it's actually unintentionally hilarious. Awful plot, terrible script and just as bad acting. I gave it five stars because it does have moments that are so funny. For example...six minutes in Craig Fairbrass in his typical tough sounding cockney accent delivers this absolute gem of a line!
'Pills got me up, but I needed the Charlie to stay sharp, the powder kept me alert, keeps the anger at boiling point just where I need to be' Comedy gold!
Seriously though it is awful.