With new shows come new opinions, so here is the Shanty Town review. This gritty, violent series is a multi-lingual Nigerian thriller drama that stars Ini Edo, Chidi Mokeme, Nancy Isime, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Peter Okoye and Richard Mofe-Damijo, among other cast members. The series has six episodes, each ranging from 30-45 minutes. It is created by Xavier Ighorodje and directed by Dimeji Ajibola.
Netflix description of the series reads:
A group of courtesans attempts to escape the grasp of a notorious kingpin- but political corruption and blood ties make freedom a near – impossible goal.
– Shanty Town Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Based in a small town in Lagos named Shanty Town, the show explores the lives of sex workers under the leadership of a tyrannical handler named Scar. The show begins by showing us some backstory with a family escaping from raiders as they lose everything they had. Two of the family members die, and one of the girls is taken into a drug cartel that also doubles as a prostitution ring.
Cut to the present, there are people in the ring who want to be free. They want to leave Shanty Town’s synonymous nature with sex work and make their own lives outside of this place. It would be expected that the plot would come in at some point now but to no avail. Viewers will have to spend the first two episodes in deep exposition trying to understand the place and its rules. Even then, there is barely any reason why we should continue watching this show.
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The show’s creators make its purpose pretty clear: to get away with objectifying as many women as possible and justify themselves by saying that they need to represent sex workers accurately. Following that, the show resorts to gritty violence and gore without rhyme or reason. It does no good in making an impact or making a good character trait.
Whether intentional or not, the male gaze is a large presence on the show taking over any trace of a narrative structure. While that might still be okay, the dialogues and writing are both ill-timed and irrelevant. Apart from that, there is a strange hierarchy given to the English language. All the characters in socially higher positions speak English and condemn those who don’t, calling them illiterate.
There is no gradual progression to this series because there is no inciting event to kick things off. It is a bunch of separate stories put together to resemble a long-form show. The lack of smooth transitions, continuity and a coherent plot, makes this show exhausting to watch. Too many moving parts within the narrative make it difficult to grant justice to any of them. If they had spent less time on side-by-side shots and montages of women dancing, they could have possibly made it to the plot at some time.
Apart from the rampant smoking, drinking and drug abuse, the show also promotes a way of filmmaking that is both crude and unremarkable. Instead of using violence as a tool to tell a story, the series uses it for shock value. Most shows employ a sequence of events that give birth to a narrative. Shanty Town brings multiple elements together and assembles them as if they are running out of time.
Even the end is put together like a drooping papier-mache structure. There are loose threads, random action sequences and absurd supernatural elements that have nothing to do with the agenda presented. Perhaps the only thing making this show somewhat bearable is the acting by Chidi Mokeme and Ini Edo. They have shown exemplary talent in showcasing a wide range of emotions across the episodes fantastically.
Summing Up: Shanty Town
To sum up this show in one sentence, it would be if Euphoria had bad cinematography, writing and lighting, it would be Shanty Town. There is no character development, a sub-par antagonist and a storyline that seems to glorify criminals and their lavish lifestyle. If someone is looking for a witty crime drama like this with drugs and a lot of violence, they should watch Narcos.
Shanty Town is currently streaming on Netflix.
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You should definitely see it. It is gory and disturbing.
And that is some people’s honest to God reality in real life.
If nothing, it will make you appreciate the life you have and take for granted in the western world.
This review was obviously written by a non-Nigerian. Some things that were culturally symbolic in the series were depicted in this review as irrelevant. The street life in Brazil is definitely not the same street life in Japan. The supernatural element presented in the series have absolutely everything to do with street life in Nigeria. This is why it is very tricky for non-native people or people who are not familiar with a certain culture to give a reviews about those cultures.
I said the same thing. The show is called shanty town. Its clear the purpose is to reveal what goes on in a shanty town. You dont really need to have a plot, to bring awareness of the bad things that goes on in area. I took the show as this somebody life somewhere and they want you to know how it is.
I saw only a few minutes of the beginning and was immediately disgusted. I’m not surprised that things got increasingly bad. I’m very disheartened by how awful movies are these days.