Cast: Ini Edo, Nse Ikpe-Etim, Uche Jombo, Nancy Isime, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Shaffy Bello, Zubby Michael, Mercy Eke, Ali Nuhu, Toyin Abraham, Shaffy Bello, Chidi Mokeme, Peter Okoye–Mr. P
Creator: Xavier Ighorodje
Director: Dimeji Ajibola
It’s the beginning of the year and Shanty Town is here, the six episode series directed by Dimeji Ajibola premiered on Netflix on the 16th of January 2023, and as you would have it, the series went straight to the number one spot on the streaming app.
Like most Nollywood movies and series on the streaming app, ST got a lot of people talking with the majority talking about Chidi Mokeme’s performance in a positive light.
So now the question is, is the series any good or different from the range of movies and series dished out by Nollywood, or is this a stepping stone in the right direction for Nollywood?
Both Xavier Ighorodje and Dimeji Ajibola are cooking something here, something a bit different, but not all that new here. ST is a story about a group of courtesans trying to escape the grasp of a notorious kingpin, but with political corruption and blood ties, freedom is one mission impossible for these girls…like I said “not all that new here” ST is GLAMOUR GIRLS meet DOMITILA if you are familiar with those old Nollywood movies.
Episode one kickstarts the series and we are thrown into a flashback in 2004 in a community called Shangisha 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.
The raid scene made some sense and I like how they made use of explosions and how the cameras followed the characters trying to escape.
The problem I have with raid scene is the acting by some of the extras…they were not believable.
One of the raiders shoots at young Idong and her father (Inem and Idong are set of twins) as they try to escape using a canoe that already has the mum and Inem.
From the distance the raider is standing he can aim at the defenseless mother but somehow he allows them to slowly escape only for them to be captured by another set of raiders with young SCAR (Scar would later be played by Chidi Mokeme).
Cut to the present, and the next scene we are shown is with adult Scar (Chidi Mokeme) getting a blow job in a scene that mirrors an American drug cartel, half-naked ladies and boys mixing coke or sorting out cash, the usual dogs that are seen in such drug-related movies and series in Hollywood makes an appearance.
Point be taken, that scene was good, the cinematography made sense, the dim lightening gave it the feel it needed but the truth is such scenes are very Hollywood for me and this series has a lot of that Hollywood themed scenes and plots.
The next scene was a bit confusing and funny to me, I was trying to figure out what Inem (played by Ini Edo) was doing with a prison warden….remember Inem has a twin that was shot at the beginning of episode one…well we are immediately thrown to this scene with Ini Edo preparing to go undercover as her twin sister Inem.
So Idong is an undercover cop, while her twin sister Inem is a drug trafficking prostitute working for Scar. I wouldn’t be going into much details in order not to spoil it for those that are yet to watch it.
Now my question is why make that scene with a prison warden. Inem should be working and discussing her plans with cops and not the prison warden, as an undercover cop she has taken time to study her twin sister, the warden shouldn’t be the one trying to give details or vital information on the case since we are going Hollywood style in this series.
By now the series is already known and nothing is kept hidden, not on till another plot totally different is thrown at you.
There were lots of negative talks about the nudity and boobs grabbing in this series with folks ranting and insulting some of the key female casts.
I’m not going to do that here, rather I will applaud their bravery in trying to perfectly execute those scenes with body doubles.
I just feel the show creators were trying to represent sex workers accurately which they did to an extent.
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.
I found it hard trying to connect with Ini Edo in this series, she is the protagonist in the story but personally, her acting was just not it for me, she lacked that wow factor each time she appeared on screen, she just couldn’t embody every aspect her character…an in and out performance that lacked zeal.
Some of the actors felt like that to me with their one-line pause and speak dialogue.
The writing and dialogues are both ill-timed and mostly irrelevant in most scenes.
Unlike Ini Edo, the antagonist in this series is SCAR played by Chidi Mokeme. Honestly he was the only actor for me that understood the assignment, his character and acting grew in confidence as the episodes progressed, initially in the first two episodes I felt he was struggling but as the series went on it was obvious that the survival of the series was all up to him.
If every other actor in this series was weak, Chidi made sure that the viewer’s concentration was on him, he played the part of the villain so well that he successfully gets the viewer to despise his character. So far his performance in this series is the best I have seen in a long while coming from Nollywood.
I had to ask myself how come Chidi was this good and the other actors bad?
Peter Okoye was superbly forgettable in his acting. Is he actually playing the son of a Yoruba politician and drug lord with that heavy Igbo accent?
He just didn’t bring any vibe to his character or acting; you can tell this was not his terrain and I doubt if the director was able to help him in any way.
Playing the role of Femi Fernandez should have been given to a Yoruba actor, a pretty easy route to take. Ibibio-speaking actors were cast for key roles in the series because of the language so Peter Okoye’s character would have made sense if the actor playing him is Yoruba. Mr. P just didn’t work, bad acting, poor performance and totally forgettable character.
One of the major problems I have with this series was seeing RMD being RMD like in most of the movies and series he has appeared in. The same character with different names, cigar smoking, with almost the same demeanor. Someone else should be Chief Fernandez.
Shola Shobowale is also one of those actors that is in every movie, the good thing here is, she is not screaming and her performance was just there.
My friend Steve Onu aka Yaw Naija, also makes an appearance in this series. Hmmm! Minor role but an okay performance, okay performance because I have seen him play this kind of role too many times both on screen and on stage.
For a six-episode series that is not a movie, you would expect the creators of ST to flesh out the characters and give a gradual progression to the series.
But Shanty Town as a series lacked any inciting event to kick it off rather we are thrown into a bunch of separate stories glued together to resemble a long-form show.
Poor transitioning and continuity make the series a bit difficult 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.
The show never succeeds in getting the viewers invested in the plot. The plot development is also not smooth; events occur one after the other, but the link between them is missing.
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. ST brings multiple elements together and assembles them as if they are running out of time.
Trying to make out some of the scenes and plots in the series is pretty difficult because with the aim to add Hollywood reality into it, the director just messed things up, the voice note scene is one of such scene that is messed up. That was all the evidence they needed to bring Scar and Chief Fernandez down but, hey, the director wanted to stretch it.
Meanwhile, why did it take that long for them to find out that Jacki sent a voice before she was killed?
The action/fight scenes just didn’t do it for me, as they appear too rehearsed to be real. Additionally, the overly dramatic scenes do not leave an impact on the viewer. The courtesans gaining freedom could have been a powerful scene if not for the dramatics.
The last fight scene in episode six involving minor actors was just a downer for me, why concentrate on those actors when we should be seeing more of Scar’s fight?
I think the director and fight choreographer should have done better.
I have seen better fight choreography by some Nigerian kids on social media.
Before I end this review, let me state that I like how the creators of this series tried to indirectly tell the story of one of the front runners in this year’s Presidential election in Nigeria. Make sure you check Chief Fernandez’s cap to see the similarities to this front runner’s cap. Very apt I must say to the creators.
Shanty Tower has its ups and downs, but my appreciation will go to Chidi Mokeme for pulling his weight into this with some memorable performance. Without him this series is as good as dead on arrival.
To sum up this series in one sentence, imagine the Hollywood series Euphoria had a bad script with a few poor actors, that would be Shanty Town.
There is no character development, a sub-par female lead, disjointed plots and a series that heavily relied on one male lead actor to make it make sense.
If someone is looking for a witty crime drama like this with drugs and a lot of violence, they should go watch Narcos.
Chidi Mokeme can’t do it alone, the director, script writers and other actors in the series failed him.
My rating: 4/10
