Just mad that we're here again, innit?

Top Boy S4 — 2/5

Season 4 is its second season 2 and boy oh boy, does this show have a problem with season 2s. It does a great job of building (and re-building) worlds, but it doesn't seem to know where to go from there. It builds unnecessary branching pathways for side characters who don't need to be more interesting than they are. Shelley's got a mysterious past; useless. Jaq's sister Lauryn is having trouble with her baby's father; who gives a shit. There's problems in Spain, Morocco; uh okay. And the two at the center are just fish flapping on the shore. Sully's in, he's out, he's in, he's out. But at least he's got complexity compared to Dushane, who is single-minded and who the fuck knows to what purpose. He has no interiority. He serves one god, Ambition. At the end of the final episode, Shelley says she understands Dushane: he just wants to protect his family. And the happy montage of life-as-usual that follows tells me that it's not delivered ironically. It's such utter horseshit that goes against every decision he's made throughout this show. This whole world is built on people who do for themselves and think they're doing for others. Jamie's family stands apart from that; they seem to genuinely care for each other. The show, at its best, has built its heart around young characters on the verge of entering this life, and Stef, though older, though diminished by what he's been through, is a character I want to follow—and by extension his brothers. There's one season left, and the only reason I'm excited for is to see what happens to him because, right now, I couldn't care less what happens to anyone else. You can't just build a show around assholes.