Review by C.J. Bunce
The new Netflix superhero series Supacell offers only six one-hour episodes for its first season, but for a series like this, you don’t want it to end. Remember back in 2006 when everyone was watching the new NBC series Heroes and talking about each new episode at the office watercooler? Supacell is basically the script for Heroes, only set in South London. But it offers a lot more. With the unique dialect and daily economic strife, get ready for a spiritual sequel to Attack the Block, a Brit version of Marvel’s Luke Cage and The Defenders, and a modern superhero twist on The Outsiders only with young Black adults living among modern England gangs. It’s a surprise superhero hit, The Imperfects of 2024, and one of the year’s best series.
Former Doctor Who star Tosin Cole’s Michael is a delivery man who can teleport and manipulate time. Josh Tedeku is a violent thug called Tazer who can make himself invisible. Night nurse Sabrina, played by Nadine Mills (The Strangers) can punch without raising a fist. The One’s Eric Kofi Abrefa is an out-of-work ex-con named Andre with the power of Luke Cage–he’s trying to keep his good, smart kid out of the gangs. And Kingsman’s Calvin Demba is Rodney, a minor dope dealer with the speed of The Flash. What do they have in common, and why do they all end up at the scene of several deaths on July 9, 2024?
Michael drives this story, a man who has just proposed to his girlfriend Dionne, played by Law & Order: UK’s Adelayo Adedayo. When Michael is flashed into the future he meets his slightly older self, who informs him he must pull together with Tazer, Sabrina, Andre, and Rodney, or his fiancée is going to die on July 9. Back in the present–basically this past week in real time–he must figure out as much as he can about his newfound abilities, and find where these four people are, starting with little to go on.
Michael tells Dionne about his powers, but not the date of her death, so he looks to his old pal Gabriel (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’s Michael Salami) to confide in. Sabrina learns of her power when her cheating boyfriend won’t get out of her face. She has a sister (Rayxia Ojo’s Sharleen) to help her adjust to her changes, but she’s mixed up with a gang leader called Krazy, just back from prison (played by the actor known as Ghetts). It turns out everyone is a little bit connected, as Tazer was once Krazy’s underling. Michael’s mother has sickle cell disease, and he’s doing his best to help get her into a cutting-edge new facility for help. Fiancée Dionne is a social worker who learns one of her patients has gone missing.
Like Heroes and Alice in Borderland, the events in the series are triggered by a change in circumstance, and the convergence of events right now is important to what could be a long, multi-season superhero story (watch these first six episodes by July 9, 2024, to really be present in the show). There’s a bit here of The Imperfects--the series about young people balancing their daily existence with their new powers—and maybe The Order, which saw a similar group adjusting to their new supernatural abilities. As with all good superhero stories, a great villain is essential. Here that’s found in multiple layers, best of all from Ghetts’ intense bad guy Krazy. But even Krazy, viewers will learn, has his reasons for what he does. Cornetto Trilogy regular Eddie Marsan plays a mad scientist type who is only one of the shadowy people behind the curtain.
They Cloned Tyrone, the Doctor Who spin-off Class, Marvel’s Luke Cage, The Dead Zone, The New Mutants and The X-Men–if you’re a fan of any or all of these, you should love this series. It’s not just a Black take on superhero tropes you’ve seen before. MBE-awarded Brit creator Andrew “Rapman” Onwubolu wrote the six episodes and directed the first three, with Sebastian Thiel directing the rest. He unveils real, everyday young British people living in their world, trying to get by with all the challenges everyone faces anywhere, with some more pressure because they’re Black and the local South London gangs are seemingly interwoven into every family. That fast and furious dialect the wider genre film world first met in Attack the Block is just as fascinating from the mouths of adults. And in only six hours viewers will find they really like Michael, Dionne, and their family and friends–and want to see them again.
As South Londoners deal with the impact of crime, poverty, and other economic and political forces on their daily lives, one man has to bring strangers together to protect the one he loves all while avoiding powerful and nefarious agents that have noticed their special abilities. If there’s one thing TV watchers have learned from British TV, it’s that England is massively wired with CCTV cameras. While racial tensions take center stage, so do gender roles, and the story is almost equally balanced with four strong women leads.
Rapman gets the superhero tropes right, and with a fresh new perspective. You won’t want to miss what may be this year’s best superhero series. Supacell is now streaming on Netflix. It has not yet been renewed for a second season.
