Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
It might take more than a few minutes for viewers to get on board with “Supacell,” but once the first episode came to its closing moments, I got goosebumps with the way it ended! It had a fantastic reveal of a dystopian future, with a bunch of superheroes fighting against something. After that, I just couldn’t stop watching this six-episode British superhero show created by Rapman. Its heroes aren’t aliens, gods, demigods, super-rich men, or lab accidents; instead, they are regular men and women, born with unique genes that set them apart from the others.
Tosin Cole plays the primary protagonist Michael Lasaki, a kind, hardworking Londoner with a delivery job, who is looking forward to proposing to his long-time girlfriend Dionne (Adelayo Adedayo). However, Michael’s normal life turns upside down when he is brutally knifed in a South-London neighborhood. Instead of dying, Michael finds time rewinding by a few minutes, which helps him avoid the stabbing. Just when it seems like it could’ve all been a hallucination, a series of events makes Michael realize he can teleport, freeze time for a few seconds, and time-travel! Dude is almost like a Black British Doctor Strange, without having to undergo excruciating training. Michael’s new powers aren’t just scary; he learns Dionne is going to die in the near future, and the only way to prevent the tragedy is by getting some of the other people with superpowers to band with him against an evil organization.
“Supacell” focuses on five different individuals, all of them Black, and how they suddenly discover their superpowers, so we get multiple amusing origin stories. Meanwhile, a shady organization seems to be studying individuals like them in a lab set-up, like how Eleven was under observation for powers in “Stranger Things.” Michael needs to find four other individuals with powers to help him prevent Dionne’s premature demise, and while he doesn’t know it yet, he needs to find them before the evil guys do. Meanwhile, Dionne is on her own quest to decode Michael’s new powers and its possible connection with the missing cases of some Black individuals. Tosin Cole and Adelayo Adedayo have electric on-screen chemistry as Michael and Dionne, so that makes it easy to root for their success.
As an international viewer, some of the colloquial dialogues/phrases were lost on me, although they were largely restricted to the scenes featuring younger character interactions in a troubled neighborhood (high crime rate), all thugs. So I guess it was the gangster slang that was elusive to me. But all the rap and hip-hop music that plays in their scenes is groovy as hell. In fact, most of the “Supacell” soundtrack perfectly complements its gang-wars, violence and superhero shenanigans.
Calvin Demba is Rodney Cullen, a small-time drug peddler who gains super-speed and rightly likens himself to The Flash. Calvin plays the most likable character in the series after Michael. Nadine Mills plays a nurse called Sabrina Clarke, who freaks out when she learns she has telekinetic powers, but it also helps her better protect her sister Sharleen (Rayxia Ojo). Josh Tedeku is Tazer, a volatile young man who is part of a gang that often gets involved in petty thefts and violent fights. When Tazer learns he might have special powers, he tries to use them to become the king of the streets with his thug friends. Eric Kofi Abrefa is Andre Simpson, a divorced dad trying hard to keep his visitation rights, until he discovers super strength.
“Supacell” cleverly illustrates how the first things ordinary individuals will do when they gain superpowers is use it for personal gains. “Making the world a better place” is nowhere on their list. Three out of the five primary superheroes of “Supacell” instantly gravitate towards a life of crime and easy money. Rodney, the Black Flash, starts his own Domino’s Pizza-style offer for his drugs—”get it in 10 minutes or it’s free!” Michael is the only genuinely nice guy among all the superheroes we meet through the series, and he is also the only one who, despite having the coolest abilities, frustratingly fails to use them when necessary.
What might irk some viewers in “Supacell” is the fact that some of its “heroes” are more than flawed. For instance, Josh Tedeku’s Tazer is a young thug who comes from a broken home and is a malevolent killer. He is raised by his grandmother, who laments over how young boys like Tazer are out on the streets murdering their own brothers. It’s the grey shades of its characters that make one think of Eric Kripke’s show “The Boys” (based on the comics by Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson). Although the Supes (short for superhero) in “Supacell” are still just figuring out their powers and aren’t as violent and murderous as the Supes from “The Boys.” So Rapman’s show hits an entertaining spot between the usual superhero stories like “Justice League”/”Avengers” and “The Boys” because its protagonists are neither God-like idealistic idols like Superman or Captain America nor as vicious, unhinged, and homicidal as Homelander.
Episode six, the finale of “Supacell,” ends with Michael and the group taking on the bad guys, but also, it ends with a tragedy that could’ve been easily avoided. It’s one of the dumbest plot twists in the tale, just to give viewers an emotional ending and the protagonists some additional trauma. The tragic twist could’ve occurred in some other manner because the way it unfolds was completely avoidable.
Anyway, despite its sad-dumb climactic twist, “Supacell” is a fun binge-worthy show!
You can stream the series on Netflix.
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