Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Top Boy’ Series Finale on Netflix, The Last Go-Round For The Rebooted And Drake-Endorsed British Crime Drama

Top Boy (Netflix) has lived two lives. The drama created and co-written by Ronan Bennett first ran across two limited series on British television between 2011 and 2013 before its ultimate cancellation. And sure, many of us wish we could lobby directly for our favorite fallen shows to reappear with fresh episodes. But many of us are not Drake. The superstar entertainer and Top Boy superfan helped enable its 2019 return via Netflix, featuring the same creative team and cast, and the series has since presented eighteen episodes in this revived second life form. (Netflix also hosts the original Top Boy series under the subheading Top Boy: Summerhouse.) Now, in season three of its comeback, there are only six episodes left. Who will control the East London drug trade? And who will survive the fallout, as violence and larger forces of gentrification and social change continue to ripple outward?

TOP BOY – SEASON 3 (AKA TOP BOY SEASON 5): STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Top Boy’s final season begins with the shocking end of its last one, when Gerard “Sully” Sullivan (Kane Robinson) murdered his drug business rival Jamie Tovell (Micheal Ward) in front of Jamie’s younger brothers Stef (Araloyin Oshunremi) and Aaron (Hope Ikpoku, Jr.).

The Gist: As ruthless drug dealers with a knack for surviving and thriving, Sully and his counterpart Dushane Hill (Ashley Walters) have spent nearly as much time as enemies as they have allies. Which is why it was unexpected when Sully shot Jamie to death, since the latter’s underworld ambitions were seemingly aligned with Dushane’s plans to go black market big in London. With well-heeled partners-in-crime and a fresh line of supply through Spain and Morocco, Dushane’s push for kingpin status was also fueling his financial support for Summerhouse, the hardscrabble council estate where they grew up and where many of their loved ones and drug crew still live. But Sully had ambitions of his own. After reconnecting with his daughter Tash (Felicia Mukasa), for whom he provides, he couldn’t trust his own position between the competing egos of Dushane and Jamie, so he took brutal action. And now, he appears at the fancy restaurant where his sometime ally is on a date with Shelley (Simbi Ajikawo). Step back from the road, Sully urges, a pistol visible in his pocket. Move aside. And Dushane’s eyes narrow. OK, “but make sure you bring me my money like I brought yours, yeah?” 

Business continues at street level, overseen by Dushane and Sully’s trusted associate Jacqueline “Jac” Lawrence (Jasmine Jobson). But in Jac’s own life, she’s rekindled her relationship with her sister Lauryn (Saffron Hocking), alone with her newborn son since she stabbed to death her abusive gun-running boyfriend Curtis (Howard Charles) last season. Lauryn, experiencing trauma and postpartum depression, can’t breastfeed. And Jac and her girlfriend Becks (Adwoah Aboah) are stepping up to provide care and support. But at work with Sully, Jac makes a gruesome discovery: severed heads in a straight truck, instead of the expected dope shipment from Morocco. There’s a burner jammed in one of the mouths. And after a testy conversation, Sully learns there’s a new set of Irish gangsters moving in on his contraband supply chain.

Which leads us to Barry Keoghan. The Banshees of Inisherin MVP joins Top Boy as crime world psychopath Jonny, who delivers a bloodsoaked ultimatum to Sully. Give us a huge cut of your drug revenues, and we won’t kill you and your daughter. Clearly, Sully’s break with Dushane won’t be as clean as he planned. Dushane’s designs on helping Shelley reboot her recently shot-up nail salon aren’t as financially sound as he had planned, either. And as local authorities apply increasingly harsh immigration policies to the residents of Summerhouse, the larger community Dushane and Sully operate within will experience unplanned adversity, too. 

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The echoes of The Wire are strong with this one, as is Top Boy’s sensitivity to the perspectives of those who do the crime and live where it exists. Gangs of London brought to life its own British crime saga. And Snabba Cash (starring Evin Ahmad of the cryptic Netflix hit Who is Erin Carter?) and Ganglands will offer any viewers missing Top Boy further viewing options in the drugs-and-bad-doings department.

Our Take: It’s been a journey for Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson, as they’ve led the stellar Top Boy cast through a decade-plus of playing Dushane and Sully. There have been bonding moments and bloody double-crosses. Shared goals and appalling outcomes. And while Drake isn’t the only reason the series came back to life, his support means even more now that we’ve experienced their characters’ return to the fore. With only one six-episode series left, the energy swirling between Walters and Robinson crackles with unpredictability – Dushane and Sully’s partnership is one where there are always guns close at hand – and these guys play it with wonderful slabs of subtlety that always obscures the path ahead. 

Maybe neither of them make it though? That would be as justifiable as it would be satisfying. In its final hours, Top Boy is reaching epic levels of tense, claustrophobic storytelling, with the narratives it’s had the time and support to set up all crashing into and weaving through one another. The way Sully purposely taunted young Stef, killing his brother and guardian Jamie right before his very eyes, even as the young man attends school with his daughter Tash; how Dushane wants to do right by Shelley’s goals, but is constantly alerted to new threats via notifications on his phone; and the sense that nothing will ever settle down fully when drug violence is only one factor in the life of an estate community wracked by financial hardship and abandonment by the state. Top Boy presents it all with constant respect for personal identity, an astute ear for language, and an unflinching eye for the endemic, inevitable pain caused by its main characters’ decisions. “You got your way, I got mine, and they ain’t alignin’,” Sully told Dushane last season, as their paths once again diverged. They still need each other, but they’re also on a collision course. And like most everything else in Top Boy, we can’t wait to see it through.     

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode of Top Boy’s final series, anyway.

Parting Shot: When Jaq arrives home at the flat she shares with Lauryn, she discovers her sister passed out alongside her cooing infant son. More concerning, she also finds the remainder of the nickel bag of dope Lauryn bought from Rowmando (Ansu Njai). 

Sleeper Star: Jasmine Jobson has been a standout of the fine ensemble cast of Top Boy since the series returned to Netflix in 2019. (In 2020, Jobson received a BAFTA nomination for her work.) Jobson has always tempered Jaq’s steely, hard-as-nails street captain reputation with a kind of remote sensitivity, and that will become even more key as Jaq helps shoulder the load of caring for Lauryn’s son.  

Most Pilot-y Line: “Somebody’s fuckin’ about with my parcels.” He took the top boy spot by force, but Sully is jammed up immediately in a FAFO situation, as supply side drug biz economics threaten his tenuous perch. He fucked around, and now he’s finding out.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The mood is taut and tense as the final six episodes of Top Boy play out, with Dushane and Sully vying for control of the East London drug trade and the Summerhouse estate existing at the center of a changing social climate. A terrible cost will be exacted. It’s just a matter of how, when, and for whom.  

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges