Shanty Town

Seeing that Shanty Town is a six-part series, one would have expected better character development and an ending that was worth it.

These and more were not gotten from the six-part series recently released to Netflix.

The series opens well, and I believed that I was in for a treat, but not really.

A combination of good makeup, mediocre sex scenes and ok vfx were this series selling points, because the story was riddled with plot holes.

Female extra characters are degraded and objectified, and the excuse of it being true to the story of the life of the average sex worker.

Chidi Mokeme was the stand out actor in this series, He brought his A-game and basically carried the series on his shoulders. The remainder of the main cast were giving what was expected. Peter Okoye's Yoruba accent... wow. He could have done with a trainer.

The plot of shanty town is shabby cacophony of stories that just lengthens the run time.

The ending was abrupt and totally unsatisfactory. For a six-part series.

The story could have used with a better ending but the producers had probably either run out of ideas or funding because the ending did nothing but add to already lingering bitter taste in our mouths.

In conclusion, the movie shanty town is a perfect example of having your heart in the right place but executing with the finesse of a toddler playing a piano.

This is one of those adequately budgeted, for-show Nigerian production that's supposed to represent the country in the international market. Unfortunately, this show is below par, maybe by nigerian movie standards it's a masterpiece but still, it is mediocre. The biggest culprit here is the writing, the writing is so poor and unable to produce a coherent storyline and good dialogue. The pacing both moves slow and fast. Characters are cliches almost to the point of caricatures. Most of them lack any depth. But one could say the saving grace here is the performances? But not all tho, Chidi Mokeme as Scar was sublime, inhabiting his character wholly and embracing his eccentricities. He was actually enjoyable to watched but was a bit one dimensional. His character wasn't given much to work with. Ini Edo is up for the task but more often than not she overacts and her character is also quite predictable. Nse Ikpe-Etim as Ene was one of the better performers, she was understated with her performance and played quite a bit complex character. An awful performance, however, comes from Peter Okoye who played Femi. Peter can't act to save his life, good singer but terrible actor! As for the technical aspects, I thought the cinematography was good; the lighting was well done but the editing could be better, at some point I thought I was a watching a music video; scenes jumped from one scene to other with no explanation. People sometimes magically appear in places they shouldn't be. There was an attempt for fight choreography which was partially enjoyable but also somewhat embarassing to watch given how poorly done it was. The practical effects in the opening sequence was however excellent and praiseworthy. The story was predictable and formulaic, there's also the incorporation of supernatural elements which was random and out-of-place for the realistic tone the show is going for. Some of the nudity and violence were gratuitous and serve no purpose to the story. The ending could be better, it tidied up quickly but also make sure to tease the audience of a second season. My advice? For the second season; hire good writers, a director that can be able to put everything together well, and a coherent storyline.

First of, it has an exaggerated cast of an all inclusive all stars.

By the way, what in the name of acting did Peter Okoye do?? And why are there so many veteran actors??

Secondly, the storyline is beautiful as it reflects the typical lifestyle of current day polluted politicians whose ill-wealth is generated from sex workers, human trafficking, corruption, organized crimes, drugs and other illegal activities.

Applaudable also, is the use of ibibio language (finally the use of another language asides Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba).

However, for a six episode story, the movie lacked suspense and the ending??? It was rather shabby Anyways, by Nollywood standard, it may be a masterpiece.

This series opens with a fast and dark sequence of action scenes, giving a semblance of a promising start, but instead of building on this start, Shanty Town delves into a laden exposition that masks as the crux of the plot. This series never regains the thrill and urgency that the opening scene has.

Shanty Town is all about the male gaze, and is shameless in its portrayal. Female characters are degraded and objectified, and the excuse of it being a true attempt at showing the lives of sex workers is flimsy at best.

Shanty Town also employs gore and violence, but this isn't done to promote the plot, but is provided for shock factor. It's almost as if the creators decided to shoe in as much violence as they could fit in.

The plot of Shanty Town is a shabby patchwork of various stories and subplots that only help propel the runtime but not the story. Shanty Town trails to a very unsatisfactory end, with copious plotholes.

The only saving grace of Shanty Town is in its brilliant cast. Chidi Mokeme, Ini Edo, Nse Ikpe Etim, Richard Mofe Damijo, Nancy Isime, Shaffy Bello, and others try their best with the poorly developed story they were given to work with.

Shanty Town can best be described as a meal ruined by having too many cooks, the cooks in this instance are the towering subplots and themes that were incorporated.

I didn't expect this series to be so good. In terms of production, visuals, plot, script, acting has improved massively from the old days of BEN channels. Nollywood is like Bollywood to be a force to be reckoned to Hollywood. However, I was thoroughly entertained with unexpected plots and suspense. The harsh reality on how power can corrupt absolutely from the political arena, which can correlate to real life situation. The A-class cast from The King of Boys such as Sola Sobowale really smashed it. The series does provide a unique twist, with the underground black market, and forced prostitution which correlates on how there are more slaves in the world than transatlantic slavery with political involvement in the continent of Africa. However, it shows the other dark side of prostitution, which is different to sex workers who really enjoy their trade with individual choice to make a living.