In the news Netflix drama Supacell, a group of young Black men and women from South London discover they have superpowers. One is now strong enough to crush a cash register with his bare hands, while another can run from London to Edinburgh in just seconds. But even as the magician compares his newfound gifts to Flash's, it shows that Supacell The thing it reminded me of the most wasn't any of the retired Arrow-verse series from the CW, nor anything the Marvel Cinematic Universe has put out in the last five years. Instead, the most obvious analog is HeroesNBC's Mid-Aughts drama about a group of people from around the world who developed unusual “abilities.”
Enough Supacell Characters have identical power sets with highlights Heroes figures, such as time travel and teleportation, or the power to copy other people's powers. Both shows offer a glimpse of an apocalyptic future that only its protagonists can stop, both feature purposefully bland government agents trying to capture and control supers, and both have a largely egotistical tone that is offset by from a lighthearted character, and at first both are primarily concerned with what a normal person would do if they discovered they had divine gifts.
Of course, Heroes he did not invent any of these ideas. But in 2006, she had the superhero TV strip almost all to herself. The adventure of young Clark Kent Smallville was still around, and a Blade The show had just finished its first (and only) season a few days before Heroes debuted, but these were niche products on less watched channels. In those years after the first Spider-Man and X-Men movies, but before the MCU completely reshaped pop culture, there was an obvious demand that had gone largely unfulfilled on the small screen. Heroes He was instantly crushed by both what he was and how he actually told his stories. the spectacular finale of the first season made it clear that the show was not so great in the last one, and it soon went from phenomenon to point.
Supacell was created by rapper-turned-filmmaker Rapman, whose real name, Andrew Onwubolu, might sound less appropriate for such a project. It reaches a market where the overwhelming supply of superhero content has clearly outstripped demand, and where teasers for upcoming Marvel and DC projects are met first with skepticism or weariness rather than giddiness. So he can't get by on his subject alone. It needs a distinct hook and execution to set it apart from the competition.
That all five drivers are black South Londoners is something of a hook. There have been, of course, other recent films and series with black heroes and predominantly black ensembles, but Rappman bases himself on his home and the cultural and socioeconomic forces that have shaped his five heroes. Michael (Tosin Cole) is a delivery truck driver engaged to social worker Dionne (Adelayo Adedayo). Sabrina (Nadine Mills) is a nurse. Andre (Eric Kofi Abrefa) is an ex-con struggling to rebuild a relationship with his teenage son. Rodney (Calvin Demba) is a struggling weed dealer. And Tazer (Josh Tedeku) is an aspiring gangster whose powers develop at a convenient time for a war with a larger, more established crew. All of them are connected not only by their newfound overtones, but also by the neighborhood where they keep crossing paths long before Rodney turns out to be off the Flash brand.
But the interpersonal stuff is pretty generic. The performances are all good, with Josh Tedeku and Eric Kofi Abrefa making particularly strong impressions in signature roles. Supacell he reasonably wants the audience to feel invested in these characters and their everyday problems before any telekinesis, and doing so complicates his life exponentially. It's just not very interesting. The six-episode season is both too long and too short, dragging its heels to get to the point where the protagonists regularly interact and use their powers in exciting ways, then ending just as the story finally picks up real momentum.
And the powers are exciting to say the least. Rapman directs many of the episodes, with Sebastian Thiel directing the others, and they and their collaborators have a clean, vivid aesthetic for how things should look when, for example, Rodney is moving at top speed or when two or more characters with powers is a fighter. It's all done on a modest scale, but sometimes more impressive than the action in some recent MCU shows.
That Supacell it gets better as it goes along is probably the thing that sets it apart the most Heroes, which started strong and soon fizzled out. But it doesn't do enough to stand out from today's overcrowded superhero TV landscape.
Supacell begins streaming June 27 on Netflix. I have seen all six episodes.
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