"Supacell" has scooped the top spot in Netflix's global top 10, with 11.8 million views on the platform this week alone – and a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Showrunner and director Rapman's six-part series follows the lives of five Black Londoners who suddenly find themselves with unexpected superpowers.
Despite the stiff competition in an already oversaturated genre, said Ben Gibbons in Screen Rant, it's an "incredible first chapter in an original superhero story" that leaves a lasting impression. Rapman doesn't rely on "tropes and tradition". By bringing together underrepresented individuals as the primary stars, and gradually revealing the unique reason the characters got their powers, the "extremely well-executed" show stands apart as something more "worthwhile and engaging".
The action takes place in south London, where a group of individuals with no clear prior connection are adjusting to life with their extraordinary powers. Leading the cast is delivery driver Michael (former "Doctor Who" companion Tosin Cole) who discovers he can move through space and time. A quick trip to the future reveals he must track down the other four in order to prevent a tragedy that threatens to destroy his life.
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It's a "defibrillator of a show", said Alex Godfrey in Empire, "helping to bring an increasingly spluttering genre back to life". Instead of using their newfound powers to take over the world, the characters are simply trying to "get through the day", whether that's getting the money to pay their way or simply being good partners and parents. The portrayal of "real people living real lives", fills the "addictively stressful" show with a genuine sense of danger. These are the types of characters you "very quickly invest in".
The only weak point is the "underdeveloped bad guys" who feel all the more "jarring" in contrast to the "finely drawn leads". Still, it's an "impressively unpredictable show pulsating with vitality and urgency, that gets the blood pumping and has you hitting 'next episode' with super speed".
"If 'Supacell' has a superpower", said Jasper Rees in The Telegraph, it's that the hit show knows how to draw on an array of different sources. A "rattling grab-bag of other scripts' DNA", the end result has elements of everything from "Misfits" to "Top Boy".
But even though the show nods to other series, added Leila Latif in The Guardian, it still feels "wholly distinct", with the deftly developed characters rivalling those of "the best of contemporary prestige television". Hopefully, given how "compelling and charming" the cast is, there will be many more battles to come.
