Top Boy review: a fitting finale to the gangland drama
This brilliant show is bowing out at exactly the right time – at the top

It's been a "bumpy road" for east London gangland drama "Top Boy", said Emily Baker in The i Paper. When it started in 2011 on Channel 4, it won a dedicated following and critical acclaim. For reasons that are not clear, it was cancelled after only two seasons; but the show had a powerful fan in the shape of the Canadian rapper Drake, and largely thanks to him it returned on Netflix in 2019. Now, four years on, this "enthralling" drama is coming to an end "once again".
This series picks up where the last left off: with the murder of an upstart who had been tipped to take over the drugs empire presided over by gangster Dushane (Ashley Walters). Now, Dushane faces further problems with the arrival of a crew of fearsome Irish gangsters (led by Brian Gleeson and Barry Keoghan). "As ever, this isn't a series for the squeamish", but it's told with passion, and the acting is superb.
"The Hackney of Top Boy crackles with life (not unlike the Hackney of Hackney)," said Nick Hilton in The Independent, but writer Ronan Bennett's "vision of London's criminal underworld" is remorselessly bleak. Young love is uprooted by violence; a drug-addicted young mother has her first good day in a while, then drowns in a bath – there’s a sense that no one can escape from the bad things that just keep happening. It is not upbeat: families, friendships and communities are "torn apart", said Nick Clark in the Evening Standard. But this is brilliant TV, and it is bowing out "at exactly the right time – at the top".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Where to watch: Netflix
Sign up to the Arts & Life newsletter for reviews and recommendations
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Kartoffelsalat (potato salad) recipe
The Week Recommends German dish is fresh, creamy and an ideal summer meal
-
6 peaceful homes near small towns
Feature Featuring doors with local topographical maps in Oregon and a 1850s homestead-turned-house in Vermont
-
Too Much: London-set romantic comedy from Lena Dunham
The Week Recommends Megan Stalter stars as a 'neurotic' New Yorker who falls in love with a Brit
-
Apocalypse in the Tropics: a 'troubling' portrait of modern Brazil
The Week Recommends Petra Costa's sobering documentary examines the rise of right-wing evangelical Christianity in Brazilian politics
-
Murderland: a 'hauntingly compulsive' book
The Week Recommends Caroline Fraser sets out a 'compelling theory' that toxins were to blame for the 1970s serial killer epidemic
-
The 2025 James Beard Award winners
Feature Featuring a casually elegant restaurant, recipes nearly lost to war, and more
-
Film reviews: Superman and Sorry, Baby
Feature A hero returns, in surprising earnest, and a woman navigates life after a tragedy
-
Music reviews: Lorde, Barbra Streisand, and Karol G
Feature "Virgin," "The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume Two," and "Tropicoqueta"