Synopsis: Shanty Town tells the story of a police officer who goes undercover to avenge her sister’s death but finds much more than she bargained for.
Acting was the biggest win for this series, the actors did a great job. Special accolades to Chidi Mokeme, he gave a stellar performance. Ini Edo also did really well. I was especially surprised by Mercy Eke’s performance, she was able to embody Jackie convincingly and as for Peter Okoye, i won’t complain if I never see him in any movie again.
The production quality was really good. I liked the cinematography, setting, lighting, and costumes. I liked the stunts, I liked the makeup and effects, I liked how generous they were with the blood (I won’t talk about the fact that sometimes bullet wounds disappeared or blood looked like palm oil). That scene where Scar butchered Jackie was a really good one,I loved the ibibio language Ene and Inem spoke, it sounded so beautiful and refreshing. Look and feel was great.
Read the review of Ile Owo here.
What did I not like?
I did not like the story. Very unoriginal and incoherent for the most part. I saw Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys mirrored here; same pattern, same link between a powerful person and the underworld, same Lagos state, same fight for governorship. What happened to thinking outside the box?
Character development was poor. We literally did not know anything about these characters. We did not even know Scar, his background or his backstory, was he was actually Chief’s biological son?
As for the other characters, Shalewa could not speak Yoruba (she could not even pronounce her name properly), Femi could not speak Yoruba and when he tried, he sounded ridiculous, even Chief Oluyomi (a foundational heir of Eko) struggled to speak Yoruba. It appears they created these characters first and forced the roles on these people even though they were not the perfect fit.
Plot progression was incoherent, there were too many loopholes. Infact, every important action that moved this story forward turned out to be implausible or an outright error. Let me give you examples;
- Jackie’s VN: The last time we saw Jackie, she was calling Shalewa’s phone and she dropped her phone inside her bag when she saw Scar approaching. Where did that VN come from? In the recording, we could hear Enewan complain about the fact that the body was too mutilated (no eyes). Meaning the VN was recorded after Jackie’s death. Who made the recording? Was it dead Jackie that recorded it and sent the recording to Shalewa?????
- Scar uses the enchanted necklace on Femi: Another senseless and implausible scene because Shalewa had the necklace. In fact, she went to the bathroom, brought it out of her bag and while holding it she said “Shalewa, you no fit do this kind thing” so how, where and when did Scar get the necklace????
- Femi gives the police access to his father’s computers: Femi was a very clueless character, how did he find the location of these “computers”?
I hated the dialogues. So many long conversations that did not mean anything. In the bid to sound brilliant, they were even quoting theories out of context. For example, Chief was having a conversation with Scar and out of nowhere he asked him about the Guttenberg Galaxy, he went further to explain that according to Marshall McLuhan, the world is a global village therefore you need the skills of a hunter or fisherman to survive in this village and I was wondering, how????????????
First, the Guttenberg Galaxy is not a place, it is a book. Secondly, Marshall McLuhan is a communication theorist who referred to the world as a global village because according to him, social media and the internet have made it easier for people worldwide to communicate, thus, reducing the world to a global village. So where does hunting and fishing come into this theory???? They thought we would not notice?? Chief said his fathers lost their way by becoming politicians, he said politicians are fools and in the same breath, he said he wants to become a politician. I was just confused by the whole conversation.
There were so many other instances where the dialogue did not make sense and I was wondering who wrote these lines!!!
I did not like the over exploitation of nudity. Nudity was used as a cheap attempt to shock the viewers in order to compensate for the hackneyed script that is Shanty Town. I don’t think nudity is something we should necessarily shy away from in film making, I however believe it should only be used when it is absolutely necessary. In this case, was it necessary? No.
Some would argue and say it made the scene look more realistic but then I would like to point out that there were so many other things that would have made the movie look more realistic that they did not show us.
It would have been more realistic for them to show us how Scar was able to pick the key on the floor to unlock his handcuffs even though his hands were locked together behind him, they should have shown us how Femi was able to steal his father’s ring, that ring was kept in a safe with a combination lock known only by his father, let’s not forget that the body guards would not even have allowed him. They should have shown us an actual investigation with intelligent and technologically inclined agents not agents sitting in a bus doing nothing. At some point they even printed a picture on A4 paper and traveled all the way to ask Inem if the person’s face looked familiar, in 2023? They should have shown us so many things but conveniently did not.
Moving on, did you see those random guys fighting towards the end??? I was wondering who are these people and why are they on my screen? A fight between Scar and Inem would have made sense because they had a villain and protagonist kind of relationship, that was the person she came to defeat, so why did he have to go back to die at home with those random women stabbing him?
Till the very end, Scar did not find out that the real Inem was dead, he did not know he was dealing with her twin sister who was out for revenge.
Let’s talk about how they ended this series. Despite the “multitude charges” against Chief, it was only the rape of a police officer that sent him to jail? How??? This man is supposed to be the most powerful man in Lagos, he has influence, ears and eyes in all corridors of power, so how???
Is that video actually admissible in court? What does it really prove? It would have been easy for Chief’s lawyers to prove consent because not only did Inem voluntarily participate in a sex auction, Chief and his accountant have evidence that they paid for her services after the act, it can also be said that even her screaming was part of the role play he paid for. Last time I checked BDSM is not a crime in Nigeria, so I thought that conclusion was really weak, I did not understand how they nailed him for rape and he got life imprisonment, was Lasisi Elenu his lawyer????
The final scene is the lamest cliffhanger I have ever seen. Please remember that we saw that same scene in Episode 3 which means the scene already happened in the past so why are we seeing it again in present day or was someone having a flashback? Too many questions unanswered even till the very end.
Overall, Shanty Town was not a good watch for me. I must admit that some people would enjoy this series because of the production quality as well as the impressive performances from some of the cast while some people would not because this series insults your intelligence at every turn. Shanty Town is shiny on the outside, it has all the beautiful aesthetics but it lacks substance. A case of beauty without brains. This series is a reminder that it is not smart to speed past a coherent plot, character development, and sensible dialogue.
P.s- This story was written by 3 people, I guess this proves that 2 or 3 heads are not always better.
Rating: 5/10
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