As I watched Jungle, it struck me how many times the characters said "furthermore..." either through dialogue, or during their raps. It stood out to me as a mad ting! (One of the other overused phrases in the show).
I know musicals have been around for some time but, to me, there was too much Shiro's Story in this (if you haven't watched that, YouTube is your friend. Thank me later) but somehow, Shiro's Story manages to pull the mix of rap and dialogue off with aplomb, whereas Jungle fails miserably. It all feels very contrived and unnatural.
Furthermore, while the beats are decent, the raps are sometimes poor and awkward-sounding. Whoever thought a musical Top Boy would work really misjudged things.
Furthermore, some of the acting is poor and just not very convincing. Ezra Elliot as Gogo, and Seyi Andes-Pelumi as Danial were good I guess. And Poundz as Marcus was OK, but the rest of the cast fell flat for me.
There was one standout scene in the entire show where, in a car in a car park, Gogo's character morphs into three versions of himself. That was well done. Furthermore, the neon-lights style of the whole show was gave it a different look.
But that's not enough to save the show for me.
As an overall package, this fall's desperately short. Furthermore, I don't get why there were two distinct stories here?! I can't see this being renewed for a second season...
