What to watch after 'Top Boy'?

Top Boy is simply the best thing I have watched recently. It stays with me bruv. I already reviewed it here and now I'd like to make some suggestions as to what to watch next, if you are struggling (like I was) to move on to another show.

What to choose of course depends on why exactly you enjoyed the series. Was it for the patois, the depiction of London culture, the depiction of violence or the story development? For me it was all these four things!

Patois

If it was for the patois, then you have to watch Desmond's, the early 1990s sitcom about a hairdressers in Peckham. I still find it hilarious; there's an amazing mix of accents from Guyana and the Gambia.

Culture

If it was for the depiction of Black London culture, well moving on from the gritty reality of Desmond's (lol), there have been a couple of films lately which actually feature cast members from Top Boy ...

Obey (2018) is a film about kids in London set against the background of the 2011 riots. Leon (Marcus Rutherford) is 19 and lost in life until he meets and falls in love with Twiggy (Sophie Kennedy Clark). I found this romance rather problematic since Leon is a poor working-class Black kid and Twiggy is a (supposedly exotic) white middle-class squatter, which plays too much into racist stereotypes for me. However, the film has its moments and the supporting cast composed of the crew that Leon hangs with includes Jasmine Jobson as Little M and Joshua Blisset as Karl ... and you know these guys as Jaq and Kieron in Top Boy!

Blue Story (2019) is almost a precursor to Top Boy season 3, with Micheal Ward (Jamie in TB) at school being the badboy gang leader, Marco. The film is conceived and directed by Rapman, who presumably thought told himself it was a genius idea to be a rapping chorus through the film. That didn't work for me, I found it rather offputting, but it was cool at least to meet all the gang again: aside from Jamie/Marco, we see Kit (Kadeem Ramsay, here being Hakeem), Tareek (Sean Sagar as Skitzer) and Aaron (Hope Ikpoku Jnr as Marko). Not forgetting Joshua Blisset as Daps. He's in everything!

Violence

If it was for the violence, Mr Inbetween is a truly excellent series hailing from Australia. Wikipedia fittingly describes it as a "black comedy-crime drama". It's about a white ex-military hardnut who works as a bouncer and assassin in Sydney. The main role is played by the writer Scott Ryan who has talked about how he pointblank refused to compromise on the production. It's almost perfect! And the violence is truly shocking because it's so realistic.

Story

If it was for the story, a curveball option might be Snabba Cash which basically transposes the themes of TB to Stockholm. It's based on a novel written in 2006 so it's not ripping off the UK show but the story arcs of the street are remarkably similar in some ways, with drug deals going sour. In other ways not, since for example the main character is Leya (Evin Ahmad) who is desperate to improve the living situation for her and her kid by getting funding together for her business. I also really enjoyed the character of Salim (Alexander Abdallah) who is a lowkey badass but wants to get out of a live of crime which he can clearly see is bringing him down. We are talking cool haircuts too. Plus Salim inspired me to buy a gangster gilet, although he looks cooler in his to be perfectly honest.

Stay safe out there! And tell me in the comments what I should be watching, I always appreciate new tips. You can Read my other reviews here.