When Top Boy’s Jaq and Becks were attacked in episode two of the latest season, it felt eerily familiar. The character’s had just been on a first date when they kissed on the street, immediately set upon by a group of homophobic men who began harassing and then attacked the women. It drew similarities to the 2019 London night bus attack, when Melania Geymonat and Chris (she prefers her surname to be anonymous) were victimized by three teens after themselves going on a date.
Watching a hate crime play out on screen is harrowing for anyone who relates to the characters, but this one felt important too. Top Boy is currently Netflix’s most popular show in the UK with a huge audience of young people. Having an insight into how young, queer Black woman navigate that world – and the devastating challenges they face - could shape the very way young viewers interact with queer women in their own lives.
For Adwoah Aboa, who plays Becks, the scene was difficult to film. ‘What I found really challenging is that I had to sit in a very dark place that day when I filmed those particular scenes just so that I could get there,’ she told Metro. ‘You’re cutting and then you’re doing the scene over and over and over again. And the things you have to think about. These are things I haven’t necessarily been through, but I can on an emotional level bring my own experiences of certain things, whether it be through race, or lots of different situations…It was very emotionally taxing.’
Jasmine Jobson, who plays Jaq, has drawn heavy praise for her part. Her character is typically tough, no stranger to violence herself, and so she struggles to open up about the emotional impact of the attack. The way she portrays that vulnerability then is compelling, always under the surface but ever so present in her expression. In an interview with Digital Spy, Jobson too found the scene hard to come to terms with.
‘It was a lot for me to go through,’ she said. ‘I personally think that it's a very important message that needs to be put out there… I've got lots and lots of friends that are gay or lesbian. So [I asked] them what have they experienced [and] how they dealt with it, so I would kind of know how I was going to portray that scene.’
The women as a whole were on top this season.
The women as a whole were on top this season, no pun intended. Alongside Jobson tackling homophobia, she is also integral to a haunting exploration of domestic violence through her sister Lauryn’s character. Played by Saffron Hocking, Lauryn narrowly escapes her abusive partner before killing him in an act of self-defence. What’s so incredible about the storyline though is the way physical violence is absent up until the very last scene.
Throughout the series, it is shown that Lauryn’s partner Curtis – played by Howard Charles – abuses her through controlling where she goes, who she talks to and what she wears. Without explanation or debate, each character in the show accepts that this is an abusive, dangerous situation Lauryn must escape from. It’s one of the few portrayals of domestic violence where the abuse is never questioned, and that again speaks volumes for the countless young people who will watch this show and learn that abusive relationships go beyond physical violence.
One can’t praise the women of Top Boy without mentioning Little Simz, of course, who plays Shelley. The pivotal scenes where we saw her standing up for the way immigrant families in Britain are being mistreated and disregarded were monumental to the season. Always supporting older residents of the Summerhouse community, Shelley was seen fighting Amma’s (Jolade Obasola) deportation and the gentrification of the estate that threatened to evict long-term residents.
Ultimately, so many important subject matters were explored in the latest season of Top Boy. A show that can often be mischaracterised as merely about drugs and violence, the cast this season told the most compelling stories of poverty, abuse and exploitation of the working class. It perfectly surmises why so young people can find themselves in situations where crime looks like their only avenue for survival, and it does it with the most talented cast on British TV right now.
Read More:
David Lammy Tells Grazia: Top Boy Is Needed Now More Than Ever
The Best TV Shows For People Who Think They've Watched Everything Already