Supacell: Season 01 Episode 01 'Michael'— Review

Warning! In case you're yet to see this series, this article contains minor spoilers. 

Before settling to watch Netflix's Supacell, I questioned myself multiple times because I didn't feel like I would be impressed much. In my mind I kept thinking, 'how different can this one be?,' 'Wouldn't it be as cliché as so many superhero series out there?' Anyways, I finally saw the first episode of Supacell and here's my review.

Episode 01, titled "Michael" opened with a black woman in a patient's uniform trying to escape a facility with the facility guards in hot pursuit. She got to a dead end and had no choice but to use her powers to blast down the wall, and just as she was about to inhale the sweet taste of freedom she was gunned down and dragged back in by the armed facility guards. While the rest of the captives dressed in yellow tracksuits watched with alarmed faces as the woman's corpse was being dragged back, a man was shown calmly sipping tea and enjoying the scene.

The first thing I observed was how the captives were all Blacks, and the tea sipping man is White. Which led to the opinion that the series is pointing out that the Blacks are the ones with the superpowers while the Whites capture them probably to run some tests and determine the source of their powers.

https://youtu.be/0URJ2Gu4K2M?si=5-LSBMDs7orAC0ou

The next scene featured Michael (Tosin Cole) who the episode was named after, —a delivery man trying to convince his girlfriend Dionne (Adelayo Adedayo) who he is in a serious loving relationship with, to accept the blue convertible he bought for her. Followed by a scene where a teenage gang led by Tazer (Josh Tedeku) attended a house party. Within minutes, Tazer and his group were lured out of the party by an angry rival gang led by Chucky (Digga D) where Tazer was stabbed by Chucky.

Another scene featured Andre (Eric Abrefa) trying to convince his ex-wife Alicia that he has finally gotten a job and will start paying child support so that he would be able to see his son AJ as often as possible, to allow him see AJ just for a few hours. And another scene showed a young guy, Rodney (Calvin Demba) trying to sell weed to passersby for a token. Rodney met both Andre and Michael separately to buy weeds but they both turned him down.

While visiting his mother who is a Sickle Cell patient in the hospital, Michael casually crossed paths with some of Tazer's gang who also came to visit Tazer following his physical altercation with Chucky. At the hospital, Tiny (Akai Coleman), Twosie (Andy Thompson), and Skreamer (Mickira Oji) met with Sabrina (Nadine Mills) , a nurse who told them Tazer's hospital room number.

At this point, the episode was beginning to tell that there would be a connection between Michael, Tazer, Rodney, Andre, and Sabrina, seeing how their paths crossed. But then, 26 minutes into the episode, Michael's superpowers manifested when he was in traffic going to make a delivery at Tazer's neighborhood. He had a vision where he was harassed by Tazer's gang who asked him to pay them a certain amount to deliver the parcel for him, and upon his blunt refusal, he was stabbed by Tazer. The vision helped him handle the situation differently when he got to the neighborhood.

From Left to Right: Tazer, Andre, Sabrina, Michael, and Rodney.

Rodney got his powers after getting a call from a potential weed buyer who needed the weed as soon as possible. It happened that Rodney was running to catch-up with the bus that was leaving when he outran the bus and found himself in Edinburgh in a split second. Andre experienced his power after hitting and breaking the ATM after confirming that he wasn't paid for the hours of work he did before quitting his job. Sabrina experienced hers when she tried to shove off her boyfriend of nine months who she caught cheating, only to flung him so far up the wall. Towards the end of the episode, Michael had another vision where he was in the future with Tazer, Sabrina, Andre, and Rodney, using their superpowers to fight against an unknown force.

The episode did well to explore how the Whites and Blacks are always anxious of the other. It highlighted the existence of Sickle Cell Disease commonly found in Blacks. It also did justice to how tainted the world is especially when it involves race. An example partaining the lack of media coverage regarding the little missing Black girl and how it would have been the opposite if a white person was missing. The fact that the whole protagonists of the series were Blacks is also commendable. The episode also did justice to the African dish of swallow and soup which was shown in the house where Tazer lives with his grandmother.

Episode 01 did well to leave enough suspense to make viewers hop on the next episode just to see whether Michael was able to change his future and save Dionne from dying three months after his proposal. Overall, Rapman (Andrew Onwubolu) who is the writer and director of the series did a very good job with this episode and I can't wait to see the rest of the episodes.

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