Champion

This may not be everyone's cup of tea but it masterfully embodies black British culture in London. The struggle, our love of music, family and friction with the police. There is beautiful tale of sibling love intertwined in an immersive and truly authentic sound track.

It's gritty, cinematic, gentle and rough all at the same time. The scenes in Jamaica had me smiling from ear to ear. The music is just on another level, so much talent on display. And I just knew Ghetts had to be behind Bosco.

After ending on a cliff hanger, you'll be hoping they come back with season 2! This is one of the best things I have seen from the BBC in a very long time!

This is a show that's based in the UK, centered around a drama filled but talented Caribbean family that is doing their best to move through without much needed therapy. I cannot stress enough how upsetting all the parents are on this show though. It's disgusting. However it's a good show, with good (and sometimes great) music, and across the board good acting. I appreciate that about it. The show is easy to get caught up into and hard to walk away from completely. My wish is that amidst all the drama and backstabbing that some of these characters could've made more responsible decisions. We can't be all bad.

Champion's biggest selling point is the strong soundtrack. I believe they (half) attempted to make this work with Mood, but failed miserably. When it comes to music and beat, I'd easily give the series 10 stars. There is some serious British talent behind it.

Politically speaking, the show is relevant to current events. Whether that's a good thing in terms of watching an entertaining drama, is going to largely be up to individual viewers & their tastes & preferences. The first episode is quite meta in that it largely feels as if one is watching a news story about a social media video after it has gone viral. I'm unsure whether I'm saying that as a compliment. For anyone who has signed off of all social media platforms because of the continual drama over pretty much anything & everything, Champion starts to feel like you're being shoved back to the hamster wheel. I am hopeful this will get better.

The one thing that detracts from this series is the seemingly over the top selfishness of multiple characters. You can understand it from Vita's best friend, but the self absorption of her brother, and even worse, her mother (?!) is tough to watch. I have a large Greek family & there's definitely drama & people in everyone's business, however, I can't say any parent has tried to force one child to give up everything for their sibling. The mother expecting Vita to act as an assistant to her brother starts to become almost bizarre to the point her behaviour is borderline abusive. Bosco is completely self absorbed and self important.

What Champion offers is something different to other shows on the BBC. It is worth giving it a chance.

Vita Champion has always lived in the shadow of her brother, world famous, but troubled rapper Bosco Champion, but one day the worm turns, and she starts working on her own, but will both careers thrive, or will one suffer?

Very relevant, politically and socially it felt like it needed to be put out, and not at some obscure time slot on BBC4, it feels a little padded at times, eight episodes is way too long, and it does lag in the middle, four episodes would have been so much better.

It's very well acted, it's very nicely produced, a great mix of music, it showcases the talents of Malcolm Kamulete and Déjà J Bowens, they're excellent. I loathed Beres, but Ray Fearon is great.

One issue I have, apart from Vita and Lennox, every other character is loathsome, Bosco, Beres, Aria, Mark, Honey, even Dawn, they're all utterly selfish, greedy, and ready to step all over one another. There's no good in any of them, I'm not too sure that's a fair representation.

I read one silly comment somewhere, about it lacking diversity, personally I've argued for years that I wanted to see dramas focusing on British Carribbean families, finally!!! Great to see, more of this please BBC.

7/10.

Champion offers a great perspective from the journey of a British Jamaican musical family in London and the conflicts they face with Bosco dealing with his issues while pursuing a musical career and Vita his younger sister always being the one he depends on. Every single actor did a great job on this production, the visuals to this show is quality, glad that bbc is taking the black representation in multicultural London seriously.

Now I must say, not sure if Champion is created from an existing IP, it did not need to be a series, a movie would have been fine as it feels the story was too stretched out, 8 episodes could have been wrapped up in a 90 to two hour film. Some of the writing felt too repetitive and on the nose, the dialogue could have been better, still great job to cast and crew, would still recommend.