Boarders - Welcome to St. Gilbert's

BBC Three's Boarders arrives with energy, heart, and a pitch that practically sells itself: five Black working-class teens are offered scholarships to a posh boarding school in the wake of a PR scandal. It's a fish-out-of-water set-up ripe with class tension, culture clashes, and comic potential - a fresh spin on British school dramas that rarely centre stories like these.

And for the most part, Boarders delivers what it promises - a lively, character-driven coming-of-age story with flashes of sharp social commentary and a likeable cast. The young actors bring warmth and authenticity to roles that sometimes feel more like archetypes than fully formed characters, and when the writing lets them breathe, there's real heart here.

But for a show about friction, Boarders can feel strangely frictionless. The class satire never cuts as deep as it could, the emotional arcs are uneven, and the stakes often feel manufactured rather than earned. The tone wavers - veering from sincere drama to heightened farce without always sticking the landing - and the writing sometimes leans on easy tropes rather than doing the harder work of digging into the nuance the premise begs for.

That said, there's something undeniably watchable about it. The pacing is brisk, the setting well utilised, and the chemistry among the cast does a lot of heavy lifting. It's the kind of series that feels like a stepping stone - for its cast. With a sharper script and more narrative focus, Boarders could've been something great. As it stands, it's solidly watchable - sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, always full of promise.

I loveed, the fact that they did not take long to release the 2nd season or outright cancel the show like other TV shows! I love how they include LGBTQ characters, so seamlessly. I resonate with Omar so well. I love how the show, shows us the point of view of different characters that come from the same background: "a bad neighbourhood". And shows us how different they all can still be and how differently they react to the same situations. A Tv show like this: centered in black characters and is realistic, i have rarely seen. Hope on seeing more projects like these in the future! Loving season 2 so far cannot wait to see more.

I'm nearing the end of episode 3 but I think I get the gist. Quite an entertaining series but I'm not sure if it works entirely. From the start the guys from London are such a mixed bag I'm just not sure how their friendships would have originated and the guys already attending the boarding school are absolute bafoons from the off so you can't take it too seriously. As long as you can over look the above then I think you'll find it mildly amusing and worth investing in on a quiet Sunday lunchtime. That said I think Jaheim (the lead) has got good potential. He carries his character well. And I hated Rupert from the word go which I'm assuming was the actors intentions so good job there too. All in all worth a watch if there's nothing much doing.

This isn't just. Good series it's bloody brilliant I don't really watch many dramas on bbc but I was going through all my apps looking for something new to watch and found this it has everything romance, drama, thrill and inclusivity without running it down your throat and shows the different versions of black teens watched all episodes in two days because it has me hooked wish it was 10 episodes in total but they left room for a new season hopefully and the actors are very talented individuals. Honestly well done bbc three.

10s a cross the board also woukd love to know more about each character.

Pretty good series - I'm only 3 episodes in but it sucked me in from the very first episode. It's really absorbing and does a good job of mixing serious social and on point racial commentary with laugh out loud comedy. The characters show a lot of heat and are likable, well developed and unpredictable.

It's hard to guess what direction people are going to go in because the characters are so layered with no one appearing one dimensional. It's been a long time since I've seen something so good like this on British TV and it's nice to have something other than a political or police drama to watch and get sucked into.

It's also nice to know that slang hasn't changed too much and the social media girls are particularly on point.