Supacell is a British sci-fi series that takes a different look at the superhero idea. Ordinary residents of South London who share something in common suddenly discover they possess superpowers. Toward the end of the first season, there are finally hints and clues about what is happening to them, but the season ends with many open questions.
Supacell is built around 5 people. Here’s a brief rundown of the main cast.
Michael (Tosin Cole) drives a delivery truck. When the season begins, he proposes to his girlfriend Dionne (Adelayo Adedayo). As they celebrate their engagement, he suddenly whooshes away to a time in the future. His future self informs him that Dionne will die in three months unless he can collect other superpowered folks to work together. The others are Tazer, Rod, Andre, and Sabrina.
Michael doesn’t tell Dionne what he’s learned. He doesn’t really understand how he could teleport or how to control it. But he sets out to find the others. She’s eventually involved in the search as part of her job as a social worker and because she wants to help Michael.
Andre (Eric Kofi Abrefa) is a dad, fresh out of prison, who wants to rebuilt his relationship with his teenage son. He has trouble keeping a job because of his record. One night he slams his fist into an ATM machine and breaks the whole thing apart. Money drops at his feet. He doesn’t know how to summon his super strength at first.
Rod (Calvin Demba) is young. He’s a small-time weed dealer who sells on the street. When someone is after him he runs all the way to Scotland in about 1.5 seconds. Like the others, he doesn’t know how to turn his super speed off and on.
Tazer (Josh Tedeku) is head of a gang. His gang is fighting over territory and income with a rival gang. His newly discovered power is that he can become invisible. His big, deadly knife becomes invisible along with him.
Sabrina (Nadine Mills) is a nurse. While trying to protect her sister Sharleen (Rayxia Ojo) she discovers she can move things without touching them.
When exercising their powers, the superpowered’s eyes turn yellow. Each of them figure out how to turn their powers on and off eventually. Michael eventually finds them all, but everyone has their own problems and nobody wants to help him save Dionne’s life. One problem several of them have in common is family with sickle cell disease or the sickle cell trait. A woman who works with sickle cell patients, Victoria Kesh (Sian Brooke), keeps showing up in their lives.
The trailer is good without giving away too much.
Meanwhile we see mysterious unnamed people, Eddie Marsan plays one of them, who are watching these 5 superpowered folks on a huge video screen. They seem to know what everyone is doing. And there are others with powers they are tracking, too.
The series is mysterious and unexplained for the most part. We only get hints about what is really happening. Rapman, who created the series, is quoted as saying he wanted to represent life in South London in a realistic way while creating a new kind of superhero. He also explained that he thinks the series needs three seasons. The final scene in the first season was definitely a lead in to more story, but the series hasn’t been renewed as of this date.
You can see this one on Netflix. If you watch it, please share what you thought about it in the comments below.
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i really enjoyed this series. the characters seemed realistic to me – i’ve been a comic book reader for close to 60 years and still, if i got super powers tomorrow, putting on a cape & fighting crime wouldnt be my first choice in using those powers (at least, not at the start). and if the love of my life were at risk of death, i would use those powers as i could to remove that risk. and it was great that this story played out with Black working class people. we just dont hear such stories very often (in any scenario).
i hope there is a second series.
I hope it’s getting enough views to be renewed. It deserves it.