These “Lagos Big Boys” Should Probably Not Quit Their Day Jobs! NR’s Lagos Big Boys S1E1 Review

So I watched the first episode of Ndani TV’s latest web series offering, “Lagos Big Boy”.

Usually on NR we at least wait anywhere between 3 episodes to half of a season before doing a review of a series but this one was so exceptional that we had to get right to it.

It was exceptionally bad.

We are all for introducing a new flock of actors but “act” is the operative part of that word. From guy to guy to guy to complementary chic in this show, no one seemed to know the first thing about acting, nor did they seem to be putting in any effort to find out.

The show opens with a dream sequence of our protagonist imagining himself singing to a large audience and then he gets choked. First of all, from the get-go it was too obvious that this was a dream sequence (I mean even before the first character utters his first word), and the additional angle of him being in front of an audience? That was definitely a joke because the impression of an audience existing did not come across in any shape or form.

And then he wakes up and we flashback to his childhood when he first attempted to display his singing chops (or absolute lack thereof) to his family members. For some weird inexplicable reason, his younger self decides to sing Sisqo’s “Thong song”.and that’s when things really begin to fall apart. Not just because of the questionable parenting that led to that moment but then the audio starts playing tingo tingo such that you can’t distinguish whose talking to who and exactly what is being said.

And then fast-forward a few lines and some more bants, and then the guys arrive at Temitayo/HighBoy’s house. I am going to do myself – and by extension, all of us – a favor by not mentioning the fact that this guy’s stage name is really “High boy”… like literally High? Boy? And then they proudly mention the similarity to Starboy as if that earns us cool points (I am really praying that this turns out to be satire of some sort). 

So back to said scene…

The boys bounce into Highboy’s House and we enter the most unwarranted and confused slow motion scene you’ve ever seen in your life. Enter the introduction for the apartment with it’s disco light setting, cheap looking curtains, half empty tables with half finished bottles of Hennessy, fumes everywhere, supposedly cool “high” music playing, some chic caressing Barney, and a Burnaboy video level vixen sitting on the lap of a guy who looks like he just came out from studying for his LSATs. Confused.

Through all this the boys bounce – and don’t forget that this bouncing is in slow motion – they bounce bounce bounce unto the couch and then someone finally realizes “oh maybe we should stop the slow motion now because this entire sequence really is about a vexed guy trying to get his drugs back as opposed to some introduction of three romantic heroes”.

Hmmm…. It was at this point that I decide to check my sanity. So I do the reasonable thing and pause the video to read the comments.

I found the one comment that embodies all of my emotions about this one episode which was – “These guys really shouldn’t quit their day jobs”

It’s hard to reconcile that this is an Ndani TV show because it reeks of things that Ndani shows are not known for: low budget, poor production, haphazard editing and is anyone paying any attention to the details?

And disclaimer, of course we know that this is just the first episode and there is ample room for things to get better. However, I would like to counter that first impressions matter and if you cannot hold onto the audience in your first episode then why exactly would I watch the second one?