Crime and Justice Lagos: Draw From Hollywood but Make it Nigerian
Showmax’s Crime and Justice Lagos creates a Nigeria where Justice is served
The sixth and final episode of Crime and Justice Lagos premiered last Thursday on Showmax. I was surprised to find out that it was the season because I had assumed it would run for much longer. And also because I was enjoying the show and it kept me anticipating a new episode each Thursday. However, I think I am quite fine with the conclusion and that through watching the show my initial doubts about it were laid to rest.
What were my doubts? The obvious. That it would be derivative of Hollywood crime television, a replication of popular shows like CSI and Law and Order.
Crime and Justice Lagos follows the activities of a fictional serious and special crimes unit working in Nigeria’s commercial capital, a spin-off of the Kenyan Crime and Justice, and in like manner each episode introduces us to a new crime story and its resolution.
Executive-produced by ace Nigerian cinematographer Yinka Edwards, the show stars Folu Storms and Jammal Ibrahim as lead detectives Kelechi Farasin and Danladi Dikko. Other actors on the show include William Benson, Maggie Osuome, and Uche Macaulay.
The writer’s room is headed by Kola Munis with other writers including Ifeanyi Chidi Barbara, Oluwapemi Elujoba, and Segun Michaels. The directors are Mak ‘Kusare, Onyinye Egenti, with Edwards directing the final episode as well as helming the cinematography.
It would be dishonest to say that Crime and Justice did not remind me of other popular Hollywood crime shows I have watched but what I found remarkable about the show is the creators’ awareness that they are inspired by western shows and tropes and found ways to mall the characters and their situations in a Nigerian setting. And so through the course of the six episodes, the crimes our detectives are tasked with resolving are crimes we see every day. Some, we have been victims of or affected by.
In the first episode, the inspectors are assigned with cracking a murder case. They find themselves battling to connect the dots with multiple suspects on their watch, from a cheating spouse to a cult to shady businessmen. And while this episode focuses on the Nigerian upper class, subsequent episodes explore the lives and trauma of the ordinary Nigerian.
Of the six episodes, two stood out for me especially. Not only for how well-written they were or for the authenticity of the characters but also for the commentary they make on social issues. The first of those episodes is Sliced, the second episode of the season. It touches on female genital mutilation, a harmful practice that many may consider outdated but is still very much practiced in some Nigerian cultures as a traditional rite of passage for young girls. And so while this episode tries to unwrap the mystery surrounding a kidnapped six-year-old girl, we also learn of the evil of FGM.
Here's what Ifeanyi says about inspiration:
“Female Genital Mutilation hits home because one would think that as we have progressed through the years, people are coming to the light on such archaic traditions, but alas, we have so many communities, especially in rural areas, still upholding this because ‘culture’. The story actually stemmed from a newspaper article about a kid kidnapped from a primary school by her teacher. Coming up with the angle of her Aunts taking her because of FGM was a sprinkle of the imagination and I'm glad it all came together the way it did.”
My second favourite is the fourth Clash, on police brutality. It exposes how rogue those who should be protectors have become perpetrators of crime themselves.
To discuss this episode in-depth would be spoiling it but thankfully, Ifeanyi is also the writer and so I asked her about her motivation and the story’s necessity.
“Clash was my frustration after End Sars and October 20, 2020. I hit the streets to protest as well and it hurt my soul how we were treated like what we were protesting about didn't matter. And then October 20, 2020 happened and I know that was when a lot of people lost faith in Nigeria and the japa wave increased by a thousand percent. The story was inspired by the Apo 6. And it is heartbreaking that stories like that are still happening. It was my way of penning my frustrations and getting a little satisfactory justice on screen with the input of the writing team.”
I like that she talks about justice here. Justice has often proved elusive for Nigerians when battling crime. Imagine how comforting it was to watch these episodes and see evildoers meet their comeuppance. Yes, it does feel like an alternate-Nigeria but those episodes brought me a measure of hope that someday, somehow, we will have a government and a justice system committed to ridding the country of crime.
Beyond this, I also appreciated how the show finds time to delve into the personal lives of the character. It's something I have quarreled with other Nollywood attempts at crime shows. They would have detectives as robots whose only concern and life’s purpose seem to be cracking cases. And so in the way that Crime and Justice Lagos is structured, we learn more about the main characters with each new episode and see them evolve.
One character whose backstory I loved was Danladi. He had grown up as an almajiri, a street kid, in Northern Nigeria and we see how that sort of upbringing affects how he interacts with children and how his emotions get ahead of him and in the line of his job sometimes.
I could go on singing praises on how this TV show works, and this isn't to say that it's not without faults, but one thing is glaringly clear: there was a commitment to excellence. Nothing makes this more apparent that the clean cinematography and production design. Each, and I mean no exaggeration here, each episode took my breath away. The careful framing and composition. And to top it all, they were not just beautiful images, the cinematography aided in the storytelling.
To conclude on how this piece began, I would just like to say that it's fine to draw experience from wherever, be it Hollywood, Bollywood, or the now bustling Korean film industry, but if you are telling it as a Nigerian story, please make it Nigerian, contextualize the character’s story and lives in a Nigerian experience.
I hope we get to see more seasons of this show from Showmax.
I really love how you write, Dika. It's the way you give away the story without giving it away, so enthralling. Now, I'm off to binge-watch Crime and Justice Lagos.