Barrio sin ley

This series opens with a fast and dark sequence of action scenes, giving a semblance of a promising start, but instead of building on this start, Shanty Town delves into a laden exposition that masks as the crux of the plot. This series never regains the thrill and urgency that the opening scene has.

Shanty Town is all about the male gaze, and is shameless in its portrayal. Female characters are degraded and objectified, and the excuse of it being a true attempt at showing the lives of sex workers is flimsy at best.

Shanty Town also employs gore and violence, but this isn't done to promote the plot, but is provided for shock factor. It's almost as if the creators decided to shoe in as much violence as they could fit in.

The plot of Shanty Town is a shabby patchwork of various stories and subplots that only help propel the runtime but not the story. Shanty Town trails to a very unsatisfactory end, with copious plotholes.

The only saving grace of Shanty Town is in its brilliant cast. Chidi Mokeme, Ini Edo, Nse Ikpe Etim, Richard Mofe Damijo, Nancy Isime, Shaffy Bello, and others try their best with the poorly developed story they were given to work with.

Shanty Town can best be described as a meal ruined by having too many cooks, the cooks in this instance are the towering subplots and themes that were incorporated.