SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Fightland Season 1, Episode 1.
Fightland comes out swinging, but anyone who knows the Starz brand would expect nothing less. The series premiere ably fills the space that the Power universe normally occupies, providing gritty characters in a world where fighting is the only option. Its title, “The Only Round That Matters Is the Next One,” may be a mouthful but it sums up the show’s mindset near perfectly. The boxing is an extended metaphor for life.
Howard Charles plays champion boxer turned quasi-mercenary Maduka “Duke” Kilroy like the force of nature he’s supposed to be. Part of the appeal of Charles’ performance is seeing the actor who played DCI Mike Goodman so charmingly in Whitstable Pearl now very much on the wrong side of the law. Duke loses everything in a convoluted way: his affair with his manager’s wife Joy Marshall—who happens to be his lifelong crush—leads her vengeful husband Kingsley to hire two guys for a Tonya Harding-esque attack. But Duke’s brother Calvin intervenes and ends up dead for his trouble, setting Duke on a path of revenge conveniently orchestrated by a drug kingpin who finds him in prison. All of this is a mess and a fair bit of dramatic license, but it works. Because of Charles’ totally committed performance, the audience is invested in Duke’s journey no matter how chaotic it gets.
And the Fightland series premiere doesn’t skimp on chaos. With the teleplay credited to four writers, sometimes there’s a little too much going on, as if they’re all throwing in their best and biggest ideas right off the bat. Another show could have stretched some of the premiere’s plot over two episodes, instead of Duke pulling off his first drug rip for Amado Rodriguez before the fourth act. But anyone who’s watched Power will be entertained, if not necessarily surprised, by all of that. All the staples are there: the hero’s romantic subplot with someone he shouldn’t be involved with, the cartel boss he has to answer to, his slightly wayward best friend, and the different factions playing off each other. “The Only Round That Matters Is the Next One” is a buffet of crime drama that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats.
But underneath all of that chaos and posturing is the show’s true strength: its cast ratcheting up their performances from the start. They don’t take things slow either. Charles is unleashed before the credits even roll, and he never loses that feeling of barely contained rage, even when Duke is in normal conversation with his friend Jay (an underrated Tyler Conti, who is able to find room to be more than comic relief). Kingsley has gone missing while Duke was behind bars, so Fightland‘s villain is his ambitious daughter Cebella, played deliciously by Anita-Joy Uwajeh. She’s now running her father’s drug empire (his real business) and not taking crap from anyone, but she doesn’t yet know Duke is the enemy—which creates an intriguing double edge to that relationship. The charged dynamic between Charles and co-star Richard Pepple (Line of Duty), who plays Gary, even makes the estranged father and son trope feel interesting.
Fightland ends its series premiere as violently as it started, and the show will have to be careful not to just throw big fights or plot twists in for shock value. The actors are good enough that the series can thrive in more quiet moments, too. But the first episode is certainly demanding viewers’ attention with everything packed into it. There’s the mystery of Kingsley’s disappearance, the implied mystery of who fathered Joy’s son Aidan (as fans know that’s too dramatically exciting not to run with), the whole drug battle, and maybe there might be a boxing fight eventually. It depends on if Zeek (Charles Babalola) doesn’t run further afoul of his fellow promoter, played with a dry wit by The Wire alum Clarke Peters. But the fact that boxing is fourth on the list is proof of how much is happening just in this one hour.
The premiere is ambitious, stylish and full of energy. At times, it can go too big and be too hectic. But it deserves points for trying, for not once playing it safe. And it sets up more than enough plot for Fightland to play with in the remainder of the season. “The Only Round That Matters Is the Next One” is a great launching pad for one hell of a story.
Fightland airs Fridays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Starz and streams Fridays on the Starz app. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Starz.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
