“To Kill a Monkey” Has Big Ideas, But Can’t Quite Hold Them Together

Kemi Adetiba’s “To Kill a Monkey” arrives with the kind of hype that naturally follows the creator of “King of Boys.” 

From the start, it’s clear the series wants to do something different. There’s ambition, style, and a strong cast. But as the episodes roll on, it becomes just as clear that the story struggles to carry the weight of its own promise.

We’re introduced to Efemini “Efe” Edewor, a brilliant but struggling young man played by William Benson. He’s a first-class graduate with no real job, a young family he can’t provide for, and dreams that feel increasingly out of reach. Benson brings a quiet, convincing desperation to the role. Efe is a man trying to stay honest in a system that rewards the opposite. When he reconnects with his old friend Oboz (Bucci Franklin), who’s knee-deep in cybercrime, the tension begins to build. Efe doesn’t jump into the life—he resists it, struggles with it. But hunger has a way of breaking principles.

The early episodes work well. They show us Efe’s life in detail: stealing Wi-Fi to teach himself coding, mourning a child lost to poverty, facing humiliation at work. These moments feel real and grounded. You understand the choices he ends up making, even if you don’t agree with them. The setup promises a strong moral drama about how poverty pushes people into crime.

But just when the story should dig deeper, it skips ahead. A sudden four-year time jump fast-forwards through Efe’s rise in the cybercrime world, leaving us with only the before and after. We’re told he built a powerful AI-based fraud system—but we never actually see it. The show sets up a world we expect to explore, then moves right past it.

This missing middle section leaves a gap the rest of the series never fills. Instead of watching Efe transform, we’re handed exposition and consequences. It’s a major storytelling flaw in a show that’s supposed to be about how people change under pressure.

Still, the show has its strengths—especially in the performances. Bucci Franklin’s Oboz is more than a typical street hustler. He’s cocky and reckless, but also vulnerable in ways you don’t expect. The bond between Efe and Oboz is one of the show’s best parts. You believe these men care about each other, even as their partnership starts to rot from the inside.

Bimbo Akintola also delivers as Inspector Mo Ogunlesi, a police officer battling PTSD while trying to bring Efe’s gang down. Her storyline, though well-acted, often feels like it’s running on its own track. She has some standout scenes, especially with her partner Onome (Michael O. Ejoor), but her character’s lines get repetitive. She’s constantly making sweeping statements about what “people like Efe” or “people like Onome” mean for Nigeria. After a while, it stops sounding insightful and just feels heavy-handed.

One of the show’s main issues is how much it relies on characters explaining everything. Instead of letting moments speak for themselves, people talk through their motivations, backstories, and plans. What should be tense or emotional scenes often become monologues that drag.

The technical side of the show shows real effort. The score by Oscar Heman-Ackah adds depth, though it sometimes overpowers the scenes. The visuals, especially in Oboz’s flashy world, look sharp and expensive. But again, the details can’t cover for what’s missing in the writing.

Some side characters stand out. Stella Damasus plays Nosa, Efe’s wife, with restraint and warmth. Her scenes with Benson give the story much-needed emotional grounding. The same goes for the friendship-turned-rivalry between Efe and Oboz—it’s where the show’s heart really lies.

There are also important ideas at play. The series talks about poverty, corruption, the pressures of modern Nigeria, and how crime can look like survival. These themes hit close to home. But the delivery often falls short. Important events happen offscreen, and new characters—like a crime boss called Teacher (played by Chidi Mokeme)—pop up more as plot tools than real people. Mokeme does his best, but the writing gives him little to build on.

At its core, “To Kill a Monkey” is about friendship, ambition, and the slow erosion of morals in a broken system. And that does come through—especially in the performances by Benson and Franklin. But the show’s structure constantly gets in its own way.

By skipping the key part of Efe’s journey and leaning too much on exposition, the series loses the very transformation it set out to explore. It’s a show full of talent and good intentions that doesn’t fully land. There are moments that work, solid acting, a few emotional punches, and sharp social commentary but they’re buried under uneven storytelling.

“To Kill a Monkey” wants to say something important. It just forgets to show us the part we came to see.

Release Date: July 18,2025

Episodes: 8

Runtime: Approximately 1 hour per episode 

Streaming Service: Netflix 

Directed by: Kemi Adetiba 

Cast: William Benson, Bucci Franklin, Stella Damasus, Bimbo Akintola, Ireti Doyle, Chidi Mokeme, Lilian Afegbai, Teniola Aladese