{"id":834318,"date":"2026-07-30T22:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834318\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T22:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:01:11","slug":"fightland-review-new-starz-series-from-50-cent-is-all-jabs-no-hook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/834318\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fightland’ Review: New Starz Series from 50 Cent Is All Jabs, No Hook"},"content":{"rendered":"

In \u201cFightland\u2019s\u201d first scene<\/a>, Calvin (Jurell Carter) tells his brother Maduka \u201cDuke\u201d Kilroy (Howard Charles), \u201cThe only round that matters is the next one.\u201d It\u2019s the heavyweight title fight and Calvin, a trainer, is just trying to motivate his fighter; he needs Duke to forget about the hits he took in the previous round and focus on what\u2019s in front of him. The way he says it, too \u2014 forehead to forehead, eye to eye \u2014 implies a shared, deeper meaning between the two men. And it works. Duke delivers a crushing sequence of blows to claim the championship belt, and both brothers\u2019 dreams come true at once. <\/p>\n

When you\u2019re against the ropes (literally in Duke\u2019s case), words can take on a different meaning. What motivates a person to push past their limits doesn\u2019t have to be poetic or even coherent. It just has to put them in the right state of mind to do what they have to do. <\/p>\n

\"'Diarra<\/a> \"Dominic<\/a> <\/p>\n

But the Kilroy brothers\u2019 shared motto \u2014 invoked again later in the premiere, while also elevated as the episode\u2019s title \u2014 comes to epitomize \u201cFightland\u2019s\u201d<\/a> broader failings. Not only is the crime drama built around trite threats and goofy posturing that never pays off, but it embodies the literal interpretation of the brothers\u2019 mantra instead of how they\u2019ve come to understand it. \u201cFightland<\/a>\u201d is always hyping what\u2019s next rather than finding meaning in what\u2019s happening in the moment, which renders the action dull and its consequences empty.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that Duke\u2019s crowning achievement gets zero buildup and only lasts a few seconds. Shortly after his big win, he\u2019s attacked by two thugs in a parking garage. They break Duke\u2019s hand, and when Calvin shows up to help, they kill him. In a blind rage after watching his brother die, Duke catches up to one of their assailants and beats him to death \u2014 with a crowd watching. <\/p>\n

Cut to: eight years later, and Duke is in prison. Presumably, his excessive use of violence left a sour taste in the public\u2019s mouth, preventing a defense attorney from pleading self-defense and provocation, but it\u2019s hard to say because the details of his fate are brushed aside to better support a revenge arc. All we know is that Duke was stripped of his title and he\u2019s now trapped behind bars. He\u2019s primed and ready to explode, so naturally an imprisoned cartel boss named Amado Rodriguez (Miguel \u00c1lvarez) soon points him at a shared target.<\/p>\n

Turns out, Duke\u2019s promotor, Kingsley Marshall (Nicholas Pinnock), set up the attack because he knew Duke was sleeping with his wife, Joy (Deborah Ayorinde). He wanted to take him down a peg, and \u2014 as the U.K.\u2019s premier gambling and drug kingpin \u2014\u00a0he had the resources to do so. But now, Kingsley has disappeared. His impetuous son Zeek (Charles Babalola) and shrewd but overlooked daughter Cece (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) are running the business(es) in his absence, with the former focused on boxing promotion, the latter on the family casino, and both a bit lost in the drug trade. <\/p>\n

\"'Fightland'Nicholas Pinnock and Charles Babalola in \u2018Fightland\u2019Courtesy of Christopher Raphael \/ Starz<\/p>\n

Amado sees an opening amid the confusion. He wants to take control of the Marshall family\u2019s illicit dealings, but he knows he can\u2019t guarantee control unless Kingsley isn\u2019t just gone, but dead. That\u2019s where Duke comes in: If he draws Kingsley out of hiding and kills him, Amado gets an empire and Duke gets his revenge. <\/p>\n

So Duke agrees, gets out of prison (again, who knows how), and returns to his old life. His father, Gazzer (Richard Pepple), is still bitter over Calvin\u2019s death, but he lets his other son sleep in the spare room. His childhood best friend, Jay (Tyler Conti), remains fiercely loyal, but his comparatively sound morals keep him at arm\u2019s length from Duke\u2019s latest pursuits. And then there\u2019s Kim Harper (Tahirah Sharif), a new ring girl who has her eye on Duke, even though his heart still belongs to Joy.<\/p>\n

They all play their parts to stir up \u201cFightland\u2019s\u201d stock melodrama, complicating Duke\u2019s mission by making him doubt its imperative. But creators Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan & Marlon Smith, as well as Damione Macedon & Raphael Jackson Jr. (\u201cPower\u201d), can only feign an ethical conflict, at best, since they cherry-pick which brutal killings Duke should regret (or even question). <\/p>\n

The series uses Duke\u2019s boxing background solely as an explanation for his superhuman ability to murder people. When he bludgeons his brother\u2019s killer with his bare hands, or kills a convict held hostage in a cage, or shoots an innocent accomplice who\u2019s in the wrong place at the wrong time, there\u2019s no allusion to what started him down such a troubling, violent path, nor are we meant to question his heroic framing. He merely did what needed to be done\u00a0\u2014 to get what he wants, and to fulfill \u201cFightland\u2019s\u201d quota for bloodshed.<\/p>\n

It sure as shit isn\u2019t going to get there with sanctioned fights. <\/p>\n

For a series selling itself as a boxing drama, very little time is spent in the ring, and none of it honors the sport nicknamed \u201cThe Sweet Science.\u201d (Boxers just land and absorb hits when the story needs them to, rather than win with a strategy or lose because they were outsmarted.) This is a crime drama, through and through, built around blunt-force action scenes and braindead emotional logic. If the former were anything better than brutal, over-edited montages (set to some of the dullest music to ever populate an action soundtrack \u2014 thanks, 50 Cent<\/a>!), or the latter was enlivened by actors who could internalize menace instead of merely imitating it (although Charles proves to be a serviceable lead), \u201cFightland\u201d might be a darkly satisfying drama.<\/p>\n

As is, you\u2019re stuck waiting for a next round \u2014\u00a0the only one that matters \u2014 that never comes.<\/p>\n

Grade: D+<\/p>\n

\u201cFightland\u201d premieres Friday, July 31 on Starz<\/a> and the Starz app. New episodes will be released weekly through the finale (Episode 8) on September 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In \u201cFightland\u2019s\u201d first scene, Calvin (Jurell Carter) tells his brother Maduka \u201cDuke\u201d Kilroy (Howard Charles), \u201cThe only round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[7246,64,63,802,254173,229,85,45158,427],"class_list":["post-834318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-50-cent","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-fightland","tag-reviews","tag-sports","tag-starz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}