Boarders (2024) review

Boarders (2024) main characters, from left to right: Toby, Jaheim, Leah, Omar and Femi.

I just finished watching the first season of Boarders (2024), a BBC show about five Black scholarship students joining an elite private school in order to help with a reputation problem. It was a bit short, as shows tend to be these days, with only 6 episodes of 40-ish minutes each. But I really enjoyed the story and I hope it'll be renewed soon! As it's not a netflix original, I have a good feeling about it... 

The show follows the story of five students as I said, Leah, Toby, Jaheim, Femi and Omar. Each of them got a scholarship thanks to their teacher, Gus, and they're all smart and have a strong suit in, at least, one area. Leah is a really good pianist and a strong advocate against anti-Black racism and misogyny. Toby is a linguistics prodigy and knows how to make a quick cash. Jaheim, who really knows how to deal with computers and such, just wants to get by. In the same manner, Femi just wants to be part of something, of a group, and also fears that his parents will send him to Nigeria if he doesn't get straight As. As for Omar, he's a talented artist, who's also really passionate about the School's history and its mysterious secret society. 

There are also lots of other characters, filling the lives of our protagonists with dramas, antics and growth. My favourite might be Abby, Xiang and Dilton. I liked Beatrix and Mabel, too. It's interesting to see how these private school students act with novelty and how their views change after putting everything in perspective. Many of the characters are really, really insensitive, mean-spirited or plainly just racists, but they have room to grow. While it's not my place to speak about this subject as I'm not Black myself, I still found it quite interesting. I loved the setting and the premise for this story. I liked that every character is flawed but they all have the space to make mistakes and to learn from them. It shows a lot about how prejudices can hurt others. 

My favourite character might be Toby, solely because he's the kind of characters I tend to gravitate towards. I love that he acts really nonchalant, fearing to be taken seriously, when he might be the smartest of them all. He's so afraid of thinking about his potential that he tends to sabotage himself. I believe he can really grow even more and become someone that others can rely on. He was so scared of commitment that he fumbled all he had with Abby. He loses himself in lies and secrets because he can't fathom the idea of asking others' for help. I really like him! 

Close behind Toby, there's Omar. His story-line with the Raisinettes was one of my favourite. He's just such a great character! I liked to see his growth, too, and how he stood up for himself at the end. It was well-deserved. I really want to see more of him and his story. I loved that his relationship with Dilton was not going as quickly than the others', I believe it made it all the more realistic. And I really like that his homosexuality was far from being the main point of his character. There's no scene of coming out, no talks of how it could affects him. It's just a part of him and it's really refreshing when it happens. When queerness isn't the sole focus of queer characters! 

I also really enjoyed Leah, Jaheim and Femi's storylines. I believe they're the ones with the most flaws but they still learn from their actions and become better persons and I liked seeing that. Especially Leah! Her arc was so interesting and I'm glad she got what she wanted, and deserved, in the end. I'm glad she made good friends along the way! I really, really, love her friendship with Abby! They're so, so cute together and it made me so happy that they both had so much to share with one another. 

As for the worst characters in my opinion, it has to be Tesco Counterfeit Timothee Chalamet and his fuckass mommy. I hate them both sooooooo much!!!!!! I was scared that they'd try to redeem him and I'm still a bit scared of it happening later on in the story but, yeah, I see no point of redeeming him. I get that he's just a kid in a way but he's still a little bitch. He caused so much pain to Jaheim and Omar! Especially since the later really tried to be his friend or, at least, to be on friendly terms with him. But in the end an asshole stays an asshole. And don't get me started on his fucking mom oh my god how I hated her! Ugh...

Anyway, this is barely a review, more of an afterthought. I wanted to talk about it since I really enjoyed it! Like I said, I really hope there'll be a second season. I'd like to see more of these characters and their stories. I'd give four stars for the characters and four stars for the story! It was pretty good but I believe there are still some things that deserves to be a bit better.