Curator Watchlist
A vital, formally ambitious anthology that blends historical drama with intimate character studies. It is less a conventional binge than a set of powerful standalone films, with the strongest entries making it essential viewing for anyone interested in Black British history, social realism, and prestige filmmaking.
53% (5,914)
Where to watch: Amazon
2020 · ★ 53% (5.9K)
We are the small axe.
An anthology series of five stories looking at the lives of a group of friends and their families in London’s West Indian community from the late 1960s to the early 80s.
Lammas Park, Turbine Studios, EMU Films
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A vital, formally ambitious anthology that blends historical drama with intimate character studies. It is less a conventional binge than a set of powerful standalone films, with the strongest entries making it essential viewing for anyone interested in Black British history, social realism, and prestige filmmaking.
Small Axe is best understood as a five-part anthology of feature-length films rather than a standard series, and that format is central to its power. Steve McQueen uses each story to examine a different facet of London’s West Indian community, from police harassment and institutional racism to music, family, education, and political resistance. The result is uneven only in the way any anthology can be, but the highs are extraordinary.
The standout chapters are widely considered to be Mangrove, Lovers Rock, and Education, each offering a distinct tone and emotional register. Mangrove is the most overtly political and historically significant, Lovers Rock is a transportive celebration of Black youth culture and communal joy, and Education is a quiet, painful look at systemic exclusion. Even the more restrained entries contribute to a larger portrait of resilience and dignity.
This is not comfort viewing, but it is deeply rewarding. The pacing is deliberate, the filmmaking is meticulous, and the series rewards attention to detail, atmosphere, and historical context. If you value television that feels cinematic and culturally consequential, Small Axe is absolutely worth your time.
Another visually ambitious, historically charged work that treats its subject with cinematic seriousness and moral force.
A searing limited series about institutional failure and injustice, with the same urgency and emotional weight.
A character-driven social drama that finds dignity and specificity in working-class struggle and family survival.
For viewers who appreciate emotionally layered, auteur-driven television that is patient, ambitious, and thematically rich.
A polished, cinematic British drama with meticulous period detail and a strong interest in social and institutional power.
A serious, issue-driven limited series that turns systemic harm into compelling, human-scale drama.
Intimate, restrained, and emotionally precise, with the same confidence in quiet observation and lived-in detail.
For its unmatched institutional critique, community perspective, and patient accumulation of social meaning.
A tense, morally serious limited series about systems, prejudice, and the human cost of accusation.
A vibrant ensemble drama about marginalized communities, chosen family, and cultural self-definition.
A stylish British period drama that blends politics, institutions, and personal stakes with elegant pacing.
Black British history, West Indian diaspora, institutional racism, community resilience, social realism, family and identity, policing and protest, youth culture
historical drama, anthology, social realism, prestige TV, political, cultural identity, London, 1970s, cinematic, drama