The To Kill A Monkey review reveals why this 2025 Netflix series delivers genuine tension and moral complexity. Kemi Adetiba’s masterful direction transforms familiar cybercrime territory into something genuinely gripping and emotionally resonant.
What happens when you combine financial desperation with the most dangerous temptations of easy money? You get psychological crime thriller perfection. To Kill A Monkey (2025), directed by Kemi Adetiba, stands as one of the most compelling cybercrime dramas in recent Netflix original history. This intense eight-part series follows Efemini, a struggling everyman whose life spirals into darkness after an old friend introduces him to the lucrative world of cybercrime. While the series operates on familiar crime thriller territory, it succeeds because it never exploits its premise—every moment of moral compromise and character deterioration is handled with complete emotional authenticity.
Synopsis
Efemini is a down-on-his-luck family man facing mounting financial pressures and dwindling opportunities in Lagos. When basic survival becomes increasingly difficult, a chance encounter with an old friend opens the door to a world he never imagined entering. The friend introduces Efemini to cybercrime, promising quick money and easy solutions to his overwhelming problems.
What begins as a desperate attempt to provide for his family quickly transforms into something far more dangerous and morally complex. As Efemini becomes increasingly skilled and successful in his new criminal endeavors, he finds himself facing impossible choices between his values and his circumstances. The series follows his transformation from honest struggling father to someone willing to compromise everything he once believed in, while the consequences of his decisions threaten to destroy not just his life, but everyone he loves.
Plot & Themes
To Kill A Monkey operates on a devastatingly complex premise: sometimes the most profound moral corruption begins with the most understandable motivations. The cybercrime setting serves as both criminal backdrop and metaphor for exploring deeper questions about desperation, integrity, and the price of survival in modern society.
The series’ genius lies in its careful balance between crime elements and character development. When Efemini faces increasingly difficult moral choices while trying to provide for his family, the show never treats his internal struggles as secondary to the criminal action. These moments work because Adetiba understands that true tension comes from emotional investment in the character’s impossible situations.
Thematically, the series explores how economic inequality can create moral minefields and how good people can make terrible choices when pushed to their limits. Efemini’s journey isn’t just about cybercrime—it’s about discovering how quickly desperation can erode the values we thought were unshakeable.
Cinematography & Visuals
The cinematography captures the contrast between Lagos’s vibrant energy and the dark underworld of cybercrime with visual techniques that serve both the thriller and emotional elements perfectly. The visual style emphasizes the contrast between Efemini’s ordinary family life and his increasingly dangerous criminal activities, using natural lighting and intimate camera work to create mounting psychological tension.
The series excels in building suspense through environmental storytelling. The sequences showing the cybercrime operations and their sophisticated networks demonstrate excellent use of contemporary technology as both tool and trap. The camera work holds on meaningful moments of moral conflict and family tension just long enough to create genuine emotional investment.
Technical details reward careful viewing. During crime sequences, attentive viewers will notice how Efemini’s growing expertise and confidence in illegal activities parallels his increasing emotional distance from his family and former values.
Acting & Characters
William Benson delivers a compelling performance as Efemini, anchoring the series with his portrayal of a man finding skills he never wanted to possess. His character arc from desperate father to skilled cybercriminal feels authentic and earned rather than forced. Benson brings both vulnerability and growing hardness to the role.
Bucci Franklin provides excellent support as the old friend who introduces Efemini to cybercrime, bringing both charm and dangerous influence to his scenes. His chemistry with Benson creates believable friendship dynamics that make the moral corruption feel organic rather than manipulative.
Stella Damasus rounds out the core cast with a performance that balances family loyalty with growing suspicion. Her scenes during the most tense moments demonstrate genuine fear and confusion while maintaining character consistency.
The supporting cast, including Bimbo Akintola and the ensemble, brings authenticity to the Lagos setting without falling into stereotype, creating believable characters facing real economic and social pressures.
Direction & Screenplay
Kemi Adetiba’s direction maintains perfect tension throughout the series’ eight-episode runtime. Coming from her experience with the King of Boys franchise, Adetiba understood that cybercrime series require careful pacing that builds moral complexity without sacrificing character development. Every revelation and criminal escalation sequence is given space to resonate emotionally.
The screenplay layers tension at multiple levels:
- Character development that explores economic desperation authentically
- Cybercrime elements that feel researched and contemporary
- Family dynamics that build naturally from the situation
- Moral beats that never feel manipulative or oversimplified
The script’s structure follows crime thriller conventions while subverting them through genuine character deterioration. This creates familiarity that makes the unexpected moments of moral compromise and family strain land with greater impact.
Sound & Music
The series’ score perfectly balances contemporary Lagos sounds with underlying tension to create an audio landscape that mirrors Efemini’s psychological journey. The music enhances rather than overwhelms the natural drama of both the family and criminal elements.
Sound design plays a crucial role in building suspense. The way technology sounds shift from helpful to threatening, and how family conversations become increasingly strained as secrets multiply, creates an immersive experience that places viewers directly into Efemini’s increasingly complicated world.
The use of silence deserves particular recognition. Key moments of moral decision-making and family confrontation are allowed to breathe without musical manipulation, trusting audiences to connect with the characters’ emotional reality through performance alone.
Conclusion & Verdict
To Kill A Monkey succeeds because it treats its cybercrime premise with emotional intelligence and respect for both the characters and the real-world issues driving their choices. Every element—from performance to cinematography to sound design—works in service of both suspense and moral complexity without sacrificing either.
Strengths:
- Exceptional lead performance that creates believable moral deterioration under economic pressure
- Authentic Nigerian setting and cybercrime elements that feel researched and contemporary
- Excellent pacing that builds tension while maintaining character focus
- Thoughtful exploration of economic inequality and moral compromise through action rather than exposition
Minor Weaknesses:
- Some cybercrime elements feel slightly technical for general audiences
- Occasional pacing issues in middle episodes slow family development briefly
This series remains essential viewing for crime thriller fans and anyone who appreciates character-driven morality tales. To Kill A Monkey works for audiences who enjoyed Ozark, Better Call Saul, or King of Boys.
Rating: 8.5/10
Director: Kemi Adetiba
TV Rating: TV-MA (for mature themes, language, and criminal content)
Starring: William Benson, Bucci Franklin, Stella Damasus, Bimbo Akintola
For more crime series reviews, check out our analysis of other Netflix original series. You can also explore the series’ production details at the Internet Movie Database.
