It takes a while before she’s willing to admit that her drink might have been spiked and she may have been sexually assaulted. The next morning she’s still typing but she’s got a cut on her forehead, and a fuzzy head of splintered memories of her drinking session. During that night she takes a break and meets pals for a drink. As the story opens, she’s leaving Italy, having gone there to finish her second book, which is due any day but she hasn’t actually written, beyond some notes and jokes.īack in London she’s obliged to pull an all-nighter at her publisher’s office to produce something to satisfy them. She gets stopped in the street by fans and has a wide array of hip young friends.
She’s Black and has dyed her hair a distinct pink. The focus is on Arabella (Michaela Coel, star/creator of the British cult hit Chewing Gum), who has written a bestselling book about her millennial experience. Written by and starring one of Britain’s best young actor/writers it goes to places that will make some viewers uncomfortable.
#I MAY DESTROY YOU CREATOR CROSSWORD TV#
I May Destroy You (Sunday HBO, 10:30 p.m.) was originally made for BBC TV and has already stirred some controversy about its methods of approaching the issues of consent. It concerns consent and sexual assault, told in a way that’s more like protracted human experience than conventional drama. But it’s potent and urgent in a way that’s compelling and admirable.
#I MAY DESTROY YOU CREATOR CROSSWORD SERIES#
It’s not an easy watch, the big-ticket new series this weekend.
Michaela Coel wasn’t going to let us get away.Please log in to bookmark this story. In I May Destroy You, pain and catharsis exist in equal measure, a lesson about life that we far too often try to run away from. That’s not just in terms of the bold, careening ways it charged into topics like consent, sexual assault, responsibility, and revenge, but in how no one-not Cole’s character Arabella, not her perpetrator, not her friends, not the culture, not the viewer, not even Arabella herself-is let off the hook. It took some fortitude on the part of even her most admiring viewers to watch each episode each week, the rare case when you could tune into a new installment of a TV series and legitimately have no idea where its creator was going to take you. The series was inspired by Coel’s own experience being drugged and sexually assaulted at a bar, forced to piece together what happened. What creator and star Michaela Coel accomplished with the series is nothing short of miraculous. You’ll see I May Destroy You at the top of many critics’ best-of lists, and that’s exactly how it should be. But it is The Real Housewives of Potomac, anchored by an explosive physical altercation between two cast members, that has bordered on a perfect season of reality TV, centering that scandalous fight into a fascinating conversation about friendship, trust, anxiety, and, most importantly, race and what it means to be a Black woman in the public eye. The recent premiere of a Salt Lake City-set season may have been the most universally praised episode of Real Housewives ever. These series have become masterpieces of TV editing, their stars have become breakout comedians in a meme-crazed world, and the content is in-step with the broader issues of the real world in ways much of scripted television can’t cover. If you’re surprised to see a reality show, let alone a Real Housewives entry, on a list of the year’s best series, then I demand to know how you gained access to a time machine from 2011 when that kind of discourse was still remotely relevant. What it’s meant in terms of the diversity of experiences finally being reflected and voices being heard is another, a tide-shift inextricable from the movements of the moment. The successes and failures of all that new content is one story. The explosion of streaming services is as big a disruption as there comes to Hollywood. They’re changing culturally and they’re changing in the industry. The truth is, at a time of isolation, TV is what kept us connected, whether it’s texting, tweeting, and Zooming with friends about popular binges or providing us with an intimate lens on the ground at one of the most consequential and invigorating times in modern history: alongside the activists in the Black Lives Matter protests and in support of the essential workers fighting COVID-19.ĭespite being stuck in the same place for so many months on end, it’s hard to shake the feeling that things are changing. It was also our biggest enemy, beaming footage of that candy corn-colored demon and his incessant tantrums into our living room 24 hours a day. It was our closest friend and most valued confidant, rescuing us from pandemic despair and loneliness, alternately charming and challenging us as we weathered the Groundhog Day of ennui and angst these last months. What is there to say about TV in the year 2020?
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