#SIMON I MAY DESTROY YOU SERIES#

Without being quite Issa/Molly (from Insecure), the friendship between Arabella and Terry is a nice, sweet heart for the series, though Terry doesn’t always give Opia a clear arc to latch onto. Her intensity as a performer is captivating and I like how she uses the intensity equally for drama, where it can can feel completely natural, and for moments of comedy, when its effect is unsettling.

#SIMON I MAY DESTROY YOU SERIES#

But in a limited series like this - while HBO isn’t calling it that, there’s no reason for a second season - sticking a landing is essential and these 12 episodes resolve exceptionally well.Ĭoel also helps keep the series together as an actress. If some episodes follow plotlines that don’t make sense or aren’t fully developed, that’s valid, though it didn’t stop my interest from waning in a few episodes. Any neatness to this character or this narrative, which spreads over a year, would be dishonest, and among the myriad things Coel is going for, honesty is first and foremost.Īrabella doesn’t know what her story is and the season is about her finding that story. But it’s fascinating watching Coel on a journey that has autobiographical elements and to recognize how clearly Arabella’s insecurities about her writing and the show’s insecurities about its storytelling focus - and the seeming inconsistencies in each - are intentional.

I don’t think I would have been interested in sticking with the show if it had exclusively been about working our way through a checklist of Arabella’s awful experiences on her forgotten night. They are, for Coel, another way to make you uncomfortable or to make you wonder why one thing makes you uncomfortable and others don’t. Bodies, how they fit together and how they clash, are at the center of things. On every level, there’s a connection between consent and authority over one’s own body and a connection between that and authority over one’s voice.Īnd yes, there’s a lot to parse when it comes to the position-by-position sexuality of the series. Over 12 episodes, the series puts Arabella, Terry and Kwame through waves of sex meant to leave you wondering, sometimes second-to-second, position-by-position, how antsy the characters should be, and how antsy we should be, highlighting the different ways consent is not only related to Yes/No issues and the way memory and perspective can turn the innocuous into something insidious. What did she do? Where did she go? How did she get that cut above her eye? And what’s with the mental flashes, accompanied by ear-ringing, of a strange man looming above her in a bathroom stall? The next morning, she has gaps in her memory. Arabella’s most stable friend is Simon (Ami Ameen), in a long-term relationship and working as a banker, and he seems sketchy in his own ways.ĭucking her agents’ latest plea for a draft, Arabella goes out drinking with Simon and some people she doesn’t know. Her friends Terry (Weruche Opia), an aspiring actress too nervous to go to auditions, and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu), a fitness instructor addicted to a dating app and one-night stands, are in limbos of their own. Coel plays Arabella, a writer whose first book, Chronicles of a Fed-Up Millennial, was spawned from her Twitter musings, leaving her stymied to figure out what her second book should be as deadlines approach. The first episode sets up the series as almost a London companion piece for HBO’s terrific Insecure.

But Chewing Gum is identifiable as a certain kind of comedy, while I May Destroy You is very much not a comedy, except for when it’s very funny and even those moments usually punish you for laughing. Coel’s Chewing Gum, available to stream on Netflix, surely has some similar elements and you can recognize common authorial stamps.

It’s hard to be exactly prepared for what I May Destroy You is trying to do.

Simon i may destroy you