![]() For some of us Black Brits who are navigating our way through creative circles, watching characters like Arabella along with her friends is more life affirming than you can imagine. There is terror sprinkled throughout, but the characters never become stereotypes or caricatures. I expected to see these Black characters in the very worst situations. There were moments in the show where I did genuinely fear for the lives of the characters, simply due to the conditioning that I’ve had. These obviously do exist in some capacity, but not to the extent where it’s the be-all and end-all of every Black person’s experience. Shows like ‘Atlanta’, Issa Rae’s ‘ Insecure‘ and importantly here in the UK, ‘I May Destroy You‘, provide a blueprint for people of colour to create shows for themselves outside of the realm of stereotypes.īlack stories have always carried an undercurrent of dread, or are limited to the same gritty struggles. To this day, it is simply all too easy for Black characters to fall into stereotypes. Whilst a simple fact like this may seem trivial, it really is a change from numerous other shows that depict Black women. She’s imperfect sometimes you root for her, sometimes you cannot stand her. Her messiness is so real, and the drama showcases her as both an anti-hero and downright self-involved and narcissistic. Despite this, it examines on a lot of universal aspects of life. Arabella’s journey to recovery feels deeply personal, and sometimes watching the show you’re completely lost in her world. He noted that while Seinfeld may have been described as a show about nothing, I May Destroy You was truly a show about everything. In August, Coel appeared on the American show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, with titular host Noah drawing an analogy between her show and the comedy classic Seinfeld. The way the episodes are layered makes the balance between comedy and drama seem so effortless. Just like her E4 show, laced through this plot is some astounding comedic timing and plenty of belly laughs. This is Michaela Coel, and as we saw in her earlier television effort Chewing Gum, she is extremely funny. It all may sound extremely heavy, and it is, but not relentlessly so. Whilst we witness her exploration of the event and its aftermath through the series, Coel also manages to examine class, drug use, privilege, colonisation and decolonisation, infidelity, racism, sexuality, family, friendships, and the intricacies of how all these things make up a person’s life. We follow her and her friends Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu) as she navigates life after a rape. It stars Coel as Arabella, a young and successful writer based in London. At its core, the show is a drama about consent that investigates different types of sexual assault. Unapologetically almost all-Black, the show infuses pulsating personal intimacy with a brilliant honest exploration of Black millennial life. That’s the astonishing feat creator, writer, co director and lead actor Michaela Coel and her team managed to pull off. Within twelve twenty-minute episodes, an immensely relatable universe is created. Everything that I thought I knew about black representation in television was challenged the rulebook was thrown out and a new road paved. I was therefore shocked, midway into I May Destroy You, when I realised I was watching something truly groundbreaking. These highlight shows and movies that showcase the talent of people of colour, though you could argue that their hands have been forced by the events of the last year. Netflix are now curating new content categories such as “Representation Matters” and “Black Lives Matter”. I wasn’t completely wrong, as since then, these platforms have led the way on LGBT and ethnic representation. I even wrote an opinion piece in 2014 about how exciting it was to see streaming services like Netflix and Amazon thrive, due to their inclusivity. Naively, these last five to seven years, I thought Black representation in television had gotten better. Read our review of I May Destroy You here.
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