ain't that the truth!?

 So the series has come to an end and like so many I was waiting with baited breath to see how she (Michaela Coel) would bring the tale of rape, sexual mores, social media, contemporary culture and communication in the 21stC to a conclusion.

SPOILER ALERT: 

I am discussing the last two episodes here and if you haven't watched it through then do not read further. The 12 part series relies upon not having heard it happening seen the denouements unfold, not being aware where we will go from one week to the next WAS the story.

 The finale was satisfying I have to say but no surprises curiously and it felt to me as if Michaela had been pressured to wrap up some aspects of the storyline in little bows, budding actor Terry's debut appearance finally on TV (played by the brilliant Weruche Opia) and the celebration of the 'book' launch "published independently" cocking a snook at the publishers who dropped 'Bella' towards the end.   . . . . a little bit too much 'and they all lived happily ever after'. 

Yet I forgive Coel this as frankly after such an extraordinary journey I would pretty much forgive her anything. Not least the trials of writing about real life events FFS! Just that 'obvious' wasn't where I expected to be left. So many viewers will have wanted to see her revenge in all it's violence, doing to her perp the same as he did to her . . . . . . 

At the least I wanted a 'darker mirror' ending to the journey she had been on, if a Black Mirror style twisting wasn't available. The storylining on post-its across the wall missed an opportunity to play with the fourth wall and leave them pursuing the stories spilling out in a plethora of endings writing themselves across the wall and the outcome as Arabella leaves us as we realise she has finally overcome her demon and exits the apartment to finally face the day as her life continues and her strength and sass prevails over the perpetrator now reduced to pathos. The writing of the ending to her 'book' as we went along was a clever brush stroke but under used IMHO

The several versions of endings seemed a tad trite and that's ok, I can enjoy trite but she missed a trick there I reckon. What was it three or four endings? What about hundreds?! How would you televise that? Just my idea I admit but it all seemed so  . . . . neat! Had she had an actual session with Charlie Brooker and not the fictional 'Della' [the Zain character so ably portrayed by Karan Gill] they would have come up with better than the story where the baddy gets beat up by Bella, the one where she finds him crying for forgiveness, the one where she has dominant sex with him and 'pegs' him? All well and good but a tad obvious for me . . . . . . . something darker, something weirder was what the previous maze like journey demanded of us. 

But heck actually that is all small stuff really . . . . I would watch it all over again and will. It was simply a tour de force all the way through and well done for allowing her 12 episodes to explore this thought provoking, 'ground breaking' and shape shifter of a drama.

where will Michaela Coel go from here?

 Wherever she goes next you'd better watch out!

'I MAY DESTROY YOU'

MICHAELA COEL

The penultimate episodes of Michaela Coel's shapeshifting, groundbreaking, zeitgeist smashing, new series [The Guardian called it "game changing", which it is IMHO - an entirely new style of writing, new style of drama not seen before; a 21stC whodunnit, how dunnit, what the actual frick is going on ennit!] were broadcast last week (can two of something BE penultimate? Or is it just a singularity thing? . . . . . scratches head . . . . . you SEE what she's done to me? I question everything now!!) and despite the elaborate costumes and dressing as the devil (with operational wings!) the storyline was again to throw us a curved ball as they say, understated and quiet, somehow. So tonight the last two episodes are broadcast and I am such an old fogey I am waiting to watch them (both) when broadcast on terrestrial TV and hope no-one blows the whistle on quite who is destroying who, who is destroyed and what the actual . . . . . . (sic!) They were both released this morning at 6am (who does that? and why?) Genius, but am testing my self control to watch in the traditional manner and am not entirel sure how I am managing to do that!

SPOILER ALERT: she threw another questioning ball at us in the penultimate two and Arabella faced the accusation herself of enabling a dangerous event, requiring apology for something she has previously seen as 'funny' the locking of someone in a room with someone because YOU thought they should get together and the 'victim' needed closure, an apology, the understanding that what Arabella had done was 'wrong' and 'dangerous'  . . . . it contained racial stereotypical goofs that were beyond unforgivable (referring to someone on a form as Afro-Caribbean when they are not. Her character Arabella, is of African origin. The form does not allow for that description so the pompous doctor sits complacent in his ignorance not MY fault safety) etc . . . . the playfulness continued but we were lulled somehow, into a sense of false security or something approaching it as the flashbacks look ever clearer and whilst I have no assumptions about what the denouement will be, at least tonight we will be looking for more clues, more info and ultimately some sense of closure always bearing in mind that Coel's position all the way through is that life ain't like that! . . . . . we shall see.

'What's she doing now? . . . . . . . 

What so like I might be guilty too? . . . . . . 

Recently on television there was some prime time Black, dare one say it, BLM styled, drama. After the wonderful Patrick Robinson in the heart felt and rage inducing ‘Sitting In Limbo’ about Anthony Bryan and one man’s experience of the simply horrifying Windrush scandal, I then watched the breathtaking Michaela Coel in the debut of her ‘I May Destroy You’ which she writes, directs and stars in a so far terrifying, humorous, shocking and challenging new style in contemporary drama.

After the side splitting ‘Chewing Gum’ comedy series (which she also wrote and starred in) which made me ill with laughter, she went on to tackle a serious role in ‘Black Earth Rising’ which proved to us all she could really extend her acting range seemingly effortlessly and as if overnight we really sat up and noticed this extraordinarily beautiful young woman. This latest outing for her skills is challenging stuff mind and SPOILER ALERT looks like getting more serious as we delve deeper. ‘I May Destroy You’ continues on BBC (yes okay I grant you occasionally the Beeb get it right and this was all headed in the right direction for sure) each Monday and Tuesday and simultaneously the two episodes are released jointly on iPlayer

The harrowing truth is that the story here is based on autobiographical fact as I discovered only today  and as reportedly happened towards the end of Michaela working on 'Chewing Gum' when she was date raped, sexually assaulted by someone who drugged and took advantage of her. I found this fact alone difficult to deal with [as I am sure she did and then some] but what does someone like this extraordinary woman do? Why she spends the next two and half years basing her next piece of writing upon those very acts! She is if nothing else extraordinarily tough! 

It has resulted in one of the most unique works I have ever experienced, it is little short of a writing masterclass and in fairness to give her 12 episodes is brave and clever and the result is perplexing, fascinating and funny and at times overwhelmingly powerful. The shift in narrative perspectives is quite unique from week to week and double episode at a time and for this watcher an avid fan of Coel anyway, staggeringly shocking and powerful. I am trying not to give away too many spoiler alert aspects as again as a trend goes each week the next two episodes are shown on respective Monday and Tuesday nights alongside streaming on the BBC iPlayer. 

There are episodes that shift and change gear without faltering. The dialogue of certain episodes alone is so clever as to be at once hypnotic and shocking. The casual approach to drug taking, to sexual encounters and the unflinching attention to detail. The millennial's approach to culture, black and otherwise, is extraordinary as it exposes its shallowness and at once the fashionability of the social media creative control and contemporary 'hip' culture, black, white, Asian or otherwise! 

Is it rape if a man during sex with you, a female, removes his condom half way through? (It's even a 'thing' called 'stealthing' the things you learn these days from listen to Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4!) Forcing you to take the morning after pill against your will but because someone has had non-consensual sex in that way? The sex act was desired but not in that manner. The answer is 'yes' it is. 

There are sub-plots that twist and turn and explore so called grey areas also. Is it rape between two men if you have had sex just prior to procuring a three way if the dominant male desires to 'go again' but you don't wish to? Again the answer is yes, yes it is!

Anybody sticking with the series is in for a mind jolting ride because SPOILER ALERT it set a new benchmark in drama for me uneasy shifts between theme and venue, drama and plot, the episode where she causally finds herself on holiday from much earlier out of sequence is a trip up technique and the dotting around in time a device here used to great affect but it’s not for the nervous (or squeamish where the female monthly cycle is concerned! (Yes men I’m talking to you!!) quite extraordinary, groundbreaking, a breathtaking exploration of consent, race and millennial life involving casual hook-ups, even more casual attitudes to drugs, blow, coke, MDMA, pills generically and of course the use of rohypnol by predators and the facts of life writ large in all their unflinching detail.

Last nights episode (6 The Alliance) concerned itself with a sudden flashback to school days where youngster's burgeoning sex and lies were treated as casually as the now former perpetrator of a sexual assault tells a lie (truth honesty and lies are returning motifs) who now runs a group for the victims of such that our character went to school with and the black pupils do their level best to take immediate revenge upon. It took a moment to work out exactly what was going on as many episodes have curiously and intentionally I reckon. 

The shift in truth telling, what has happened what constitutes rape EXACTLY what is sexual assault if consent has formerly been given, is it different for men, is it different for gay men? are the mechanics different if you have taken drugs? Are the partial aspects different for women than men, for all of us!? All different takes are addressed and leave us thoughtful, occasionally drained of emotion and troubled but along the way we have been encouraged to laugh and find certain characters however shallow curiously endearing, we are falling in love with many and finding some intensely irritating.

Just as the more delicate and romantic 'Normal People' seduced us with the beautiful youngsters and became a benchmark for the lack of ability to talk about how you feel, 'I May Destroy You' takes it up a notch and explores how, and even if we can communicate after we have taken a raft of substances and lashings of alcohol, if one of them turns out to be rohypnol, if we cannot hardly speak and make sense to ourselves let alone anyone else including our closest friends. What exactly has happened here?

I for one am reeling with the dramatic twist and turns, it has challenged me and made me think, I am reeling with the contemporary aspect of a different world for this sad old white man. But boy has it made me sit up and take notice!

Tour de force doesn't quite cover it. 

Chalk and Blade - I May Destroy You podcast

BBC iPlayer i-may-destroy-you

Digital Spy - I May Destroy You Review