Watercooler Pick
I May Destroy You
- Series
- Where to Find It: HBO via Max
- Rating: TV-MA
- Release Date: 2020
- Seasons: 1 Season
- Episodes : 12 Episodes
- Length: 30 Minutes
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Arabella is on top of the world, a young London-based writer enjoying her first tastes of success, when someone slips a drug in her drink at a club. In the aftermath, she soon finds herself questioning everything in this surprising and conversation-worthy British comedy-drama.
Created by and starring Michaela Coel, who broke out when she created the award-winning British television series Chewing Gum (2015–17).
It won the Emmy for outstanding writing, and Vanity Fair called it the “undisputed show of the summer.”
And yet I May Destroy You‘s episodes are only 30 minutes long, the length of comedies, and the show is set against an escapist back drop: mesmerizing dance clubs, glamorous trips to Ostia, handsome Italian boyfriends, and a sunny version of millennial life in London.
But the story pivots when Arabella’s thoughts are interrupted by flashbacks from a night out drinking with friends. The viewer is left to process what happened as she does, in fragments, doubts and denials. What unfolds is a series that explores power, consent and exploitation in its many forms—and from many different points of view, including that of the falsely accused.
As Tom Long from the Detroit News explains it, I May Destroy You “can be shocking, it can be fun (which is also somewhat shocking), it can hurt and maybe even heal.”
An addictive, provocative, and timely series to watch that challenges how we think and feel about our own relationships.
Find a friend to watch this one with—you’ll likely want to talk about it afterward.
Rape is at the center of this series, and some (consensual) scenes are graphic.
Go deeper:
How Michaela Coel Broke the Mould with “I May Destroy You.” At the centre of I May Destroy You is a message of compassion, encased in themes of sexuality, trauma, class and race. — British GQ
- Moods: enlighten me, make me laugh, stretch my mind
- Interests: conversation worthy, edgy, fresh perspectives, international, psychological drama, single life
JR Atkinson
