Normal People
As COVID cases surged and the UK entered its second month of lockdown, Normal People hit our screens and almost immediately became a sensation. I was warned by a friend that this was absolutely not a show to watch with your parents, and for good reason – the show features many up-close intimate scenes that could make for excruciating family viewing.
But Normal People also depicts sex with honesty and sensitivity. When they first get together, Connell and Marianne have an open conversation about consent. “If you want me to stop or anything, we can obviously stop,” Connell says. “It won’t be awkward.” The show took on an online life of its own too – @connellschain on Instagram has nearly 180 thousand followers, while sales of silver chains shot up. Do you think the British public might have been a bit intimacy-deprived by this point?
Read our review of Normal People here.
Emily in Paris
I could say many things about Emily in Paris, in which Emily (Lily Collins) relocates from Chicago to Paris for work. For one, it was near-universally panned by critics. Its fashion choices were ridiculed. And its stereotypical portrayal of French people was borderline offensive. But in spite of all that, no one could resist it – and it’s been renewed for a second season.
Journalist Kyle Chayka aptly described the show as “ambient TV”. In other words, it was undemanding, predictable, and we could look at our phones while it played in the background. “It’s O.K. to look at your phone all the time, the show seems to say, because Emily does it, too”, said Chayka. Thank you, then, Emily in Paris, for making us feel better about the obscene amount of screen hours we’ve all been clocking up this year.
Read our review of Emily in Paris here.
I May Destroy You
I May Destroy You, written and directed by Michaela Coel, addresses sexual assault, consent, race, friendships and social media in brilliantly nuanced and intelligent ways.
BAFTA-winning Coel recently appeared on a podcast with Louis Theroux; I was in awe of the way she vocalised her thought process. Potentially contentious topics were addressed with nuance and delicacy, and she was open to being wrong. It’s with this same subtlety and respect for the grey area that each topic is portrayed in I May Destroy You. In a world where black and white bipartisanship is increasingly the norm, Coel is a voice of reason.
The show follows Arabella, played by Coel, who is sexually assaulted on a night out and struggles to cope with it over the following months. But while Arabella is the lead character, she is never the show’s unambiguous hero. Just like everything else in I May Destroy You, Arabella is ambiguous, frustrating and complex.
Read our review of I May Destroy You here.
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