I May Destroy You Review: A Powerful Witty Drama On Sexual Assault By Michaela Coel On HBO And BBC

Following her acclaimed and brilliant comedy series Chewing Gum comes Michaela Coel’s newest gem, I May Destroy You. A coproduction between HBO and the BBC, the series premiered on Sunday June 7 in the U.S. on HBO, and is available to view from Monday June 8 on the BBC iPlayer in the U.K.

Inspired by Coel’s own experience, the twelve-part series of 30-minute episodes tells the story of Arabella whose drink was spiked one night out with friends before being sexually assaulted.

Arabella is a writer in her early thirties, deemed the voice of her generation after receiving online acclaim for her piece “Confessions of a Fed-Up Millenial,” based on her Twitter account. The series begins in Italy as Arabella says goodbye to her Italian lover, who is unwilling to commit beyond their casual hook-ups. Upon her return to London, her publishers ask her to hand in the newest piece she was supposed to work on in Italy by six the next morning. Arabella must now pull an all-nighter to finish it in time.

Words do not come, however, as she stares at her computer. She decides to take an hour out of her work to join friends for drinks. She wakes up at the office the next morning, with a cut on her forehead bleeding, and confused. At the meeting with her publishers, who politely call the piece of writing she handed in “abstract,” it is clear she has no idea what it is she wrote. As she tries to go home, she is completely disoriented, unable to find her way home. An enthusiastic fan of hers helps her to a taxi. When she arrives home, the image of a man on top of her flashes in her mind as she touches the doorknob to her bedroom door.

The series is cleverly written so that the audience experiences what it feels like to wake up from a memory black-out. Everything is told through Arabella’s point of view. Nothing is thus shown of the night in question. Images of her, staggering, falling to the floor as she struggles to open the doors out of the bar, are abruptly cut to an image of her back in the office writing on her computer. Her phone’s screen is smashed and there is this cut on her forehead. We witness Arabella’s disorientation that lasts the whole day after. We discover with her, every new element confirming what she and we, the audience, already suspected with that first image of a man on top of her.

The series shows with such powerful frankness, Arabella’s disbelief and denial in what her fragmented memory is telling her. She first bases her flashes of memory on what a YouTube video explains are fabricated images the brain creates. At the police station, though, for the first time the series reveals the bruises on her body, and she is forced to face the truth. The moment in the police station when Arabella realizes what happened to her that night as she reports the fragments she remembers to the policewoman is most moving.

The assault forces Arabella to reassess her life, and the following episodes will show how she deals with the trauma. The series does not solely focus on Arabella, but also later on her two best friends, Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu), and their own experience of sexual consent and assault.

Chewing Gum already revealed Michaela Coel to be a singular voice, but I May Destroy You confirms it further. Coel created, wrote, executive produced, co-directed, and stars as the pink-haired Arabella in this beautifully powerful series that explores the traumatizing effect of sexual assault. Sam Miller (Luther) directed the first three episodes and codirected with Michaela Coel the remaining episodes.

I May Destroy You balances between humour and drama in such an extraordinary effective way that makes this series so unique. The second episode airs tonight in the U.K. on BBC One. Episodes will air on Mondays and Tuesdays on BBC One.