![]() ![]() He is portrayed as selfish and fraudulent for not disclosing his sexuality, despite his sexual partner’s own refusal to read Kwame’s reluctant body language, also stating that gay men are “major appropriators of the female identity”.’ ‘…in one of his final scenes Kwame is being condemned for displaying a fake identity. In an article for gal-dem, Leyla Reynolds sums up the end of Kwame and Nilufer’s plotline as follows: When Nilufer, played by Pearl Chanda, finds out he identifies as gay she reacts furiously, claiming that his deception is equivalent to rape. He copes with the aftermath by experimentally dating a woman called Nilufer, whose demands for rough sex trigger traumatic flashbacks of his assault. Kwame is a gay man who we have seen – in one of the most disturbing moments of the series – being sexually assaulted by a man he met on Grindr. What limited negative commentary there has been about I May Destroy You often centres on a plot strand that comes to a head in this episode, regarding Arabella’s friend Kwame (Paapa Esseidu). It is hard not to wonder if Coel, who has been rightly hailed for her bravery and honesty in speaking out about sexual violence and its aftermath, wrote this as a warning to herself: do not let the acclaim turn you into this.īefore we discuss I May Destroy You’s horror strain, we must discuss how it has been received by mainstream critics. Yet as the public acclaim pours in, she becomes increasingly cold and judgmental towards her friends, addicted to the high of being seen as a moral arbiter. This episode deals with the aftermath of Arabella’s decision to go public with her story of sexual assault, which leads to her being hailed as a feminist guru. At times, she can be surprisingly unsympathetic, most notably in the ninth episode, ‘Social Media is a Great Way to Connect’. Despite this autobiographical inspiration, Arabella is not an authorial self-insert. Since its release, the series has won two BAFTAs, two Emmys and two Independent Spirit awards.Ĭoel has talked openly about how I May Destroy You was inspired by her experience of sexual assault, fictionalising it in the story of Arabella Esseidu, a hotly-tipped young writer whose world falls to pieces when she is raped on a night out. Coel is the writer, executive producer and co-director with Sam Miller she also plays the lead role. Told in twelve half-hour episodes, I May Destroy You is one of the few modern pieces of auteur television that deserves the label. Recently I belatedly watched one of the biggest TV success stories of the first lockdown, Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You (BBC, 2020). O ne of the secret handshakes that horror fans enjoy is the ability to watch or read something that’s been described as a dark drama, or a psychological thriller, or a gripping suspense narrative, and recognise it immediately for what it is – horror. ![]()
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