I May Destroy You | Series | Telescope Film
I May Destroy You

I May Destroy You

Critic Rating

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User Rating

  • United Kingdom,
  • United States
  • 2020
  • · 1 season
  • · 30m

Creator Michaela Coel
Cast Michaela Coel
Genre Drama

Set in London, where gratification is only an app away, the story centers on Arabella, a carefree, self-assured Londoner with a group of great friends, a boyfriend in Italy, and a burgeoning writing career. But when her drink is spiked, she must question and rebuild every element of her life.

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What are users saying?

Asia Cureton

I can not rave about this show enough. This is the show I've been looking for. In the enormous array of tv shows aimed at young adults and millenials, there is something missing. And it's Black representation. This show checked all of the boxes. In my opinion, this show is the perfect show for Black girls growing up in the age of technology and social media. Michaela Coel is a GENIUS. The writing. The acting. The cinematography. Everything is amazing. The characters feel so real, and I felt myself crying along with them and laughing along with them, and few shows make me feel that way. I loved seeing how racism and sexism functioned in British society. As an American, I definitely loved how the show explored Black british culture, which is definitely not represented in American media that often. Even though, the show has only been running for a season, it has definitely turned into my favorite TV show of 2020, and dare I say, of all time.

Hannah Benson

I can't wait for the second half of the season to be released in the US. I love watching a new episode each week. Michaela Coel is such an interesting writer and actor. This show is partially autobiographical and addresses specific issues of racism and sexism within the writing world. In addition to Coel, the entire cast is great. Excited to see more!

What are critics saying?

100

Slant Magazine by Pat Brown

At once hyper-local and global in its concerns, I May Destroy You feels eminently contemporary, a necessary artistic distillation of a distinctly modern form of life.

100

Washington Post by Hank Stuever

In an instant, a show that at first seems to blend the best elements of “Fleabag,” “Euphoria” and “Insecure” takes a serious swerve in an emotionally startling direction. ... Nearly every moment here is worth unpacking. ... At its considerable heart, “I May Destroy You” tells a striking story of transformation.

100

The Guardian by Lucy Mangan

It is, in short, an extraordinary, breathtaking achievement without a false note in it, shot through with humour and with ideas, talent and character to burn at every perfectly plotted turn.

100

The Independent by Isobel Lewis

No TV show has ever shown the complexities of sexual assault and how it affects survivors, their friends and their communities quite like this difficult, harrowing and hilarious drama.

100

Salon by Melanie McFarland

"I May Destroy You" is the artist ascending to the next level by mixing comedy and pain together in a strange, harrowing, and vitalizing soup. ... Coel's writing and the command of filmic artistry somehow prevails over the what reads as a such corrosive sadness. It's a testament to her skill that "I May Destroy You" manages to be funny and tender in all the right places, fearlessly cuffing viewers to discomfort, be it her character's and her own, in others.

100

The Daily Beast by Laura Bradley

The show’s greatest triumph is how thoroughly and intuitively it expresses the difficult themes at its center. Sometimes it’s sad; sometimes it’s gut-wrenching; sometimes it’s improbably funny. What remains consistent is that through it all, it’s impossible to look away.

100

IndieWire by Tambay Obenson

“I May Destroy You” is moving and, despite the subject matter, at times very funny. It should inspire plenty of conversation about very sensitive subject matter with ever-increasing complexities. It marks bold new territory for Coel, who’s operating at a level unmatched among her peers.

100

New York Magazine (Vulture) by Angelica Jade Bastien

The direction is lucid, employing a camera that is both curious and kind. The writing is striking for its willingness to delve into uncomfortable territory without ever flinching from the emotional bramble at hand. But what I keep coming back to when I think of I May Destroy You is Coel’s performance. ... It is through Coel’s tremendous performance that the wrenching complications of healing from sexual trauma are seen clearly in the light of day, with an honesty and complexity other series could learn from.

91

The Playlist by Andrew Crump

The beauty of her work will captivate you; her portrait of the devastation wrought by sexual assault’s fallout may destroy you.

90

Time by Judy Berman

I May Destroy You stays on the right side of the line between providing context and shifting blame by telling an uncommonly holistic story. ... This degree of complexity would’ve been enough to distinguish the show from hundreds of earlier representations of sexual misconduct. Remarkably, though, it grows even more ambitious as it continues, without alienating viewers by deploying academic buzzwords or condescending lectures. ... More than the story of a woman who was raped, Coel is telling the story of how a writer living an unexamined life comes to know herself.