***SPOILER ALERT***

Michaela Coel returns to our screens with her new drama, I May Destroy You, a series about millennial author, Arabella, who comes round from an evening out with a complete hole in her memory of what happened. The unique comedy-drama explores the grey areas surrounding consent in both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, specifically when sexual conduct takes place under the influences of alcohol and drugs.

The series opens in Italy where we see Arabella leaving Biagio, her non-official boyfriend, to return to the UK. The shots that follow depict Arabella’s personality: fun-loving, expressive and possibly even a bit wayward. With a book deadline looming, she sets up in her office for the evening but is quickly enticed out by friends on an evening out which results in a blackout and a sexual assault, though Arabella doesn’t initially remember this.

As the series progresses, a single flashing image of a man in a toilet stall thrusting flickers onto our screens, intruding whatever sequence of events is unfolding at that time, representing Arabella’s inability to escape the memory. Fear is represented. Panic is represented. But most of all, trauma is represented, particularly through Arabella’s mutterings to calm herself: “There’s a war in Syria, there’s a war in Syria”. At times, the drama is uncomfortable to watch, particularly as Arabella starts to realise something awful has happened. One moment of discomfort is created through the starkness of the hospital setting as she has samples taken from her which is balanced against the casualness of another sexual assault victim as she asks Arabella: “first time?”. We’re met with the harsh reminder of the commonality of sexual assault.

Additionally, through the character of Kwame (played by Paapa Essiedu), a fitness instructor and Arabella’s close friend, Coel explores both the topic of sexual assault in hook-up culture but also in a homosexual relationship. Initially we witness Kwame meeting a stranger in a supermarket toilet for sex, free, confident and daring. However, after hooking up with a stranger from a dating app and being sexually assaulted almost immediately after, Kwame’s vulnerability is exposed. The parting shot comes from his assaulter, “what can I say? I’m a bad boy”, underplaying the situation and reinforcing the power he has over Kwame, not just in terms of his ability to overpower him physically but to shatter the sense of control Kwame had over the situation. The easiness of sex and the pursuit of hedonism that are the embodiment of hook-up culture are expressed through this storyline in a way that hasn’t been previously done before.

There’s also Terry’s storyline, Arabella’s best friend. We learn that whilst on holiday with Arabella in Italy, Terry took part in a threesome with what she assumed were two strangers. Through a flashback style episode, we witness Terry observing them leave from the window and seeing the two men fist bump, suggesting a prior relationship. Feeling duped and betrayed, Terry stays confined to her room when Arabella asks if she wants to join her in going out stating “we’re still busy”. Though the sex was consensual, would things have been different had Terry known the men were working together?

The acting by Michaela Coel and Paapa Essiedu also make the show incredibly compelling. Both actors are able to move fluidly between different emotions in a believable and often uncomfortable way. Coel’s depiction of Arabella, the morning after her assault with a clownlike smile on her face, as she sits with her publisher, is both discomforting and a piece of brilliant acting. Similarly, Essiedu is able to display Kwame’s confidence and how it quickly becomes marred by a sexual assault.

#FLODown: Ultimately, I May Destroy You is a powerful series that is likely to keep us hooked until the final episode. It is not just the gripping subject matter and the questions it raises around consent that will keep us watching, but the excellent acting and the quirky comedic moments.

New episodes air every week on Monday and Tuesday on BBC. You can also catch up on iPlayer.

Words by Emma Chadwick