The first episode of I May Destroy You is out on Disney+ Hotstar premium, and has already left some wondering if it is the “
best drama of the year
.” Co-produced by HBO and BBC, I May Destroy You has been created, written, executive produced, and co-directed by Ghanaian British and writer and actress Michaela Coel, where she also plays the protagonist. So here is a lowdown on all that you need to know about the show, and what to expect out of it. [caption id=“attachment_8463931” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]
A still from I May Destroy You. Twitter[/caption] What is it about? Dubbed as a “
sexual consent drama
” by various publications, I May Destroy You is about the events of a particular night_._ The protagonist, Arabella, is a young, dynamic Black woman who goes out one night to let off steam, but returns home with a cut on her forehead, a broken smartphone, and a vague recollection of a man forcing himself on her at a restroom. The rest of the series follows her journey as she remembers parts of the night, trying to process what happened to her. The show will also deal with systemic racism and the hook-up culture among other things. What happens in the first episode? The first episode sees Arabella, returning home to London from a trip to Italy. She is a burgeoning writer, who made waves with her first book ‘Chronicles of a Fed-Up Millennial’ — a collection of tweets from her feed. The trip was supposed to fuel the writing of her second book, but it ended up being a meet-up with her long-distance boyfriend(?). She has a thriving social life, and in the first episode, she smokes joints, snorts coke, and does shots, as she struggles to meet her deadline of 6 AM the next day. Haplessly trying to string together a respectable manuscript, she allows herself an hour of grace. She goes out to meet her friends, but decides to stay sober. This is followed by Arabella sitting inside her literary agent’s office, who tells her that her manuscript is “strange”. Startled, she goes through the manuscript to remember what she jotted down in a moment of frenzy after her night out. The episode ends with her sudden recollection of a man raping her. Cast Apart from Coel, I May Destroy You also features Weruche Opia as Terry, Arabella’s best friend and a struggling actor, Paapa Essiedu as Arabella’s best friend, and Marouane Zotti as Biagio, Arabella’s boyfriend. Where to watch it? The first episode released on 8 June on Disney+ Hotstar premium. There are 12 episodes in total, and one episode will be out every week on Monday.