Sunday, February 25, 2018

Chewing Gum...



Me and the Missus are glutting on online TV boxsets at the moment and we've devoured lots of stuff, with a few standouts that are worth a mention. These are: 

Chewing Gum
I'm a latecomer to the two series of this comedy, which is set on a housing estate in Tower Hamlets and follows the misadventures of Tracey Gordon, a goofy twentysomething who's desperate to lose her virginity. She also has to negotiate a fervently religious family, an in-denial gay boyfriend, and a chaotic but loving selection of friends. 
Written by and starring Michaela Coel, who also plays Tracey, it's by turns laugh-out-loud funny and gross-out vulgar, but it's also very engaging and beguilingly touching. You genuinely end up giving a shit about most of the characters in it. It's wonderful and, at the end, is amazingly life-affirming. Coel is astonishingly good and astonishingly talented. 

Damned
The second series of this sitcom is currently airing on Channel 4, so we watched the first and it's excellent. The series, written by Jo Brand and Morwenna Banks, follows a team of social workers in a child services department. It's full of great one-liners and it's very bleak and gallows-style humour. Brand also stars alongside Alan Davies, Izy Sutie and Himesh Patel. It's very good and very funny. 

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