Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Mature content in powerful portrait of rape's aftermath.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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I May Destroy You
What's the Story?
Written by and starring Michaela Coel, I MAY DESTROY YOU focuses in on Arabella, a sophisticated London writer whose book about millenial feminism has won her a measure of acclaim, and a publisher eagerly waiting for her second book. Her romantic life is a bit more fraught, as Biagio (Marouane Zotti), the man she considers her boyfriend, doesn't seem to feel as strongly as she does. After a trip to visit him, she assuages her hurt feelings in a night out in a club with friends. But then there's a black hole in her memory, followed by Arabella waking up in her publisher's office with injuries and dreadful half-memories of what happened the night before. Now as Arabella slowly realizes what's happpened to her, she works to seek justice, and to find a way to live her life anew.
Is It Any Good?
This portrait of how rape affects otherwise happy lives like some kind of metastasizing emotional cancer is powerful, singular, and indelible. When we first meet Arabella, she's lingering on a sidewalk waiting for her ride share to pick her up, hinting around to her Italian boyfriend that she's love for him to make some sort of committment before she leaves for her flight. He doesn't; she accepts the blow straight-faced and immediately opens her computer, to work. We see her go home, deal with her editors, leave to meet friends at a bar where she dances and drinks until she stumbles out of the bar and into the street. Cut to the next morning; she's at her publishing house, working on her book again. Whew, looks like everything turned out fine. But then we see her phone is cracked. There's blood on her shirt. And hang on -- is that a cut on her head that's trickling fresh blood down her cheek?
The truth comes to her in brief, devastating flashbacks; in between, Arabella tries to go on living her easy, breezy life unaffected. Spoiler alert: It doesn't work. She takes solace in her friends, especially Kwame (Paapa Essiedu), a gay fitness instructor who's linked to Arabella by their shared history of sexual trauma, and in her work, where she's able to find some measure of control in writing about her experiences. It should be said that Michaela Coel, the award-winning actor who wrote and stars as Arabella in I May Destroy You, has been open about the fact that in 2016 she took a break from work to go to a bar with a friend, then woke up hours later at the office, unsure how she'd gotten there and what had happened. Later she pieced together that her drink had been spiked, and she'd been sexually assaulted. Does this give I May Destroy You a meta depth and power? It sure does. Is it simultaneously devastating and beautiful? It sure is. Should you watch? Yes.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about movies and TV shows that are based on true stories. Which can you name? How do they tell their stories of victims and victimizers? Are there any aspects of these narratives that are exploitative, sensationalizing crime rather than telling stories sympathetically? Is I May Destroy You an example of a sympathetic or exploitative story? What's the difference?
Rape is a common plot point in dramas. Why? Think of some TV shows or movies where a rape takes place. What was the point of the rape in the show? To ramp up drama? To motivate a character to do something? To increase sympathy for the victim? Another reason? What is the reason sexual assault is depicted in I May Destroy You?
How do the characters in I May Destroy You show compassion and perseverance? Why are these important character strengths?
TV Details
- Premiere date : June 5, 2020
- Cast : Michaela Coel , Weruche Opia , Paapa Essiedu
- Network : HBO
- Genre : Drama
- Character Strengths : Compassion , Perseverance
- TV rating :
- Awards : Emmy - Emmy Award Winner , NAACP Image Award - NAACP Image Award Nominee
- Last updated : October 7, 2024
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