If you are looking to binge-watch a funny, hilarious and filthy series I highly recommend you to watch the British sitcom “Chewing Gum”, and I bet you’ll have a lot of fun. The story centres on Tracey Gordon, a 24 years old British girl, who comes from a religious, traditional and restricted family upbringing, and wants to explore the world. She has a boring life working as a sales assistant in a mini market and off-licence and lives in a council flat in London, with Joy, her mother with an African and Pentecostal backgrounds who owns a church, and her sister Cynthia, a naive, anxious and godly young girl.
Tracey’s conflict is that she wants to lose her virginity, but Ronald, her snobbish, manipulative and toxic boyfriend for six years hasn’t even laid his hands on her body. So, Tracey decides to follow her best friend’s piece of advice: have sex. Candice, Tracey’s best friend, is a sexually liberal and open-minded young woman, who lives with her granny Esther and her boyfriend Aaron. Tracey decides to have sexual experiences before marriage and then, she embarks on her disastrous sexual and romantic adventures in search of losing her virginity. On her way, she comes across unique characters like Connor, Ash and Trace.
The sitcom was created, written and starred by Michaela Coel who is a multitalented artist who developed the series based on her acclaimed play “Chewing Gum Dreams”. The series was released in October 2015 and aired on Channel 4. It received positive reviews and established Coel’s career as a writer and actress. Season 2 was released in 2017.
The series deserves the praises it’s got because it’s beautifully written by Coel who captivated me with her witty, ironic and satirical and outlandish humour, situations, plot twists and dialogues. “Chewing Gum” deals with controversial topics and taboos such as sex, racism, machismo, Christianity, social inequality, xenophobia, homophobia, working-class urban lifestyle, and absent fathers and dominant mothers in a visceral way, but using the satire and the sarcasm.
She makes fun of herself, our postmodern society, and everything surrounding her with great mastery and intelligence. Her performance as Tracey is histrionic and quirky, but it goes well with the TV programme.
“Chewing Gum” is worthy of attention. Give it a try! I watched seasons 1 and 2 quickly. I guarantee fun!
