I May Destroy You, the new BBC One/HBO drama executive produced, written and co-directed by British star Michaela Coel is now available on Showmax and 1Magic every Wednesday night. Michaela also stars in the show.
Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, known professionally as Michaela Coel, is an English actress, screenwriter, director, producer, and singer. She is well known for creating and starring in the sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017), for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance. She is also know for her guest starring in the series Black Mirror (2016–2017), starring as Kate Ashby in the series Black Earth Rising (2018) and starring as Simone in the film Been So Long (2018).
Michaela plays Arabella, a carefree, self-assured Londoner with a burgeoning writing career, a group of great friends, and a boyfriend in Italy. But when her drink is spiked with a date-rape drug, she must question and rebuild every element of her life. I May Destroy You was sparked by Michaela’s own experience with sexual assault. In 2016, while hammering out a deadline on the script for Season 2 of Chewing Gum, Michaela took a break and met up with a friend for a drink. Her next clear memory is of “coming to” at her desk, writing in a fugue state. It wasn’t until she discovered her phone was smashed and she began having flashbacks that she started piecing together the events of the night and learned that her drink had been spiked with a date-rape drug.
According to Michaela “Through my personal story, I realised how common consent being stolen from you was. From pretty early on, I instinctively wanted to document it so one day I’ll be able to look back and try to forge some meaning, so it isn’t just a scary blob of senseless crime.”
I May Destroy You will be available every Wednesday on Showmax at 22:30, after it airs on 1Magic. All 12 episodes will be available to binge on Showmax from 11 November 2020.
The trailer for I May Destroy You is available below.