***A spoiler free review***

Chewing Gum Review: “Bless Us One and All, Oh Great and Benevolent Queen Bey”

This six-episode comedy premiered in the UK on television last year, but Netflix acquired the rights to broadcast as an exclusive in other countries, and boy, am I glad. The cheeky humor, diverse cast and realistic portrayal of sex, religion and relationships (familial and otherwise) in Chewing Gum make it a sleeper hit of the season.

During American Thanksgiving, I sat down with my Netflix account determined to watch something that wasn’t a Russian documentary or hockey related, and settled on Chewing Gum. Set in the U.K. housing complex (Tower Estates), the main character, Tracy, is touted as a Beyonce-obsessed shop girl looking to get laid, which, let’s be honest, is right up my alley.

Still, the show is about more than blessed Queen Bey; there are issues of class, race, sexuality and religion that make each 22 minute episode stark and laugh-out-loud funny. Led by Michaela Coel, writer and creator of the original play Chewing Gum Dreams, the cast dives into each comedic situation with easy abandon, every episode equal parts honest and incredibly silly in it’s portrayal of a very specific community in London.

The star of Chewing Gum, Tracy, (Coel) will have you rooting for her in one breath and shaking your head at her antics the next. For Tracy, class, race, and sexuality are less important than the actions of the heart, and that’s a theme that I can get behind.

Should I Binge It?

Like I said, the episodes are only 22 minutes long. I watched in two days and didn’t even feel like I binged AT ALL.

Is this a Black comedy show? A British comedy show? A Young Person’s sex comedy? I’m confused.

 

Me too, mate. That is, until I watched the first episode. Then I was just delighted to have discovered this little gem. It’s fresh in it’s portrayal of a few different genres, so if any of those above are your thing, check out Chewing Gum.

Can I watch it with my kids?

Nope. This is written by a 24-year old woman who writes about ALL TYPES of sex, drugs and religion. I don’t want to have conversations with my 14yo, I just want to enjoy the show.

xoxo C. Diva

Fighting fascism over on Twitter and Tumblr.