Chewing Gum (episodes 1-3, 2015)

Rating: 3/5

I have… mixed feelings. On paper it all seems great, yet I quit watching after three episodes due to the immense second hand embarrassment I got. Chewing Gum is a British comedy that frankly discusses sexuality, with a diverse cast, set on an estate in England. It’s written by and stars Michaela Coel, with the premise of the main character Tracey escaping the religious indoctrination of her early years and discovering herself in her 20s. 

Right off the bat Tracey just wants to get laid. She’s been with her boyfriend for six years but he’s waiting for marriage and wants to pray all day, obviously. Tracey recruits her friends for help on how to seduce him, but is simultaneously experiencing an attraction to a mysterious poet who lives on the estate. 

Honestly I think this show was just too cringe inducing for me; I spent 70% of my viewing experience with the laptop half closed and internally wincing. Yes, I know this is a comedy but I still wish they had addressed the awkwardness of late bloomer sexuality with a little more nuance - something that involved less of Tracey in her pyjama pants climbing onto her love interest’s face and thrusting because her friends told her to. It just feels a little like a missed opportunity to show, in a comedic context, the vulnerabilities of opening up to another human after being closed off for so long. 

I think it’s possible to have the comedy and the sincerity, and this show leans very far towards the comedy. So if you want a lite™ cringe-inducing comedy then this is great. I personally just wish there had been a little more depth in the humour and characters.

But I will say kudos though, because never on a TV show have I seen women humorously discussing the unrealistic expectations men have of women from porn, “it’s fucking piss babes,” one woman yells while complaining about how her boyfriend is convinced he’s going to make her squirt one day. And that’s how I’ll end this review, on the debate of whether squirting is piss. Enjoy! 

This article first appeared in Issue 12, 2017.
Posted 1:11pm Sunday 21st May 2017 by Saskia Bunce-Rath.