#susannah wise

Kevin Cage of @spotlightsaga reviews… Chewing Gum (S02E03) I Just Need Some Company Airdate: January 26, 2017 (UK) April 4, 2017 (US) Ratings: (U.K. Unknown) @netflix Score: 8/10

**********SPOILERS BELOW**********

What must go on in Michaela Coel’s brain to bring us this finished product of British Excellence… Chewing Gum is like one bizarre trip after another. Yet underneath all the insanity is this really beautiful, personal, and never before seen perspective (not like this) that I simply can’t get enough of. Not everyone here at Spotlight Saga knows how to take it, at least at first… I threw it on after binge watching Netflix’s ‘Love’ and I actually got a groan from one in particular and the person basically said, 'While you guys cover this I’m going to run out and grab everyone some drinks and whatnot.’ That person never left, not until the episode was over. No matter how hard you fight it, Chewing Gum will pull you in and won’t let you go. I just thought it was hilarious that the person who was against us watching the show ended up staying around and laughing the hardest… It must be Tracey’s uncanny resemblance to Beyoncé… You know, at certain angles! 🤣

Michaela Coel continues to team up with Director Simon Neal to create both this even more outrageous 2nd Season of the show & of course this particular episode, 'I Just Need Some Company’. The result is slightly different from S1, it feels a bit more chapterized, which a lot of shows seem to be doing these days. We start the episode finding out that Connor has a girlfriend and Tracey isn’t too happy about it, referring to her as a 'hyena mixed with a camel’. Boy Tracey seems to have long gotten over Tracey and invites her to a club, that ends up being somewhere between a fetish bar and a swingers club. Meanwhile Joy’s 'Christian Ministry’ validity is questioned by a nosy councilwoman who is the definition of uptight. Of course all the characters in 'Chewing Gum’ are very much caricatures, and while this may work against other series, this approach only enhances Michaela’s over the top storytelling style.

Joy along with her brother must convince this council woman that they are a legit church worthy of their space… And Tracey, is in her feelings attempting to lose her virginity, thinking that everyone thinks that she’s ugly. Her friends tell her she’s 'niche’, which is absolutely hilarious… And while I can laugh at this, I know that Michaela Coel is great at making comedy out of important issues, embracing the absurdity of it all, yet still treating these issues with the respect they deserve… And body image for all shapes and sizes and tones and colors is something that is very much at the top of my list when it comes to real human issues.

Turns out that Boy Tracey is actually still very much in love with his cousin and this whole sex club bit was a hilariously bad, I’ll-conceived, failed attempt at gaining the attention of Tracey. This is both comforting and absolutely disgusting to Tracey all in one, especially when it ends in Boy Tracey jumping in a pool to try to stop his very first ejaculation, which doesn’t work at all… And both Tracey’s are shown swimming next to the ejaculate just floating in the pool. Michaela Coel, always pushing the limits!

No 'Chewing Gum’ episode would be complete without a heart to heart, monologue/speech to everyone in the room about whatever Tracey has learned. In this particular episode, Tracey gains a little more confidence and self respect after she learns that all the men in the club aren’t allowed to approach the women, the women can only approach the men. Michaela and women like her have probably been told their whole life that they are too dark, too angular, too this, too that… As a redhead, and 'soulless ginger’ I can identify. I was athletic in high school but it didn’t matter too much to some, because no matter what I wasn’t white or anything else… I was a 'Ginger’ and that’s all they saw. I remember a guy, who was very attractive at that time in high school, at a football game laughing at a joke I had cracked, as I always used humor as a sort of shield and an icebreaker at the same time. He finished laughing and then looked at me square in the eyes and told me, 'Damn Dawg, you are so fucking ugly.’ Hey Man, hey, right here… I’ve seen your pics. You aren’t all that, but there’s something to be said about people that peak in high school… I could pick you apart limb for limb, shorty man-child, who most would have trouble picking out of a crowd, but I don’t want anyone to feel like you made me feel that day. And anyway… Beauty is subjective. The women of color are told they are too dark… The red headed white boys are told they are too white, freckles are ugly, etc. But really, all of those people who tell you that are too anything, no matter what that anything is, are drowning in insecurities themselves. That boy who told me that in high school travels the world as a chef, and I’m willing to bet he would feel bad if he knew how much that moment affected me… But I’m telling you right now, he is the epitome of plain, he may have an exotic life in travel, but those looks didn’t last… Tho, I’m sure someone out there will eventually see whatever beauty is left in him, as there is someone out there for everyone.