I May Destroy You and I Hate Suzie are among a wave of shows casting off cliches to show their protagonists as complicated, contradictory – and human
If I Hate Suzie is an experiment in stress contagion, it is an unmitigated success. Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble’s new Sky Atlantic drama opens with the titular popstar-turned-actor learning she has won a career-changing Disney role, swiftly followed by the news that photos of her performing oral sex are circulating online. Moments later, a swarm of frantic strangers descend on her country pile to set up an increasingly bad-taste photoshoot. Her reaction? To lock herself in the toilet and defecate loudly.
I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel’s superlative BBC series, is full of unforgettable moments – not least the scene in which the protagonist, Arabella, has her tampon removed by a new squeeze, who proceeds to examine a blood clot between his fingertips. Yet a couple of scenes earlier there is a sight even more surprising for its off-handedness: Arabella casually sticking a sanitary towel into her knickers.
