Thursday, November 3, 2016

Chewing Gum Season 1 Netflix Series Review

Chewing Gum (2015-)
Season 1 - 6 episodes (2015)
Chewing Gum Season 1
Watch Chewing Gum on Netflix
Created by: Michaela Coel
Starring: Michaela Coel, Robert Lonsdale, Danielle Walters
Rating: --/R

Plot
In this Netflix distributed series, Tracey is a sheltered, sex obsessed twenty-four year old that wants to discover what she's been missing.

Verdict
I watched the first two episodes. It's a gender switch on the sex obsessed male teen comedy trope. Tracey wants sex more than anything, but knows nothing about it, not even basic concepts because her religion and mom have sheltered her. It's over the top humor at the expense of Tracey's ignorance. The first two episodes rely on the humor of Tracey's making out with a boy for the first time and confusion as to how the morning after pill works.
I've seen two episodes, and don't care to continue, but that's not because this isn't funny. It's just really silly, and that is absolutely the point. This is like an adult oriented, sex obsessed Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, with a similar silly type of humor. My favorite gag was when Tracey realizes long after the audience her boyfriend is gay.
It depends.

Review
This sex comedy relies almost fully on Tracey's awkwardness, ignorance, and desire for sex. She wants to have sex with her boyfriend, but since they're both saving themselves for marriage, it's a conflict.
Instead of the sex obsessed male teen trope, this is a twenty-four year old woman who is basically a child. It's wild and over the top, asking us to believe that her extremely sheltered upbringing means she hasn't grown up like most people. In essence she's twelve.

Tracey just wants sex, despite her religion forbidding it before marriage. Her boyfriend Ronald doesn't seem to like her and we find out why in episode two in a hilarious gag.
It wasn't until she saw her boyfriend's male nurse and all of the "sexy" Jesus posters on his wall that she realized they will never work out. That was a great bit.

The humor is often silly, like when Tracey wants a morning after pill despite not actually having had intercourse. She admits to the pharmacist she really needs the pill after an evening with her new boyfriend because she "touched it a bit."
She relies on a back alley drug dealer to sell her a bunch of nothing that does the trick, in Tracey's mind at least.

Her ignorance extends past sex to the world, as her naivety leads her to believe very silly things, despite her worldly wise best friend who tried to point her in the right direction.
Tracey is unbelievable sheltered and extremely enthusiastic.

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