I May Destroy You · Season 1 · Episode 1 · 7 June 2020
S1E1 Eyes Eyes Eyes Eyes
THE MOMENT The gap in Arabella's memory - the missing hour that the series will spend twelve episodes mapping.
The premiere establishes Arabella's world - her friendships, her creative life, her social confidence - and then puts a crack through it. Coel's script moves between timelines without announcement, and the formal instability mirrors the subject matter precisely. The viewer is disoriented in the same way the protagonist is.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
I May Destroy You premiered June 7, 2020 on BBC One and HBO simultaneously, earning its place in the series' 97-percent Rotten Tomatoes score from 72 critics. Michaela Coel's pilot establishes Arabella's world - the friendships, the creative life, the social confidence - with such specificity that when it puts a crack through it, the damage registers. The script moves between timelines without announcement and without explanation, a formal instability that mirrors its subject: the fragmented memory of trauma. The Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus called the series 'at once brave and delicate, untangling trauma with dark humour and moments of deep discomfort, held together by Michaela Coel's undeniable talent' - and the premiere is the first evidence of the dark humour and the discomfort existing in the same scene.