Television series
Chewing Gum
Chewing Gum is Michaela Coel's riotous, filthy, tender comedy about Tracey Gordon, a virgin exploding out of her strict religious upbringing on a London council estate. It breaks the fourth wall, breaks taste, and occasionally breaks your heart between the chaos. Watching it feels like being dragged along by a friend having the best and worst night of her life. Not for the easily embarrassed.
If you liked this
Fleabag2016
Same trick of talking straight to camera while your life falls apart around you, same appetite for sex as chaos rather than romance, same gift for finding the joke inside the wreckage.
But Cooler, sadder, more London-arty — if you wanted Tracey's warmth you might find Fleabag's irony a little chillier.
Derry Girls2018
Swap council estate for Catholic Derry and you get the same gang-of-outsiders energy, religious guilt played for huge laughs, and a heroine whose desperation to be normal keeps backfiring spectacularly.
But Gentler and more nostalgic than Chewing Gum's rawness — less sex, more slagging matches and school uniforms.
Sex Education2019
British, horny, painfully earnest about the gap between what teenagers think sex is and what it actually is — the same collision of ignorance and desire that powers Tracey's every disaster.
But Slicker and more American-inflected in its optimism; the mess here gets tidied up more neatly than Tracey's ever does.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Tuca & Bertie2019
Same fourth-wall-breaking anarchy and refusal to separate comedy from real anxiety about bodies and sex, just rendered in cartoon form instead of council-estate concrete.
Two bird-women best friends navigate anxiety, bodies and sex in a surreal cartoon world that breaks its own rules constantly — animation lets it get stranger and more emotionally direct than live action ever could.
But Animation might feel like a hard pivot if you came for Chewing Gum's grounded, sweaty realism.
More like this (8)
I May Destroy You2020
Coel's next show, and the serious cousin of this one — same restless camera and refusal to look away, but turned toward trauma, consent and identity instead of horniness and hymens.
But Much darker and heavier; if you came for jokes about Beyoncé you may not be ready for where this one goes.
This Country2017
Mockumentary cousins Kerry and Kurtan bring the same feral, bored, small-town energy as Tracey's estate — funny because it refuses to be sentimental about where these people are stuck.
But Rural Cotswolds boredom instead of urban chaos — quieter, drier, and without Chewing Gum's manic visual invention.
Girls2012
Another young woman narrating her own humiliations in painful close-up, convinced she's the main character of a story that keeps refusing to cooperate with her plans.
But Brooklyn privilege instead of estate scrappiness; Hannah's self-absorption can grate where Tracey's naivety stays endearing.
Broad City2014
Filthy, joyful, unapologetically horny best-friend comedy that treats bad decisions as a form of entertainment rather than a cautionary tale — pure chaotic sisterhood energy.
But New York stoner comedy rather than council-estate realism; less at stake, more consequence-free silliness.
Pure2019no page yet
A young woman fleeing a religious upbringing straight into a minefield of intrusive sexual thoughts — same collision of faith, shame and desire, played with real tenderness underneath the awkwardness.
But Only six episodes and less widely seen; the comedy leans more anxious than riotous.
Crashing2017no page yet
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's scrappy first show, cheap and cheerful, about twenty-somethings squatting in a disused hospital — same DIY energy and willingness to embarrass its characters completely.
But Rougher edges, smaller budget, less assured than the shows that came after it — including this one.
Georgy Girl1966no page yet
Proof that the naive-woman-colliding-with-sex-and-self-image comedy Chewing Gum reinvented has been running since the swinging sixties, just with different slang and a lot less Beyoncé.
Sixty years before Tracey, another big-hearted, unconventional young British woman stumbled through sex, self-worth and men who didn't deserve her, in a film that's funnier and sadder than its reputation suggests.
But Black-and-white, mid-60s pacing and manners — it will feel genuinely old, not retro-cool.
American Honey2016
Same engine as Chewing Gum — a young woman breaking out of the life she was handed and discovering her own hunger — but told straight, without a single laugh line.
A much more serious sibling: a young woman escapes a dead-end life and discovers her own desire and independence on the road with a crew of magnetic strangers, shot with real tenderness and grit.
But Two and a half hours of slow, sun-bleached drama with almost no jokes — a completely different register.
People
Cast
Writing
- Michaela CoelCreator
Production
- Jon RolphExecutive Producer
- Michaela CoelExecutive Producer
- Nana HughesExecutive Producer
- Gayle CopeLine Producer
- Rachel AlabasterLine Producer
- John PocockProducer
- Kelly McGolpinProducer
- Michaela CoelProducer