‘Chewing Gum 2’ Loses (Just) a Bit of Flavour

Tracey is back, homeless and still a virgin in the second season of Michaela Cole’s sidesplitting smash hit ‘Chewing Gum.’

Though the first season ended with Tracey and her boyfriend Connor having been thrown out of their respective homes buoyed by their having each other, this season finds them busted up with Tracey begging to return to her mother’s Pentecostal home.

But first a few tasks: Hand out 1 000 fliers urging random passersby to join her mother’s church, heal the sick and speak in tongues.

Still working the crazy Christian angle interspersed with Tracey’s madcap campaign to lose her virginity, this season sees the protagonist attending sex parties and entertaining fetishes all in a bid to stamp her V-card.

While the working class, council estate setting still provides an interesting backdrop, Tracey’s obsession with losing her virginity wears a little thin.

Winning in its continued crusade of presenting flawed, hilarious and imperfect women, ‘Chewing Gum 2’ loses a bit of the first season’s spark and occasionally flirts with the problematic.

Constantly appraising Tracey’s dark skin, natural hair, big lips and wide nose as not particularly attractive especially when juxtaposed with her best friend Candice’s light skin and silky hair, ‘Chewing Gum’ draws attention to issues of colourism but does the bare minimum in downright decrying it.

With scenes involving Candice grinning because she has “long hair, light skin, no pimples” following another in which a whole room including a group of white woman imply Tracey isn’t exactly what one would call good looking, the show reinforces some tired narratives and even goes as far as incorporating a second white suitor who in the wake of Connor finds Tracey attractive particularly because she is so, well, black.

While it’s all good and well to portray and even find humour in exaggerating stereotypes, ‘Chewing Gum’ could do a little more to debunk them.

And though the sex-crazed black woman is central to the plot and to Cole’s fictionalisation of her own experience, the show goes on to present Candice, another person of colour, as not beyond having sex with her boyfriend’s father with little remorse which feeds into the promiscuous, black woman with daddy issues old chestnut.

Though the show is clearly trying to break from myriad moulds, once Tracey finally loses her virginity, it would be interesting to sprinkle in some redeeming characteristics and have her find something to think about beyond sex.

As for the ensemble, Susan Wokoma’s turn as Tracey’s devout sister Cynthia gets some welcome flesh as does Olisa Odele’s Ola who plays Tracey’s new gay BFF replete with jump into bed with strangers he met on the train stereotypes.

Still watchable, still funny, still six episodes of fearless gross out, awkward, post-break-up jealousy and hi-jinks, ‘Chewing Gum’ stays true to itself and does leave one eager to find out what’s on the way once the threesomes, parties, drugs and pure lunacy finally gets our girl laid.

The second season of ‘Chewing Gum’ is now streaming on Netflix.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.