'In My Skin' Review: Tightrope act between tragedy and comedy defines BAFTA-winning coming of age drama
Some shows you feel protective towards -- 'In My Skin' on Hulu, produced by BBC, is one of them. It shows up with its wounds clearly on view, but laughs it off and pulls you into the joke. The tightrope act between tragedy and comedy defines this coming of age drama. It is a vividly realized portrait of life with a mentally ill parent and a violent, unstable home.
It is also an accurate portrait of surviving a hormone-irrigated high school with your ride-or-die friends, unhelpful teachers trying to be helpful and dumb jock bullies, while you are crushing on the girl with the glossy hair. And if that doesn't make your cup runneth over, the show also meanders through depictions of teenage rebellion involving 'drug and booze' escapism, sexual assault, casual homophobia, and popularity politics.
It seems too much to pull off -- there are just too many balls in the air. But the show plays with exactly that tension. At the center of it all is Bethan Gwyndaf (a brilliant Gabrielle Creevy) doing most of the juggling. Just like the title suggests, you really do inhabit her chameleon skin as her highs are immediately followed by lows -- just as surely as gravity exists. She spins lies spontaneously almost on reflex, runs from one crisis to the next while trying to carve out moments of normalcy in all the chaos. It's her mother who has bipolar "episodes" but you see it reflected in Bethan's manic grin as she tries to convince herself and others of her own boring normalcy.
Like the other damaged woman 'Fleabag', she too looks at the camera, usually to smile triumphantly after she has managed to pull off another juggling act successfully. It is only when she is alone, ignoring the camera, that the smile slips and she allows her face to rest in a blank expression of extreme weariness.
Creevy's bravura performance is supported by the rest of the cast. Trina (Jo Hartley) Bethan's mother is frequently sectioned at the local mental hospital, a stone's throw from Bethan's school. The moments between mother and daughter form the bitter-sweet core of this dramedy -- no two interactions are the same and each has something to reveal about this complex relationship. Bethan's father, Dilwyn (Rhodri Meilir), is a compulsive drunk and occasionally violent who isn't a parent at all. He brings his biker friends home, one of whom collapses in Bethan's room in one scene, forcing her to spend her night sheltering in an abandoned shed. Not only does Dilwyn not take any responsibility of Trina (or Bethan), he frequently makes situations worse like tying Trina up to a radiator to stop her from "wandering" to threatening to drive off a cliff with her. Bethan is the de facto parent in the household with occasional help from her grounded and funny Nana (grandma) played by Di Botcher -- the only island of adult stability in her otherwise chaotic home situation. These are the darker colors on the canvas.
The lighter shades that stand out even more brightly in contrast are the moments of levity she spends with her Nana and her friends, Lydia (Poppy Lee Friar) and Travis (James Wilbraham). Every time she is with them, in the park taking swigs of alcoholic cider, or making fun of the PE teacher at gym, she is born anew -- the "smart, cool, funny girl". Lydia and Travis aren't exactly stable influences in Bethan's life, especially Lydia who is mostly at home alone with her single mom gone most of the time. But they are an escape from the chaos and grief waiting at home for Bethan. And then, there are the small moments of triumph, like when she succeeds in pouring her grief into a poem that gets published or gets the whole school to vote her into the head girl position.
Finally, there is Poppy (Zadeiah Campbell-Davies) -- she of the glossy hair and the permanent girl squad whose members keep changing depending on her whims. Bethan admires her from a distance. But when her published poem gets Poppy's attention, she becomes Poppy's bestie replacing another girl. Poppy's big dilemma is that all her friends keep "falling in love with her" -- Bethan internally resolves never to show how she feels. But that is a little difficult when Poppy asks her for "cuddles" and absently strokes her palms while talking, asking "if it tickles". Cue the bisexual eye roll. Bethan also transits through a confusing period of wondering whether what she feels for Poppy is just aspirational admiration or a full-blown crush. That all changes with a kiss but then there is an abrupt brush off by Poppy, who cruelly calls her a stalker before melting away in the dark with her boyfriend.
Bethan, like a crusading warrior, takes that rejection and turns it into her head girl campaign, which is a popularity contest disguised as an election with Poppy in the clear lead. Once she wins, she channels that euphoria to also get closure for her friend Lydia by confronting the guy who assaulted Lydia sexually when she was drunk out of her mind. By the series' end, she is a clear "winner", standing up to her dad and also managing to keep her mother's illness a secret, while scoring personal victories and settling scores.
Then as she is dancing with her mother, there is a final gut-punch right at the end as gravity takes over again. The last shot is Bethan looking at the camera. Only, she isn't smiling -- she is panting in fear and shame. All you can do when the credits roll is hope that there is a Season 2.
'In My Skin' premiered in the US on July 30 and is available to stream on Hulu.