This weekend I’ve watched 3 episodes of #IMayDestroyYou and all of #SittingInLimbo. These pieces exist in their own right and are both *extraordinary*. One thing that struck me watching them is how nuanced, complete & real the black men in them are.

These men love, cry, hurt, fail, succeed. Some cause damage and some have damage caused unto them. They exist within social ecosystems - circles of friends and families. They are sometimes vulnerable. They remind me of my uncles and my cousins & I feel protective of them.

I never see black British men like this on tv. If I see black male vulnerability, it *has* to be coupled with criminality. A black man can’t just be vulnerable. The only exception to that I can think of is black families on soaps? But I’m not even sure on that one.

And then there is the way both shows allow for the full picture of trauma to unfurl in their characters - not trauma as a sexy plot device, but showing how messy and layered its impact is, whether it lives in race, class or sexuality. How it affects individuals and groups.

So I might need to watch some silly frothy tv now to counteract all this heavy, proper stuff - and that’s cool - but I am *mighty* happy to keep paying my tv license if @BBCiPlayer promise to keep commissioning this kind of challenging, beautiful, intersectional tv.