At 38, Michaela Coel occupies a rare altitude in television, equal parts auteur and disruptor. Her searing limited series I May Destroy You not only reframed consent on screen but made her the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Specials.

Now, as she circles new creative frontiers, it is worth rewinding to a younger Coel, 24, restless, and scribbling an autobiographical story that would soon become one of British TV’s most idiosyncratic comedies.

That story became Chewing Gum. But here is the modern dilemma: in an era where content is both everywhere and nowhere, where exactly can fans catch Chewing Gum today?

Despite being closely associated with the platform during its global breakout phase, Chewing Gum is not currently available on Netflix. It can be streamed on Max (formerly HBO Max) with subscriptions starting at $9.99/month, or on Peacock, where it has found a steady home for US viewers. While it is often available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, it is also accessible via the BritBox add-on channel for $8.99/month.  

The irony is hard to ignore. A series that thrived on word-of-mouth discovery, awkward, hilarious, and defiantly specific now requires a bit of digital sleuthing to locate. Across its two seasons and a total of 12 episodes, Chewing Gum built a reputation for its unfiltered voice, earning Michaela Coel a BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance. Yet today, its absence from Netflix just underscores the volatility of the streaming giant's content.

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And what exactly are viewers returning to? On the surface, Chewing Gum is about Tracey Gordon, a devoutly religious, Beyoncé-obsessed 24-year-old navigating s***** awakening in East London. But that description barely scratches the surface.

The series draws directly from Michaela Coel’s own life, evolving from a solo stage piece she developed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Performing as “Michaela the Poet” at open-mic nights, she began shaping a voice that felt conspicuously absent from mainstream British television. As she later reflected, she realized “that my voice was not a common voice in this industry”, a recognition that would become the show’s creative engine.

On screen, that voice erupts through Tracey Gordon’s singular coming-of-age, a 24-year-old shop assistant raised in a strict Pentecostal household who becomes fixated on losing her virginity to her boyfriend, Connor. What unfolds is a sequence of escalating misadventures: awkward s** attempts, misguided self-reinventions, and impulsive decisions that spiral into surreal, often mortifying consequences.

Episodes pivot from Tracey trying to reconcile faith with desire, to navigating toxic friendships, to brief, chaotic stabs at independence that rarely go as planned. Ultimately, Chewing Gum endures because it feels lived-in rather than written, a series that invites discomfort and laughter in equal measure. Now that you know where to stream Chewing Gum, the real question is whether it still lands the same way. 

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Does Tracey’s chaos feel even sharper today? Share your take in the comments.