Some guys have all the luck, while others find themselves as a 13-foot-tall young black man navigating post-Trump America.
To top it off, the protagonist of I’m a Virgo is blessed with the name Cootie - which I think The Simpsons taught me is the US equivalent of the lurgy (depending which primary school you went to).
The Prime Video series has been described as an absurdist comedy but Virgo is impossible to pin down and label. Writer/director Boots Riley, best known for the 2018 black comedy film Sorry to Bother You, is allowed complete freedom here to achieve his vision by borrowing from every genre imaginable and finding a new space entirely.
In a world where shows are typically green-lit only if they can provide instant gratification, Virgo sticks out as a concept like Cootie does in a room of average sized people. The formative opening scenes show the giant baby being cradled by his Aunt Lafrancine (Carmen Ejogo) and Uncle Martisse (Mike Epps) - without any explanation - and next thing we know the now 19-year-old Cootie (Jharrel Jerome) is accidentally destroying their relatively tiny home. Oh, and Oakland, California, where they are based, is policed by an ethically-dubious caped crusader called The Hero. Yep, that’s just a background detail.
We don’t (initially) find out about any daddy issues, or whatever other skeletons are in a giant closet, and the narrative picks up in the present day where Cootie is being protected within the walls of his adoptive family home. “The world is not ready for you,” the stern Martisse says, showing his nephew an ominous scrapbook of incidents where giants have met a sorry end over the years. But, of course, Cootie does step out and makes friends with a group of teen activists who all have their own insecurities – although of a less obvious variety.
Jerome has previously won acclaim for his emotionally troubled turn as teenage Kevin in Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight. But the actor has upped his game further here to fill an almost impossible role as providing the emotional heart of the show in playing Cootie. Instead of paying homage to the rather plodding 2017 Basque drama Giant, Jerome plays the lead rather more like Peter Selles’s Chance in Being There - a man whose knowledge and experience is only drawn from what he has seen on television. But he is funny, charming and likeable enough to make you want to stick with the show, even as the narrative rapidly changes direction.
Indeed, any time you feel you are getting a feel for it, Virgo will shoot off. We’ll be shown an extended clip from a trippy but apparently popular cartoon called Parking Tickets, The Hero will fly past, or we’ll be jolted into a secondary character’s backstory which will then take half an episode to explain.
There have been tried, tested and tired ways of telling the story of a teenager with oddities, so it is to Riley’s credit that Virgo sidesteps all of these. When the narrative picks up, Cootie is too old to be at school and have a climactic prom scene (like Carrie) and very early on he is thankfully banned from dominating sport, which stops Virgo making the mistake of Teen Wolf in becoming a basketball drama.
Perhaps the issue of teenage horniness couldn’t be avoided; but instead of giving Cootie a bland crush with inexplicable feelings (aka Zooey Deschanel in Elf) Olivia Washington is a revelation as Flora, a burger flipper with a story even more interesting than his.
Having seen only three of the seven episodes, I am writing in hope but also genuine expectation it will all make sense, The Hero has a purpose, Parking Tickets ties in somehow and it will be a league above Channel 4’s teen superhero drama Misfits.
Sure, there are poo jokes, there are dick gags, there are even political undertones and hints of satire. But they only serve to ground a superb and original drama which shoots for the stars.
