Kicked out of her mum’s house and fresh from a painful break-up, aspiring singer Sasha (played by Nicôle Lecky) is drawn into the glossy world of Instagram influencer Carly (Lara Peake) in the first episode of BBC Three’s new drama, Mood. A self-proclaimed #girlboss, Carly seems to have it all - a swish London flat, thousands of followers, and guest list spots at every fast-fashion launch in town - but her public Instagram account isn’t telling the whole story. How can this modest online fame earn Carly enough to sustain her expensive lifestyle, Sasha asks a mutual acquaintance? “How does any pretty girl make money off the ‘gram?” he snaps. “Use your f**king brain.”
So begins writer-star Lecky’s nuanced exploration of the other side of the influencer sphere, the limits of hustle culture and the hazy areas between empowerment and exploitation on social media. We soon learn that Carly’s most lucrative stream of revenue is not her #spon, but her online sex work on a site called DailyFans. “It’s like making free f**king money,” Carly says, “no different from putting bikini pics up on your Instagram.”
