Hulu’s Queenie Misses The Mark In Creating A Character Viewers Are Emotionally Connected To

A story about a young Jamaican writer in South London having a quarter-life crisis? Sign me up! Hulu’s new series Queenie, based on the book by Candice Carty-Williams, follows the story of 25-year-old Queenie (Dionne Brown) whose life is quite literally a mess. While I love that we are attempting to get more complex female characters, I was disappointed by my lack of connection to her after watching her life completely fall apart over eight episodes.

We first meet the Jamaican Londoner in the stirrups at the gyno where no woman ever wants an audience. From that moment on, it's clear that Queenie is at a low point in her life. She tries to escape her loving but nosy aunt, argues with her white boyfriend Tom (Jon Pointing), and navigates a job where she’s the token Black girl — nothing seems to be going in her favor. To top it all off, that doctor's appointment reveals she had a miscarriage. Before she can muster up the courage to tell her boyfriend, their relationship blows up at his family dinner party when his racist grandmother says their baby would be "half-caste." Queenie, who’s obviously had enough, retorts, “Hopefully you’ll be dead and gone long before you even get to meet it.” This ultimately leads to their breakup. And let’s be clear, this all happens in one episode, throwing the audience right into the eye of the storm. While Queenie clearly didn’t have it all together before, this breakup sets her off on a journey of self-destruction. She’s left questioning her self-worth and identity, especially after her ex tells her she’s just “too much.” Is that not every Black girl’s nightmare?

For eight episodes, we watch as Queenie drinks too much, shows up to work late, has unenjoyable sex with random men, ignores her friends, and loses herself. While the show does a great job of depicting the raw experience of a quarter-life crisis, it misses the opportunity to dive deep enough so that Queenie is not just someone we can relate to but actually feel for.

This is Dionne Brown’s breakout role and she does a great job as Queenie. She takes on the role in a truthful way, avoiding stereotypes and staying true to the character’s story. However, the writing of the show feels surface level. They don’t delve deep enough into her racist work environment and how she is dismissed. We don’t get to know much about Queenie’s relationship with Tom, making her heartbreak feel a little overdramatic. I was begging to know more about who Queenie was before her life completely fell apart.

Watching Queenie’s journey, while satisfying as a young adult, didn’t make me care for her as much as I hoped. Her character is funny and loose, but I wasn’t rooting for her redemption as much as I should have been. By the end of the show, her character’s ending felt random and rushed. The story is told through Queenie’s eyes as we listen to her internal monologue and, while that could’ve been a great opportunity to explore her layers, she ends up being a very one-dimensional character, seemingly wrapping her life up in a neat bow instead of truly dealing with her demons.

This doesn’t dismiss the entire show. It’s still funny and holds a lot of truth. One of my favorite parts is her relationship with her friend Kyazike and her family. I loved the story of family trauma and how part of Queenie’s healing journey involved helping her family deal with their past. Her cousin Diana Jenkins (Cristale De'Abreu) was a true highlight for me. She is hilarious and her bluntness is exactly what Queenie needed in her life. Her friendship with Kyazike (Bellah) shows the beauty of female friendship and its ability to make you feel seen and supported. And I cannot ignore her relationship with Kyazike’s cousin Frank (Samuel Adewunmi), who is in awe of Queenie from the start and is always on the sidelines, hoping to swoop in when he gets the chance, and that he does.

Queenie has room to grow if it manages to get a season 2. My hope? We get to know Queenie the person just as well as we know Queenie the mess.

All eight episodes of Queenie are available now on Hulu.