Why You Need To Watch E4’s Crazyhead, The Feminist Comedy Show That’s About Much More Than Killing Demons

Do yourself a favour and watch Crazyhead at some point soon.

It’s E4's new show about Amy and Raquel, two 20-something girls who've been 'gifted' with the ability to see demons. These demons walk around Bristol just like normal people, possessing peoples' mates and, unless you’re Raquel or Amy, good luck seeing them for who they really are.

Understandably, Amy is more than a little confused about her 'powers'. People think she's having hallucinations. Amy is seeking mental help until she meets Raquel. Raquel is pretty rubbish at social interaction, very good at saying the wrong thing and, on account of the demons, is on some pretty strong anti-psychotic meds.

Unlike Amy though, Raquel has owned her demons, literally. In fact, she’s turned herself into a self-styled demon hunter. She’s bought herself a baton from eBay and figures out her next move by Googling it. In short, she’s loveable, but amateur. And now, together with Amy, she is in charge of protecting their mates, and the world, from a bunch of demon douchebags.

The reason the show came about was, would you believe it, because of catcalling. According to Susan Wokoma, who plays Raquel, creator Howard Overman (he did Misfits, the similarities are apparent) saw a woman locking up her bike when a man driving past shouted something like ‘lucky saddle’ (I know, gross), the woman ignored him but it gave Howard an image of the woman taking the saddle and, as Susan puts it, ‘giving him a good once over with it on his head.' And so* Crazyhead* and it's two demon destroying female leads was born.

One of the main draws of this show is just how well Raquel and Amy are written. They are not stereotypical women of the horror genre. They are well-thought out, complex comedic characters. ‘There are flawed like all humans are. They kick ass but they are real and they find stuff difficult and they’re awkward.’ Cara Theobold who plays Amy says by way of explanation. 'Yeah in old films there was no need for scantily clad women to be running into houses,' laughs Susan, referring to that early-noughties time when horror films were little more than beautiful sorority sisters being murdered in very silly ways. ‘You couldn't get away with that now. You’d have to have a really good reason as to why and I can’t think of one.’ She adds happily that, as an actress, of late she is finding herself less and less in situations where as she puts it, ‘you’re reading something and you’re like “Oh, why am I topless? Like, why am I not wearing a top can someone explain!!!?’"

Another great thing about the show is it’s dealing with mental health. Although the girls don’t actually have mental health problems (because like, the demons are real obvs) this comedy does manage to capture, in an unexpectedly touching way, the isolation that suffering from mental health can bring. ‘Her life being the only seer means that she’s very lonely and she doesn’t know how to communicate with people and she always says the wrong things.’ Susan says of Raquel.

‘The brilliant thing is they find their comfort in each other though,’ Continues Cara. ‘They feel less alone. Amy’s a bit distant from her mates then she gets this opportunity that’s terrifying and ridiculous to become everything she never thought she could be and then she realises she can, she’s like “I actually am really fucking kicking ass!” And that’s a nice thing to see.’

Obviously it’s easy for anyone watching more than five minutes of the show to see that despite the demons (and oh my gosh they are actually really scary) that the crew had all of the fun filming.

‘It was like going to work every day with your mates. We had so much fun. To be young actresses to actually get to do all the cool stuff we do [in Crazyhead] is so rare' Cara says referring to the impressive level of physical activity playing Raquel and Amy had to involved. Susan for her part, found some of the more unusual scenes to be handy in breaking the ice. ‘The very first scene we did was in a warehouse at 3AM and that was as bonding as you can get,’ She says. ‘Cara had to pull her tights down and I was behind her so I was on “bum check” and I had to be like Cara, go a bit lower, while she’s like ‘CAN YOU SEE MY BUM” and I’m like “no, you’re good, you’re good.” After that, we got really close.’

Beautiful stuff.

Crazyhead is on E4, Wednesdays at 9PM

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.