As the first episode of Mood begins, Sasha (Nicole Lecky) shoots a music video. When her phone rings, she finds herself alone before Anton (Jordan Duvigneau) shows up behind her and says he’d die for her. Anton pulls a little pink fuzzy ball out of her pants and calls her disgusting. We see Sasha at a party, a fire, and her jacket sleeve on fire. She wakes up from the nightmare at home but can’t remember what happened the night before. Once she finds her phone, she sees that she has called Anton more than 40 times and sent numerous unanswered messages. She vaguely remembers calling Anton. Sasha grabs a joint to calm her nerves. Her parents scream that she better not smoke up there although she lies about it. She grabs her phone and checks Anton’s social media where she finds pictures of herself with him. Sasha calls Anton to leave a message apologizing for what she told him and to ask if they can talk.

Once she goes downstairs, she talks to her mother Laura (Jessica Hynes) and stepdad Kevin (Paul Kaye). Kevin tells her his mother is coming to visit so they don’t want her causing trouble or smoking, but she denies she was smoking. Her parents and sister Megan (Mia Jenkins) complain that she woke them up last night. They claim she came in at three in the morning and woke up the whole street by rapping and yelling. Megan jokes that she is recording her EP that no one is ever going to listen to. When Kevin goes to answer the door, Laura allows her daughter to borrow 20 quid. She tells Sasha that she drinks too much. Officer Stephens (Kate Ashcroft) comes in so Sasha quickly throws her hood over her head. Stephens wants to talk to Sasha because someone step fire to Anton’s front garden last night. While Sasha pretends that she didn’t do anything, Kevin says he works with the local council and will be happy to help.

Anton claims Sasha followed him to a nightclub. Stephens and Sasha argue over what OMW stands for, but the officer thinks it is proof she went to the nightclub to see Anton. Sasha doesn’t like hearing that Anton is her ex-boyfriend, but she insists she was here last night anyway. Before the officer leaves, Sasha tries to find out if Anton’s phone is working. She doesn’t get an answer. Sasha argues with her parents for a few minutes before leaving. As she walks away, she sends Anton a message complaining about him calling the police and believing she’d do something like that. She enters a local store after leaving another message for Anton. The song on the radio catches her attention. She asks for some papers which the clerk says are expensive because they’re bad for her. The clerk, Behar (Mihai Arsene), mentions she was drinking vodka last night. A little boy (Harley Broomfield) in the store tells her to hurry up and pay.

She disses his trainers before leaving. Moments later, she gets into a car with a local dealer Saleem (Mohammad Dalmar) and Curtis (Jason York). Saleem screams at someone as they drive down the road. Then, he takes Sasha’s order and gives her the drugs that will have her speaking in tongues. Curtis recognizes her from that video of the girl crying and singing. She checks her social media and finds the embarrassing video they’re talking about. They make fun of her. Sasha says she wants to go home so she can get high and go to bed. Saleem asks if she wants to spend time with him, but she argues that she has a man. He says they can hang out as friends. He thinks she can help them blend in. They take her to a flat and make her knock on the door. The woman inside yells that it is okay so they go inside. Soon, Carly (Lara Peake) enters the room while Sasha gets a call from Abi that she doesn’t answer.

Carly asks who she is, but Sasha isn’t eager to introduce herself. Carly tells Sasha her name before she admits she doesn’t have all the money today. Saleem agrees to let her pay the rest next time. Once the deal is done, Carly finds out that Sasha is a singer. She invites Sasha to the event with Esmeralda tonight since she has space on her guest list. She suspects there will be music people there. Once Sasha adds herself to Carly’s phone, Carly says she’ll see her later. Back in the car, Sasha scrolls through Carly’s social media pictures. On one of the pictures, it says, “I didn’t come to play, I came to slay!”

Sasha wonders how she has so much money, but her friends know exactly how and suspect she does too. She asks if she can pay for the weed later since she came to slay too, but it doesn’t work for her. After they drop her off, she calls them freaking psychos. As Sasha smokes, she tries to call Anton, but he still doesn’t answer. When she goes home, Megan asks if she was supposed to be in prison. Sasha tells her she isn’t in the mood for that. Sasha says she is going to be waiting to kick her in the privates when she turns 16. Her parents get upset because they’ve invited a guest over and they didn’t make enough food for Sasha too. Laura sits down with her to try to find out what is going on with Anton and why he’d be saying all this stuff. Kevin comes in with the jacket he found in her room and it has a burn on the sleeve.

He reminds her that whatever she does is going to impact other people too. She insists she is only trying to live her truth although Kevin thinks he is just self-obsessed. He complains about social media before saying they’re selling the house and moving, but not taking Sasha with them. Sasha asks her mother if she’d let him kick her out. As the doorbell rings, Laura tells Kevin she said she’d do it. Kevin tells Sasha she doesn’t know what it is like to have it hard and her music career isn’t going to happen. She suggests he is always sticking up for Megan because he wants to sleep with her. That leads to a scuffle as Sasha drags Megan down by her hair and punches Kevin on the face. Kevin’s mom leaves. In her room, Sasha tells Laura she doesn’t need this family since she has been taking care of herself since she was five.

Laura insists she always got what she wanted, including singing lessons, piano lessons, and all her grandma’s money on her EP. She doesn’t understand why Sasha is so angry all the time, but Sasha says she isn’t angry. When Sasha says she doesn’t care about Laura’s happiness, she is told to screw off then. She tries to call Anton again. Later, she gets a message from Carly who confirms she put Sasha’s name on her guest list. Sasha goes to the party and texts Carly to find out where she is. She changes clothes and grabs a drink. Then, she is stopped from entering the VIP section because she isn’t famous and doesn’t have a wristband. Esmeralda (Sai Bennett) goes to the stage to talk about being a brand ambassador for Rayan. She says she is celebrating her one-millionth follower with a preview of her new single. Then, Kobi (Jorden Myrie) shows up behind her and she says she hasn’t seen him in ages.

His mate is DJing the party so he helped set it up. As for Sasha, some random girl invited her to the party. Kobi asks about Anton before Carly comes over and interrupts. Carly pulls her away while they talk about Esmeralda buying a flat in central London. Sasha is asked who she lives with. She claims she lives alone because she likes being independent. Carly reveals Saleem told her Sasha is his girlfriend, but she quickly denies that. They sit around and laugh about Carly’s sex joke. Sasha says she accepted the invitation from a stranger because she is trying to put herself out there more now that she is working on her EP. Carly believes this will be good for her. She explains that followers are like currency. Having more followers means more people will share her music. She does a lot of modeling work.

Carly is confident anyone can get big online if they’re clever enough. She offers to teach Sasha before she begins introducing her to everyone else. She pretends she is going to make music videos soon. After she gets a free bag of stuff, she is introduced to Paris (Renee Bailey) who used to live with Carly. Sasha is pulled away by Carly after Paris tells her to be careful with Carly. She takes a picture with Carly and Esmeralda while making them laugh about the photographer. Later that night, Sasha tries to call Anton while sitting alone outside. She tries to call friends to see if they’ll let her stay with them for a while. She gets a call from Abi who asks if she is okay and why Anton is saying all that stuff about her.

Sasha pretends she doesn’t know why he is saying that. Abi insists it isn’t her fault they haven’t talked recently. Once the call ends, Sasha imagines she is sitting next to her teenage self. As Sasha raps or sings a song, we see flashbacks of her confronting Anton in the club. She isn’t happy that he is with another girl, but he reminds her they’re not together. They talk about something Sasha allegedly did. Anton says she is a hoe if she did something like that. She is escorted outside by security guards. She goes to the store to pick up alcohol. She goes to Anton’s house and uses the alcohol to start a fire in his garbage can. Her jacket gets burned in the process. In the present, she goes there and looks at what she did. Eventually, she ends up going to Saleem’s place where he is playing video games with friends.

Sasha checks social media and finds the picture of herself with Carly and Esmeralda so she leaves a comment on it. She finds out that Carly is selling nude pictures and videos of herself just before the episode ends.

 

Mood Review

Mood is a unique drama based on Nicole Lecky’s Royal Court play called Superhoe. Although this is only the first episode, certain aspects of this show make it clear to me that some people are going to despise it. While I can understand that, I’d hate to throw away an interesting story that Mood might deliver during the series. The music scenes aren’t for me although some people may enjoy them.

If Mood is going to be successful or somewhat enjoyable, it’ll be for the story that explores the world of digital sex work. The characters aren’t going to win hearts since most of them are hard to like. The series needs to take the subject matter seriously to get its point across. I can’t see myself sympathizing with Sasha or any of the other characters for that matter so that wasn’t a strong point for the first episode.

The music videos are more cringe than enjoyable, but again some people might enjoy them. They’re not for me and I am not sure they added anything of value to the series. Time will tell whether Mood is going to be worthwhile so it might be worth sticking around for another episode or two. The first episode of Mood scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Mood can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.