Sugar Rush (TV)

Sugar Rush is a critically acclaimed British television comedy drama series developed by Shine Limited and broadcast by Channel 4, based on the Julie Burchill novel of the same name (but most people remember the series). It is centred around the life of a 15 year old lesbian Kim Daniels who, at the beginning of the first season, moves from London to Brighton, where she meets future best friend and love interest Maria "Sugar" Sweet, a rebellious, promiscuous, binge-drinking, drug-taking, street-smart young girl of Kim's age. Kim becomes sexually obsessed with Sugar, and the show's first season centres around Kim struggling with her sexuality and her feelings for Sugar, while at the same time trying to deal with her dysfunctional family (parents Nathan and Stella, and her younger brother, Matt) and the unwanted advances of her next-door neighbour, Tom. The second season shows Kim as out and proud, but with a new love interest, Saint, after having gotten over her obsession with Sugar (the two are, however, still best friends), and, as always, dealing with her parents and younger brother.

The first series was broadcast in 2005 on Channel 4. The second series was broadcast on Channel 4 on 15 June 2006, and the last episode was aired on 17 August 2006 on Channel 4, and on 10 August 2006 on digital channel E4.

A third season was rumoured, but it ultimately seems that it will never see the light of day, due to Channel 4's cancellation of the show. This move outraged viewers and critics, as well as the show's two stars, Olivia Hallinan and Lenora Crichlow.

Not to be confused with the hybrid Candy Land-Mario Kart video game of the same name from the Wreck-It Ralph franchise.

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Tropes used in Sugar Rush (TV) include:

• Alpha Bitch - Sugar has her moments, although she is a less snobby version.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents - Stella and Nathan. Especially Stella.
• Annoying Younger Sibling - Matt is a mild example, more in the first season than the second.
• Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other - Kim and Sugar have many moments like this.
• Better as Friends - In the second season finale, Kim and Sugar conclude that they are better off as friends, and that Kim deserves to be with Saint.
• Bittersweet Ending - The endings of both seasons.
• Bumbling Dad: Nathan.
• Butt Monkey - Nathan and Tom.
• Casual Kink: Kim tries out spanking early in the second season. Later, she and Saint show that they enjoy a bit of mild BDSM.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Kim develops a brief relationship with a girl called Beth. However, at the end of the penultimate episode of the first season, she stands her up on a date. Beth is never seen from, or even mentioned, again.
  • Tom, Kim's bumbling yet sweet neighbour who has a huge crush on her, has completely disappeared by Season 2 and is not mentioned again.
• Cloudcuckoolander - Matt, especially in the first season, in which he (amongst other things) believes himself to be an alien, paints himself and his pet hamster blue (an act which kills the unfortunate hamster), and devours a huge amount of pills because he believes them to be "space food". By the second season, however, he is considerably less bizarre, most likely due to him maturing.
• Coming of Age Story
• Coming Out Story - Kim doesn't so much come out to her parents - more like her parents figure it out after they discover her in bed with Sugar.
• Cure Your Gays: In one episode, Kim attends a club, headed by a preacher, who believes he can "cure" gay people. In spite of the whole thing making her uncomfortable, she attends due to being so desperate to get over Sugar. Ironically, she ends up falling for a girl called Beth whilst there, and it later turns out that Beth was only attending the meetings in the first place just so she could pull someone.
• A Date with Rosie Palms: Kim is very... fond of her electric toothbrush.
• Daydream Surprise - This show is rather fond of this trope, as it crops up several times. (Heck, the first few minutes of each season start out this way.)
• Deadpan Snarker - Most of Kim's inner monologue. Hardly surprising really.
• Disaster Dominoes - Who'd have thought Sugar's dose of crabs would have caused so much trouble?
• Dropped A Bridge On Her: Tom's dog, Vanessa.
• Erotic Eating - A couple of times.
• Fille Fatale: Sugar in the first season.
• French Jerk - Guillaume, a love interest of Sugar's.
• Friendship Moment
• Gayngst - Kim has some elements of this (mainly in the first season), but it's largely down to the usual teenage angst present in a lot of 15-year-olds, and her own confusion about her sexuality.
• Genre Savvy - Sugar.
• The Ghost - Sugar's family.
• Guile Hero - Kim, although her schemes often tend towards the zany.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? - Tom does this a lot early in the first season, because...
• Has Two Daddies - ... he has two gay dads.
• Hey, It's That Guy! - Holy crap! Jo Watkins has moved to Brighton and is recruiting more succubi for Malakai!
  • Maya is there as well, and still getting screwed over.
  • Thelma's there too!
  • Wow, Eduardo Saverin looks so young in that show!
    • Or should we say what is Peter Parker doing in England?
• Hopeless Suitor: Tom towards Kim.
• Hot Mom: Stella.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy" - Nathan calls his penis "Mr. Perky".
• If It's You It's Okay: Sugar towards Kim.
• Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Kim has a lot of these.

She's fucking the decorator!

• Innocent Innuendo - Frequently.
• Jerkass - Sugar is the definition of this trope a lot of the time, but occasionally she becomes a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Jizzed in My Pants - Happens to Tom once when Sugar takes him home.
• Kissing Under the Influence - Sort of. When Kim and Sugar kiss in the nightclub, they are both high on Ecstasy. However, while Kim has clearly wanted it all along, Sugar is merely using the kiss to attract a boy whom she later ends up kissing, to Kim's devastation.
• Last-Minute Hookup - Kim and Sugar at the end of the first season, though played with in that Sugar's main motive is guilt, and it is shown to be only temporary (judging by the start of the second season).
• Les Yay: Obviously.
• Love Hurts
• Love Triangle - Sugar/Kim/Saint, Tom/Kim/Beth.
• Manipulative Bitch - Sugar, Stella, and occasionally even Kim.
• Maternally Challenged - Stella.
• Meaningful Name - Saint. A lot of Season 2 can be summed up as "Kim does something stupid, but Saint forgives her anyway. Repeat."
  • The funny thing is that, in the book, Saint was a snobby bitch who was only nicknamed Saint for sheer irony.
• Mood Whiplash - The last few minutes of Episode 9 of the first season, and the first half of the following episode. During a relatively pleasant, loved-up episode which features Kim seeing a girl called Beth, and then going to meet her for a date near the end of the episode, she suddenly receives a phone call... from a frightened, crying Sugar, covered in blood. In the next episode, it turns out that Sugar stabbed someone. Who saw that coming?
• Near-Rape Experience - Kim considers going ahead with date raping Sugar, but she backs out of it after spending a lot of the episode debating about whether it is right or wrong, and feels incredibly guilty about the whole thing.
• ~Not That There's Anything Wrong With That~ - Sugar, to some lesbians whilst she's running Saint's shop, explaining that she's straight.
• Only Known by Their Nickname - Sugar, obviously (real name Maria Sweet), and Saint (her real first name is revealed to be Sarah- Zoe in the book).
• Panty Shot - In the opening credits, no less.
• Parallel Porn Titles: In one episode, Stella's lover, Dale, is heard ordering a porn movie with the title of Chitty Chitty Gang Bang.
• Parental Abandonment - By the second season, Sugar's mother clearly has no interest in her daughter whatsoever.
• Parental Issues - Sugar and both of her parents. In the first season, she often talks about how her father was a serial cheater who walked out on her, her mother, and her brother. In the second season, her mother moves away and effectively abandons Sugar.
• Parental Substitute - Nathan and Stella take Sugar in after she is released from prison.
• Parents as People - Played straight with Stella and Nathan.
• Plot Hole - At the end of the second season, Stella reveals that she is pregnant, and, although uncertain, she thinks that Nathan may be the father, as he is the only one allowed to not use a condom (the couple are swingers). However, in the first season, Stella claims that Nathan has had a vasectomy. While it is, in rare cases, possible for those who have "had the snip" to get someone pregnant, you'd think that the show would address Nathan's vasectomy during the pregnancy storyline. Unless, of course, Stella was lying about the "snip", for some reason.
• Primal Scene: Kim finds out about Stella and Dale's affair when she walks in on them having sex (loudly) in the living room.
• Rape as Drama - Used effectively with the (off-screen) rape of Sugar.
• Real Song Theme Tune: Blondie's "One Way Or Another".
• Really Gets Around - Sugar, mainly in the first season.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kim delivers one to Sugar in the first season finale:

Kim: It’s always going to be like this, isn’t it? You call, I come running. You say 'jump', I say 'how high?'. Translating for French guys, buying stuff with my mum’s credit card, snogging you to pull someone else. Name one thing you’ve done for me. One thing. One sodding thing.

• Record Needle Scratch - Several times.
• Redheaded Hero - Kim.
• Romantic False Lead: Saint qualifies as the more sympathetic version of the false lead. Although Sugar insists she isn't interested in Kim, her instant dislike of Saint and near continuous efforts to sabotage the relationship — one time she claims Saint came on to her, another she robs her shop — suggest otherwise. If it had continued for another series these issues might have been resolved, but alas...
  • Another example would be Beth from the first season.
• Say My Name - Sugar, after being left at the prison gates. "KIZZAAAAA!"
• Screwed by the Network
• She Cleans Up Nicely - Melissa.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Averted - Kim initially thinks that she only likes Sugar and not any other girls, but, after meeting Beth, she realises otherwise.
• Something Else Also Rises
• Sorry, I'm Gay - Kim has to tell Tom (who has a huge crush on her) that she's gay when he will not get the hint that she isn't interested in him. To be fair to Tom, though, Kim had recently lost her virginity to him.
• Stalker with a Crush: Kim's behaviour towards Sugar has elements of this. To a much lesser extent, Tom towards Kim.
• That Poor Cat - Apparently cats don't like having electric toothbrushes-come-vibrators thrown out of windows at them.
• Time Skip: Season 2 is set 18 months after the first.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Sugar and Kim, although to a somewhat lesser degree than is presented in a lot of other fiction.
• Transvestite - Matt has his moments in the second season, notably with him trying on his mother's underwear because he "likes it". It is played straight and heartwarmingly, as it is never depicted to be overly comical or "wrong".

Nathan: (holding up a pair of womens' underwear) You do know they are for girls, don't you?
Matt: Womens' actually.
Nathan: Exactly, they're for women and not for men. Like you and me.
Matt: What? I like them.
Nathan: I'm sorry, Matt, you can't wear them.
Matt: It's not fair. I don't dodge you for being a swinger.

• Volleying Insults - Usually Kim and Matt.
  • Kim and Sugar also do it sometimes, although they're only teasing each other.

Sugar: Dyke!
Kim: Slapper!
Sugar: Rug-muncher!
Kim: Slut!

• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In Episode 7 of Season 1, a heartbroken Kim stumbles out of the nightclub and graphically pukes over the floor.
• Who's Your Daddy? - Near the end of the second season, Stella reveals that she is pregnant. Although she is certain that Nathan is the father, there is still some uncertainty, due to the fact that Stella and Nathan are swingers. Unfortunately, due to the series' cancellation, it seems that this plot point will go no further.
• Your Cheating Heart: When Saint is away on a business trip in Season 2, a lonely and jealous Kim cheats on her with a singer called Montana. Of course, Saint returns from the trip early and walks in on them as they're kissing.