Holy Sh!t - First episode

Yasmine is a teacher who suffers from Tourette syndrome in Holy Sh!t. To the tunes of Ravel's Bolero and When The Rain Begins To Fall by Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora, we meet Yasmine (Mona Mina Leon), who has been dragged along to an aerobics session by her friend Kim (Ella-June Henrard). However, this gets completely out of hand due to Yasmine's illness. Yasmine has Tourette's syndrome in its worst form. This means tics, obsessive-compulsive disorders, noises and in her case also the use of swear words.



After the experiences during the aerobics class, we meet Yasmine's mother, Christine (Ini Massez). She is overprotective of her daughter and that causes conflicts with teacher Yasmine. Because despite her illness, Yasmine is also trying to find her way in professional life as a teacher. She works for Student GO, an organization that arranges tutoring for young people and Yasmine is one of their teachers. Gilles de la Tourette throws a spanner in the works, because some videos of her as a teacher are seen by the parents of her students and if you regularly hear the teacher of your teenagers going on a rampage with crude swear words, then you know that complaints are going to rain down.

What follows is a dismissal and a Yasmine who is completely distraught. She is taken in by her mother and by Kim who suggests that she leave the parental home and move in with her.

There is a smile, but the laughter lingers because you also see the seriousness of the situation.

I deliberately waited to watch the rest of this series until I had written this piece in order to concentrate on the events in this first episode. Mona Mina Leon makes a great impression from the very first introduction as Yasmine, who suffers from Tourette. The tics, the sounds, the swearing, everything comes across as natural as if she herself has Tourette. On the other hand, she also acts a character in which Tourette is completely exaggerated. In general, patients only have a few symptoms and swearing is rarely one of them. However, by assigning Yasmine almost all the characteristics of the disease, the makers do focus on all the possible symptoms that someone who suffers from Tourette can have.



Gilles de la Tourette is no fun for the patients to live with, especially because some of the tics present can make others laugh, but they can also cause annoyance because a tic can sometimes give a distorted picture of what is meant. Just imagine that your tic is that you constantly shrug your shoulders and are called to the carpet by the boss, who has no idea about Tourette. If you then constantly shrug your shoulders during the reprimand, he thinks that you are not at all interested in what he is saying.

Holy Sh!t already starts off at a rapid pace where a lot comes at you. At times, Yasmine's tics and statements are really hilarious, but because of the way it is portrayed, it sticks. There is a smile, but the roar of laughter sticks because you also see the seriousness of the situation. This is especially evident in the part where she is fired. As a viewer, you really feel sorry for her and think that her dismissal is unfair.

A good start to an interesting subject from which we as humans can learn to have more understanding for people with a strange disease such as Tourette.