There’s a particular kind of woman society loves to call crazy. She knows what she wants, says what she thinks and refuses to make herself smaller for other people’s comfort. If she’s emotional, she’s irrational; if she’s assertive, she’s difficult. In her latest Netflix special, Hoemonal, Sumukhi Suresh takes this double standard and runs with it, mining the unpredictability of hormonal fluctuations, dating, body image and the creeping fear of ending up alone. It’s funny, often uncomfortably so, with a tenderness that sneaks up on you.

Sumukhi has a knack for making the deeply personal feel recognisable without sanding off its awkward edges. The show draws from her own experiences of hormonal imbalances, body image, relationships and the fear of ending up alone. These aren’t necessarily subjects that need a grand thesis attached to them. Sometimes, it’s enough to hear someone articulate the strange, embarrassing or infuriating things you’ve experienced but never quite known how to explain. Hoemonal finds comedy in those moments without pretending that the discomfort behind them doesn’t exist.

A large part of what makes this work is the writing. She doesn’t simply recount an incident and wait for the punchline; she builds scenes and inhabits characters with the ease of a seasoned veteran. One particularly vivid bit involves her parents talking to each other from different parts of the house. In Suresh’s hands, a mundane domestic interaction becomes something you can practically see unfolding in front of you.

The result is a special that understands why laughing at the mess of being a woman can feel like a relief. Suresh isn’t asking the audience to feel sorry for her, or offering a tidy lesson about self-acceptance. She’s simply willing to be candid about the parts of life that are often dismissed, minimised or treated as embarrassing. 

Hoemonal is funny because those experiences are familiar, but it’s moving because it takes them seriously; an ode to women who have been told they’re too much, too emotional or just plain crazy.