I Hate Suzie Too

The first season of I Hate Suzie, which came out in 2020, was a huge success. Critics and the public fell in love with it, and both Billie Piper (Suzie) and Leila Farzad, who plays Suzie’s overly patient agent/best friend Naomi, earned BAFTA nominations. Behind it, the immense talent that is playwright and screenwriter Lucy Prebble, together with her long-time friend and collaborator Piper.

The show follows the life of actress Suzie Pickles whose life is thrown into turmoil when her phone is hacked and compromising photographs of her are leaked. Each episode is focused on “one of the eight stages of trauma” that Suzie experiences, a take on the five stages of grief. Just like a character in a Greek tragedy, Suzie is in a terrifying free-fall, becoming more and more unhinged as time passes. Overall, the first season is a witty, dark, wild, powerfully feminist meditation on what society requires from female celebrities and, more widely, how we treat women who step out of the places we have marked for them.

Following the success of the first season, Prebble and Piper decided to work on a three-part Christmas special, which starts on 20^th December on Sky. Episode one begins with Suzie competing on a rather cringe-worthy dancing show called Dance Crazee. It’s supposed to be her big comeback after the disastrous events of season one, but the audience seem to dislike her. Maybe they still haven’t “forgiven” her for her “shocking” actions, or perhaps it’s the dark hair, Suzie’s new agent suggests. People like her better as a blonde. At the same time, she is stuck in a painfully stressful custody battle with her abusive estranged husband Cob (Daniel Ings). She has expensive lawyers, but he seems to be winning when it comes to their son Frank (Matthew Jordan-Caws).

The truth is, Suzie feels guilty about everything – about how she burned down her whole family, about how she treated Naomi, with whom she reconnects in this season, and a whole lot of other things – as if she wasn’t the victim of crazy circumstances. Here lies the complexity and paradox of this character: Suzie is both victim and perpetrator; she both hurts and gets hurt. It’s not easy to like her, but it’s even less easy to dislike her. Season one portrays this duplicity better, more clearly and incisively. Season two is not as strong, and can come across as a little repetitive. The incredible narrative devices and photography were a most welcome surprise the first time round, but are now too familiar. The feminist themes are of course still there, still extremely important and worth exploring, but their portrayal less punchy than before.

What remains unchanged is Piper’s magnetic presence that holds the viewer’s attention from beginning to end. She is one of the most interesting figures in the British film (and theatre) industry at the moment. Her interpretation of Yerma in Simon Stone’s inspired present-day adaptation of Lorca’s tragic play was rightfully described as “earth-quaking” by the Guardian. Her directorial debut Rare Beasts wasn’t equally successful, but is still something to watch. She is undoubtedly the most fascinating aspect of I Hate Suzie Too, which is overall a bit disappointing.

Diletta Lobuono

I Hate Suzie Too is released on Sky on 20^th December 2022.

Watch the trailer for I Hate Suzie Too here: