✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
TV

I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic review ★★★★★

27 Aug 20 – 27 Aug 21, ON SKY ATLANTIC

Billie Piper (Doctor Who) and Lucy Prebble (Succession) reunite for their new psychological comedy-drama about Suzie Pickles, a former child singer who endures the burdens of female celebrity

By Euan Franklin on 26/8/2020

2 CW readers are interested
Billie Piper in I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic
Billie Piper in I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic
I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic review 4 I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic review Euan Franklin
How awful is it to be a celebrity? Or, worse, a female celebrity? It’s often hard to consider that stars who walk red carpets and earn ridiculous money may be deserving of sympathy. If they have everything, what’s there to complain about? But imagine that deal: upending your life, your entire life, for public consumption – made worse in a world shared on smartphones.


In I Hate Suzie – the new, psychologically brilliant comedy-drama from Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper – 36-year-old former child singer Suzie Pickles endures the dangers resulting from such a life.



Billie Piper stars as former child actor Suzie Pickles. Photo: Sky

There are many parallels between Piper and Pickles. Suzie used to be in a massive sci-fi show, and now stars in a popular period horror series (both likely modelled on Doctor Who and Penny Dreadful). The first episode of I Hate Suzie sees her excitement when she’s in talks for a new Disney production – a rare moment of genuine elation.


Shortly afterwards, a storm of inconsiderate crew-members arrive at the door, prepping for a magazine interview. They swarm the house. So many speak at once. They all want tea, but there aren’t enough mugs. Suzie’s poked and shoved around to get her ready for the photoshoot. And then, the unthinkable: online hackers have leaked sexual images of Suzie. When the story hits the news, her phone pings every other minute.


Suzie descends into various reactionary stages, which title each episode. Culture Whisper only received the first four: Shock, Denial, Fear and Shame. They all have their own idiosyncratic tones (Fear, for example, is dressed like a psychological horror), but each is injected with the same anxious adrenaline – of a kind that can be inhibitive. Why put yourself through such constant, heightened misery?


But that’s exactly what’s so absorbing about series: there’s never a dull moment with Suzie Pickles. Whether she’s releasing diarrhoea or snorting cocaine or spending an entire episode masturbating to figure out her true sexual desires, Suzie is pushed to breaking point by the world. She’s by no means perfect – she’s often self-destructive – but the sympathy is ultimately with her.



Suzie's husband Cob (Daniel Ings) is not the ideal partner for her situation. Photo: Sky

Surely her husband, Cob, must be a loving and caring ally in this situation, given she’s the victim in this instance? Nope, not at all. The Crown and Lovesick actor Daniel Ings (who tends to take posh and insecurely masculine roles) plays Cob, who's a veiled misogynist and pseudo-feminist. He makes the whole scandal about himself.


Thankfully, Suzie’s best friend/manager Naomi (Leila Fazad) is the one constant in her life. She comes to Suzie’s aid whenever she needs, either to assuage a situation or shoot it down with sweary insults (‘Let’s MeToo him to f***!’). But Suzie often takes Naomi for granted, and the hack puts further strain on their friendship.


This year has been awash with absorbing stories detailing various iterations of the female experience; the additional pressures and judgemental eyes that populate I Hate Suzie offer another underseen narrative. Prebble captures those female celebrity burdens – the need to be nice and faithful and pretty and feministic and articulate and encyclopaedic about their previous work – while maintaining a bleak, steely sense of humour. Prebble and Piper humanise these people, unlike gossipy tabloids or savage tweeters.


If you had fairytale ideas about the reality of celebrity, I Hate Suzie will make you think again.


I Hate Suzie airs on Thursday 27 August at 9pm on Sky Atlantic




What I Hate Suzie, Sky Atlantic review
When 27 Aug 20 – 27 Aug 21, ON SKY ATLANTIC
Price £n/a
Website



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 24th - 26th June
Things to do in London this weekend: 24th - 26th June
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022
London's loveliest indoor swimming pools
London swimming pools you can visit without membership

Editor's Picks

Billie Eilish is headlining Glastonbury 2022. Photo: Sky, Austin City Limits
What to watch on TV this week
Elizabeth Debicki to play Princess Diana in The Crown
Elizabeth Debicki to play Princess Diana in The Crown
Nicole Kidman in The Undoing, Sky Atlantic
The best TV shows, autumn 2020
Mulan: Disney remakes tale of Chinese heroine
Mulan, Disney+ review
Jeanna de Waal as Diana. Photo by Evan Zimmerman
Diana: A New Musical, Netflix
Jude Law in The Third Day, Sky Atlantic
The Third Day, Sky Atlantic, episode 1 review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
2

I Hate Suzie

Billie Piper

Lucy Prebble

Sky

TV

Autumn

2020

You might like

  • (Un)Well, Netflix

    (Un)Well, Netflix review ★★★★★

  • Jessie Buckley in I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Netflix

    I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Netflix review ★★★★★

  • Dafne Keen in His Dark Materials series 2, BBC One (Photo: BBC)

    His Dark Materials series 2 episode 1, BBC One review ★★★★★

  • Lily James in The Pursuit of Love, BBC (Photo: BBC)

    The Pursuit of Love, BBC One review ★★★★★

  • Toheeb Jimoh in Anthony, BBC One (Image credit: BBC)

    Anthony, BBC One review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×