At the start of Sweetpea, the new Starz/Sky Atlantic series adaptation of CJ Skuse’s novel of the same name, Rhiannon Lewis (Ella Purnell) is having a bad life. In voice-over, she catalogues the people she’d like to kill in a list that ranges from the man spreader on the bus and the cashier at the store who is always on the phone, all the way up to her high school nemesis, Julia Blenkingsopp (Nicôle Lecky).
Rhiannon is a quintessential horror protagonist. She is shy and meek, working a dead end job as the receptionist at a newspaper where she is taken advantage of by work colleagues. She is introverted and overlooked, pining for a romance with a shitty guy who won’t acknowledge her in public. And she still lives at home with her father Tommy, who is in the hospital with a life-threatening illness that Rhiannon’s sister Seren (Alexandra Dowling) barely acknowledges when she calls from France.
The first episode, “Sorry For Your Loss” is an emotional pile-on that outlines all of Rhiannon’s grievances with the world and her life. When her father dies and Seren hires realtor Julia to sell the family home, something in Rhiannon snaps and she begins to violently assert control of her life…via murder.
The template for the series is familiar: the meek-to-murder narrative pipeline has been done several times over, so while Sweetpea does offer several subversions to the formula, several plot points are predictable. The fact that Rhiannon ends up in over her head, for example, or that bodies begin to pile up, or that there’s a romantic entanglement that threatens to expose everything, is hardly surprising.
Despite its familiarity, though, the series is compulsively watchable. This is, in large part, thanks to Purnell, who has become something of a genre mainstay between this, Fallout and Yellowjackets. The actor anchors the series, assuming not just the lead role, but also that of executive producer. She’s joined by an all-female creative team that includes series writer Ella Jones and showrunner Kirstie Swain, who also directs three episodes. Krissie Ducker also directs three episodes, followed by Selina Lim and Laura Jayne Tunbridge (one episode each).
The female focus is most evident in Rhiannon’s interior voice, which offers insight into her experience of moving through a world that devalues women (and, to a lesser extent, young people). The show’s title comes from the nickname that Rhiannon’s boss Norman (Jeremy Swift) uses in all of their interactions. His micro-aggressive belittling is matched by the disdain of head writer Jeff (Dustin Demri-Burns), who becomes increasingly competitive when Rhiannon starts getting scoops about the town’s burgeoning serial killer.
On the personal side, Rhiannon’s occasional hook-ups with tradie Craig (Jon Pointing) aren’t much better. It’s clear that he’s using her for casual sex, in addition to his plans to buy her father’s business.
Thankfully the series isn’t so reductive as to suggest that all men = bad. Rhiannon starts up a flirtatious relationship with new colleague AJ (Calam Lynch) despite the fact that he takes the junior reporter position she was angling for. And Sweetpea is very clear that Rhiannon’s main adversary is Julia, who bullied her so badly in high school that our protagonist literally pulled out all of her hair.
As the series progresses, Rhiannon’s relationship with AJ and particularly Julia becomes more complicated. Jones’ writing is savvy enough to recognize that it’s important for the audience to simultaneously empathize with Rhiannon, while also critiquing her impulsive, murderous reactions to minor infractions. Still, there’s an undeniable catharsis to be found when Rhiannon finally begins advocating for herself, speaking up instead of shrinking back, and telling off the men who would dismiss her.
It’s also clear, however, that she’s not fully in control of her actions, particularly in the back half of the series. This is when the net begins to close in around Rhiannon in the form of diligent DC Marina Farrar (Leah Harvey) who is positioned as her equal in several ways. Episode 4, “Everybody Loves Julia” actually opens with Marina’s own “List of people I’d like to kill” voice-over, a narrative device that aurally aligns her with Rhiannon in a way that Sweetpea would have benefitted from exploring in greater depth.
While the show very obviously suggests that the two women are alike (both express feelings of invisibility, being taken for granted, and feeling overlooked), the narrative never fully commits to the idea. This is, in part, because Rhiannon is the lead and Marina is a supporting character who is introduced nearly halfway through the series. Ultimately the suggestion that many women feel the same way as Rhiannon (and Marina) is an intriguing concept, but Sweetpea runs out of (run)time to explore it in greater detail before its sixth and final episode.
Intriguingly, the series works as both a limited event and the first season of an ongoing series. While the last two episodes build to a climax that offers enough resolution to be mostly satisfying, there are enough dangling plot threads – or things left unseen – that it’s easy to imagine Purnell and co. returning for a second run if Sweetpea catches on.
As far as performances go, Purnell is fantastic as Rhiannon. While it’s not entirely believable that AJ would be the only one to notice her natural beauty, the creative team makes the wise choice not to give Rhiannon a hair/make-up/clothing make-over after the murders begin and other characters notice her change in attitude (it’s strictly presented as an increase in confidence and assertiveness).
Purnell also has solid chemistry with Lynch, whose AJ is adorable but dangerously perceptive. Even more important are Rhiannon’s evolving interactions with Lecky’s Julia, who begins the series as her prime adversary and then slowly becomes something else. Julia is a great example of how women are forced to adopt specific roles and behaviours, which they internalize and wield like a weapon against other women. The toxicity of quote/unquote socially acceptable female traits is one of the series’ most intriguing, albeit surface-level, considerations.
While it would have been nice for Sweetpea to interrogate these ideas more deeply, the series ultimately opts to prioritize Rhiannon’s often humorous, occasionally macabre, and always entertaining revenge plot. This makes for an enjoyable watch, though Sweetpea would be a stronger and more memorable series if it had a bit more bite.
Sweetpea airs weekly on Fridays on Starz starting October 11.
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