I Hate Suzie Too, Now TV
Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper got together once more this Christmas for a follow up to I Hate Suzie. Like the first series, I Hate Suzie Too has an arty, experimental feel and is starkly referential of Billie Piper’s real life.
In this second series, central character Suzie Pickles must take part in a Strictly-esque dance competition in order to revive her career. For the show, she is paired with her fictional ex-husband Bailey (Douglas Hodge) an uncanny homage to Chris Evans. Bailey is funny, magnanimous and harmless – a friend to Suzie akin to the friendship that Piper and Evans profess to having in real life.
The central theme of this follow up series is the artifice of celebrity. While taking part in the dance show, Suzie is forced to watch VTs of herself as her agent and publicist deconstruct her natural mannerisms and personality. In another scene, she is forced to wrangle her unruly, working-class family into the perfect picture of domestic bliss. It’s an interesting look at the undignified and desperate life of a tabloid celebrity that Billie Piper is all too qualified to illustrate.
21st century feminist themes pervade the story: Suzie’s ex-husband uses his own sensitivity and self-awareness to gaslight and manipulate her – all the while taking her money. Their custody battle draws attention to the law handicapping bread-winning women – something we’ve heard a lot less about than men who deride handing over half of their earnings in divorce.
The mode in which these ideas surface in I Hate Suzie Too is probably the opposite of Christmassy. The prevailing mood of the show is chaos and desperation, encapsulated in the programme’s ending – when Suzie reveals her custody battle and fight for her career have caused her to lose her hair.
Not a traditional drama and not conventional Christmas viewing for its bleakness and franticness, but I Hate Suzie Too certainly has the ability to make you think about the falseness of celebrity and the unique struggle of women in the spotlight.
