I Hate Suzie Too

British playwright Lucy Prebble avoids the comfortable patterns that audiences seek out in television for something more challenging instead.

On [Succession](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/nicholas-braun-interview), a similarly flat [drug](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/magic-mushroom-the-great-shroom-boom) experience comes for [Tom Wambsgans](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/tom-wambsgans-watch-succession) when he takes coke only to get sadder and sadder at Kendall’s birthday party. [Billie Piper](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/billie-piper-interview) as an off-the-rails former child star navigating a [sex scandal](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/andrew-cuomo-sex-scandal) and imploding marriage. Over Zoom from Surrey, where she has returned from filming season four of Succession, she speaks to GQ about why she avoids where the audience wants the writing to go, and how everything became a dark comedy. I’m always really keen to subvert that narrative expectation, when there’s a difference between what narratives tend to do and what life tends to do. [Succession](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/succession-season-4). In the first season, the possibility of a cocaine-fuelled [threesome](https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/threesome) fails to materialise.

Billie Piper can really dance. This much is clear from the bonkers opening sequence of I Hate Suzie Too in which she outmasks The Masked Singer performing a ...

Where I Hate Suzie was a horror show that revelled in its star’s misery, I Hate Suzie Too cuts much closer to the bone by giving Suzie heart. And it makes for a suitably off-kilter reintroduction to Suzie Pickles, the shamed pop star who went so hysterically off the rails in I Hate Suzie. This much is clear from the bonkers opening sequence of I Hate Suzie Too in which she outmasks The Masked Singer performing a demented solo to Crystal Waters hit Gypsy Woman dressed up as a cat on acid.

Billie Piper's bold drama returns with an abortion scene and a timely conversation about how women in the public eye are treated...

Suzie represents a messiness and complexity that's not often granted to female main characters, or even afforded to real women in their daily lives for that matter. But others are simply indicative of someone's right to choose what happens to their own body; a means of having autonomy. Many have been sharing their own stories in a move to highlight just how varied the circumstances can be. Of course abortion is a sensitive topic, one that can illicit emotive responses from those with personal stories to tell. [Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/03/billie-piper-interview-i-hate-suzie), star and producer Billie Piper explained: "I think it's important to show things authentically. Sure, some are life-saving in the very literal sense. "When you see something and you think, 'Well, that's weird, because that happens a lot in real life, but I've never seen it.' That feeling always makes me go towards it." But rather than using this as a big plot device or a catalyst for further trauma, I Hate Suzie Too sees its lead making a more matter-of-fact decision to have an early at-home abortion. While we're not about to argue that TV dramas are going to come along and fix all of this mess, the narratives they convey and the discussions that they start have a very tangible role in shaping the zeitgeist. [I May Destroy You](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a32792241/i-may-destroy-you-review/) and the BBC's adaptation of Sally Rooney's [Normal People](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a32253270/normal-people-review-nudity/), it was [one piece](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a35011367/best-tv-2020/) of a very specific puzzle. I Hate Suzie Too continues that legacy, perfectly encapsulating the exhaustion of existing in a world that caters to men by default. But this more mundane set of circumstances is one that exists for women and those with a uterus as well, and it's a bold and important move to point the camera in that direction – especially right now.

I Hate Suzie's new supporting stars have shared some intriguing insight into how the second season of Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble's acclaimed drama will ...

“We see that play out and how he’s putting on a veneer at times, or pouring his pain into something else. “But he has to go through a lot of hurt and a lot of pain whilst doing that. For the continuation of 2020’s critically acclaimed celebrity drama, newcomers Blake Harrison and Douglas Hodge spoke exclusively to They’re both hurting. Newcomers Blake and Douglas endured plenty of physical and emotional challenges on the set of I Hate Suzie Too. Both Blake and Douglas had to endure one of the most demanding shoots of their career to bring Lucy and Billie’s vision to life in such spectacular fashion.

I Hate Suzie returns for its second season (I Hate Suzie Too) on Thursday, December 22, on HBO Max. The dark comedy stars Billie Piper as Suzie, a former.

You can check out my [review of HBO Max](https://www.groundedreason.com/hbo-max-is-replacing-hbo-now-on-some-devices/) for more details on this streaming service. A subscription to HBO Max costs $14.99 per month for their ad-free plan and $9.99 per month for their ad-supported service (meaning a few commercials with every episode). Content on HBO Max includes: [Billie Piper](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0684877/) as Suzie, a former teenage pop star and television actress struggling to keep her life together after compromising photos of her are leaked. Between her floundering marriage, protecting her young son, and a surprise pregnancy, Suzie is a mess, and leans on her friend and agent Naomi ( [Leila Farzad](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3355536/?ref_=tt_cl_t_2)) to help her stay afloat. I Hate Suzie airs exclusively on HBO Max.

It may be the televisual equivalent of a panic attack – but TV doesn't get any weirder, sadder or more fearlessly magnificent.

I Hate Suzie Too is a tour de force, in which Piper, once again, gives the performance of a lifetime. A revelatory sequence follows in which she repeatedly goes to the toilet to change her sanitary towel. Meanwhile, the dynamic between her and (now ex) agent Naomi Jones (Leila Farzad) continues to be the real central relationship of the show. She takes the pills, spreads a towel on the bed and waits for the clots to come. There’s a wonderful scene in which they meet up in a bar after months of estrangement and, after pretending to one another (and themselves) that they’re not drinking, end up getting wrecked and setting the world to rights in a series of bars, toilet cubicles and dancefloors. Over three episodes, she dances like Marcel Marceau in the midst of a manic meltdown. Which falls in a dark chasm somewhere between Strictly, Love Island and the fifth, sixth and seventh rings of Dante’s hell. And she still gets voted off in the first week. In the first episode Suzie has an at-home abortion. Suzie, made up like a clown and sporting a silver bow so giant it’s closer to a straitjacket, is trailed along backstage corridors of a TV studio by the holy trinity of nightmare entourages: agent, publicist, production assistant. If you thought the start of I Hate Suzie was claustrophobic, just wait until you see the start of I Hate Suzie Too (Sky Atlantic). Paul Roberts, who worked with Piper when she was a child star in the 90s, is responsible for the remarkable choreography.

Tortured by her insecurities, Suzie is a heroine for our times.

“I’m not a bad dancer. The humour remains pitch-black (“I want to crawl into a hole and die – slash – take care of my kid,” Suzie tells her agent; “Well, your kid’s not going to be very happy in the hole with a dead mum,” Sian replies) and utterly unsentimental. “I’m not a bad mother,” declares Suzie, defiantly. Having hit rock bottom by the end of the first season (marriage ended, career in tatters, an unexpected pregnancy looming), Suzie is now making a home for herself amid the pebbly detritus of her life as was. Piper’s incredible facial elasticity, matched by the physicality of her performance, turns her self-destructive streak into a Punch and Judy show where she plays both protagonists. [I Hate Suzie](/topic/i-hate-suzie) – created by Piper along with Diary of a Call Girl collaborator, and Succession writer, [Lucy Prebble](/topic/lucy-prebble) – was a tremendous showcase for Piper’s ability, and it returns now for a short second season: I Hate Suzie Too.

Billie Piper's Suzie Pickles is back and, boy, is she having a time of it. In the first series of this no-holds-barred black comedy we saw — amid giant ...

Tortured by her insecurities, Suzie is a heroine for our times.

“I’m not a bad dancer. The humour remains pitch-black (“I want to crawl into a hole and die – slash – take care of my kid,” Suzie tells her agent; “Well, your kid’s not going to be very happy in the hole with a dead mum,” Sian replies) and utterly unsentimental. “I’m not a bad mother,” declares Suzie, defiantly. Having hit rock bottom by the end of the first season (marriage ended, career in tatters, an unexpected pregnancy looming), Suzie is now making a home for herself amid the pebbly detritus of her life as was. Piper’s incredible facial elasticity, matched by the physicality of her performance, turns her self-destructive streak into a Punch and Judy show where she plays both protagonists. [I Hate Suzie](/topic/i-hate-suzie) – created by Piper along with Diary of a Call Girl collaborator, and Succession writer, [Lucy Prebble](/topic/lucy-prebble) – was a tremendous showcase for Piper’s ability, and it returns now for a short second season: I Hate Suzie Too.

I Hate Suzie Too star Omari Douglas, who plays Suzie's PR Holland, has opened up about the possibility of a third series of the critically acclaimed show.

I really admire Billie and Lucy." it's like her performance comes from a place of really wanting to sort of challenge how women are perceived on screen," he explained. "I guess no-one really knows at the moment whether Billie and Lucy just wanted to tell this part of the story and then that's it. I don't know whether they also wanted to carry on telling [Suzie]'s story. Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, he's opened up about whether he'd like to be invited back if a third series gets the go-ahead. [I Hate Suzie Too](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a33858120/i-hate-suzie-season-2-release-date-sky/) star Omari Douglas has opened up about the possibility of a third series of the [critically-acclaimed show](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a33825035/billie-piper-sky-atlantic-i-hate-suzie-praised/).