I Hate Suzie Too

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.

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.

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.

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/).

I Hate Suzie, the darkly comic drama created by friends and collaborators Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper, was hailed as one of the best television programmes ...

It’s a challenging question, but it’s one that the show is concerned with.” Suzie has signed up for a TV dance competition, Dance Crazee, hoping to garner some support from the disapproving public and get some cash back in the bank, but it’s clear that the emotional rollercoaster she was put through in series one has not quite reached its final stop. She’s pregnant – we learn that at the end of series one.

I Hate Suzie Too star Douglas Hodge has revealed he was rather trepidatious after signing up for Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble's intense follow-up to their ...

Blake laughed and added: “But it was great fun. Really, really good to tap back into doing more dance and enjoying that, and the choreography was great.” “And on the way to rehearsals!” Douglas joked. [Doctor Who](/latest/doctor-who) companion, Billie Piper. Supporting star Douglas Hodge has admitted he was “reluctant” to get stuck into I Hate Suzie Too’s demanding dance sequences. “I was so reluctant about the whole thing if I’m honest,” Douglas admitted.

After the fallout from her hacking scandal, Suzie Pickles sinks to even lower point in her career when she agrees to star on a celebrity dance competition ...

It’s a massive blow to her confidence, made worse by the fact that she is also in the midst of her bitter divorce proceedings where her ex, Cob, is threatening her and wants to keep her from their son Frank. Is this going to be the Suzie Redemption Tour she hoped, or is it only going to make her feel worse about her life over the course of the show? Suzie knows that this will make her a punching bag for the show’s audience yet again, but she agrees, gives it her all when she returns to the show and… The one person who knows her better than everyone is Naomi, who quit working with Suzie (and now keeps Suzie in her phone under the label “Boundaries” instead of by her name, if that’s any indication of where they’re at), but Suzie is desperate for the comfort of the one person she used to trust, so she calls her up. Naomi, who is trying to conceive via IVF and move on with her life, and Suzie’s chaotic existence, really does try to keep a firm boundary with Suzie when they meet up, but soon enough, they’re drunk, doing MDMA in a club, and Naomi is advising Suzie on her career. Her star was already waning at that point in her career, but worse still, her longtime manager Naomi (Leila Farzad) left her, and the leak caused her to break up with her husband Cob (Daniel Ings).