I Hate Suzie is a British dark comedy-drama created by Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper. Piper stars as the titular Suzie Pickles, an actress and former teen pop star whose life begins to spiral after compromising photos of her are leaked to the public by a hacker. The fallout unfolds over 8 Genre Shifting half-hour episodes titled after Suzie's emotional state in a play on the Five Stages of Grief.
The series premiered on Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the UK and HBO Max in the US in 2020 and was met with critical acclaim. The series, Piper, and co-star Leila Farzad who plays Suzie's manager Naomi Jones all received BAFTA nominations.
I Hate Suzie was renewed for a three-episode second series, released in 2022 as I Hate Suzie Too.
I Hate Suzie provides examples of:
- Actor Allusion: Suzie's therapist is named Rose.
- Adam Westing: Although strictly fictional and not autobiographical at all, details of Suzie's fictional career feel reminiscent of Billie Piper's own.Naomi: Can you try and talk about AfterDeath, rather than the sci-fi you did 12 years ago?
- All Take and No Give: Although Suzie and Naomi have been best friends since childhood, Suzie takes her for granted. She can get a bit too dependent on Naomi to be her Living Emotional Crutch and Mum Friend while failing to notice that Naomi has problems of her own that she could use support from her friend on.
- Benevolent Boss: Naomi is both a manager and a long time friend to Suzie. They can hang out casually and are usually candid with one another. Naomi even brings her drugs.
- Coattail-Riding Relative: Suzie's parents are willing to do an interview about her in the press for thousands of pounds.
- Crowd Pleaser: Over the course of the series, it becomes increasingly clear that Suzie has spent most of her life, both privately and in front of the public, being defined by what others wanted from her and existing to please them.
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Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Frank's actor Matthew Jordan-Caws is deaf in real life. - Double Standard: Suzie comes to the realisation of what all of this has cost her whilst Carter's life and career remains unscathed despite being at least as guilty of adultery as she is.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Cob is a Smug Snake who ostensibly holds the belief that his career as a university lecturer is superior to Suzie's artistic one, despite Suzie being the clear breadwinner who funds their household.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Suzie takes her anger over being dropped from the project out on a car honking at her. The driver records her outburst.
- Passed-Over Promotion: Suzie has been in the process of securing a gig with Disney as a career boost. Disney are initially sympathetic to her situation, but ultimately drop her after several PR disasters.
- Rage Breaking Point: The penultimate episode "Anger" documents Suzie finally losing her temper with just about everyone who crosses her path, burning any bridges she may have had left with the show business world.
