With so many streaming services to subscribe to nowadays, it’s inevitable that one slips through the cracks — and that means that its programming, however great, will also slip past our radar. Starz is one such service, and Sweetpea one of its most underrated shows. Ella Purnell might be best known for her work on Prime Video’s Fallout, or Paramount’s Yellowjackets, but she delivered an equally worthy performance in Sweetpea as Rhiannon Lewis, an unassuming secretary who lets out steam by murdering annoying men. The series hasn’t gotten the same attention as Purnell’s other, splashier roles, but its first season is well worth the same praise.
While the show is based on the novels by CJ Skuse, Sweetpea’s first season was essentially a prequel to the book series, tracing Rhiannon’s origins from mousy assistant to the calculated serial murderer we meet on the page. Across six episodes, Rhiannon justified her murder spree by targeting only people who “deserved it.” But Sweetpea’s finale sees her diverting from that brief when she attacks AJ (Calam Lynch), her love interest, co-worker, and the one person who seemed to be on her side no matter what.
