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.
In fairness to Rhiannon, AJ did call her a monster when he discovered her secret life. It’s why, when we reunite with our heroine in Sweetpea Season 2, she’s still a bit in shock. In the show’s recently released trailer, she’s venting to a kindly waitress about her “break-up.” Of course, she doesn’t reveal every detail about her falling out with AJ, if only to get the exact advice she needs to hear.
“He didn’t understand you,” Rhiannon’s new confidante says. “It doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person... You’re a complicated woman. Lean into who you are.”
After wrestling with her darker urges in Season 1, it seems like Rhiannon is finally catching up with the version of the character we meet in the book series. “I’m gonna live my truth!” she triumphantly declares at the end of the trailer, signaling a shift from self-denial into an assured (if misguided) new era.
Rhiannon is living in her truth — and owning her status as “monster” — in Sweetpea Season 2.
Per the new season’s official synopsis, Sweetpea will next find Rhiannon grappling with “a new promotion, an irresistible rebound, and a copycat killer threatening to expose her.” As she navigates mounting pressure at work and her private and romantic life, “Rhiannon is forced to question whether her perfect ex, AJ, was right: Is she a monster?”
If Sweetpea Season 2 is about living in one’s truth, Rhiannon will likely find herself owning the denigrating term, accepting her murderous urges, and finding a balance with her mild-mannered public persona. That all will be easier said than done, of course, but maybe that’s just the drama this series needs to land on more people’s radar.
