Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Momo and Okarun share a close moment in Dandadan

    Momo And Okarun: The Gold Standard For Shonen Romance

    07/03/2025
    Ironheart Episodes 4 6 But Why Tho 1

    ‘Ironheart’ Explained: Explore MCU’s Bold New Chapter

    07/01/2025
    Buck in 9-1-1

    ‘9-1-1’ Has To Let Buck Say Bisexual

    06/29/2025
    Nintendo Welcome Tour promotional image of the maraca mini-game

    The One “Game” That Justifies The Nintendo Switch 2 Purchase

    06/25/2025
    Destiel Confession in Supernatural - Castiel (Misha Collins) and Dean (Jensen Ackles)

    The Destiel Confession: The Lasting Importance Of Supernatural’s Greatest Ship

    06/22/2025
  • Squid Game
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Switch 2 Games
  • Summer Game Fest
But Why Tho?
Home » TV » REVIEW: You Will Love ‘I Hate Suzie’

REVIEW: You Will Love ‘I Hate Suzie’

Jason FlattBy Jason Flatt01/04/20215 Mins ReadUpdated:06/28/2025
I Hate Suzie - But Why Tho
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

I Hate Suzie is an 8-episode comedy-drama from Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble. Having originally aired on Britain’s Sky Atlantic, it is available for streaming on HBO Max and stars Piper, Daniel Ings, and Leila Farzad.

Suzie Pickles (Piper) was a child star who actually made it into a career as an actor without suffering the typical slings and arrows of child stardom. Sure, she has a history of drug abuse, but she’s well-adjusted now with her husband Cob (Ings) and her son Frank (Matthew Jordan-Cobbs). That is until illicit photos of her having sex with Carter (Nathaniel Martello-White), the showrunner of the series she is currently acting in, are leaked online.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Her best friend and manager, Naomi (Farzad), is doing everything she can to help Suzie with damage control and keeping her career and life on track. But this gross violation of her privacy and dignity is unraveling everything from her relationships to her mental health.

I Hate Suzie is superb. Each episode follows Suzie through the stages of her coping with the leak and its impact on her life and career. Each episode is directed in a slightly different style to reflect the stage Suzie finds herself in. For example, she uses horror elements and editing while she grapples with fear and paranoia, and uses a voiceover to represent her inner thoughts while she works through acceptance. Through it all, Piper acts phenomenally.

Billie Piper has a brilliant meltdown in I Hate Suzie.

Billie Piper in I Hate Suzie

The slow spiral of her mental health is portrayed so astutely without ever becoming a caricature or over the top. While everyone around her is casting doubt or blame onto Suzie, Piper’s acting makes it impossible not to continuously remember that ultimately, she is the victim, not the other people in her life.

I Hate Suzie‘s subtle brilliance stems from the way the first half of the series plays with the viewers’ sympathy for everybody but Suzie. It tries to make Suzie unlikable at first so that, like Cob and Carter believe of themselves, viewers may see them as victims. It makes you fight to remember that Suzie is, in fact, the victim of a heinous crime, not them.

Much like the real world, where the victims of leaks are easily blamed for having taken lewd photos or cheated on their spouses rather than being defended, protected, and empathized with, the show walks you along that path in the beginning. Until it bursts your bubble, and you ultimately feel stupid for ever having even considered giving Cob or Carter an ounce of your sympathy.

Yet, I Hate Suzie is more deep and complex than just that one dimension. There is also Suzie’s relationship with her son, Frank, and her best friend/manager, Naomi. Suzie treats both of them pretty poorly. Frank is deaf and often gets used as a prop in his parents’ lives, screaming at each other because he can’t hear or pretending to get along right in front of him while saying terrible things to one another.

Lucy Prebble pens a beautiful story of the horrors and triumphs of womanhood in I Hate Suzie.

I Hate Suzie Billie Piper

It’s heartbreaking to see how Frank is treated, especially knowing the relationship Suzie has with her own family. Additionally, there is some discomfort with how a deaf child and actor are used as this prop. Still, it is compensated for with numerous scenes of Suzie or Cob treating him like a real deaf child and getting to see Frank as a full human being, despite being only 7 years old.

As for Naomi, she’s the type of best friend and manager who puts Suzie before herself constantly in a very typical rom-com kind of way. Suzie treats her rather poorly. But she isn’t just a side character. Naomi has entire scenes to herself nearly every episode and gets to be her own full-fledged person, too. As the whole show constantly reflects on what it is to be a woman in a world dominated by menm and what it means to have wants, needs, and desires as a woman.

Naomi gets to enjoy growth on these fronts just as much, if not even more, than Suzie does. As somewhat of a foil to Suzie’s character, watching Naomi’s development alongside Suzie’s is excellent, and while more subtle than Piper’s, Farzad’s acting is equally superb.

The show’s use of music throughout is also excellent. It sometimes matches the mood and direction perfectly. At others, it intentionally subverts the mood to illustrate that what we see before us as viewers is not what is going on inside Suzie’s head. Some scenes go on a tad too long, perhaps, but they go on for so long as clear directorial choices that pay off in the end.

You will love I Hate Suzie. It’s an 8-episode descent into the doldrums of a former child star’s tragedy will leave you emotionally compromised and seriously considering who you see as victims in scandals and why you see them that way.

I Hate Suzie is streaming now on Max.

Next Season
I Hate Suzie
  • 9/10
    Rating - 9/10
9/10

TL;DR

You will love I Hate Suzy. Its 8-episode descent into the doldrums of a former child star’s tragedy will leave you emotionally compromised and seriously considering who you see as victims in scandals and why you see them that way.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy,’—Chapter 2: “Earthrise”
Next Article RREVIEW: ‘Death to 2020,’ – When all you can do is laugh.
Jason Flatt
  • X (Twitter)

Jason is the Sr. Editor at But Why Tho? and producer of the But Why Tho? Podcast. He's usually writing about foreign films, Jewish media, and summer camp.

Related Posts

Taecyeon and Seohyun in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8
7.5

REVIEW: ‘The First Night With The Duke’ Episodes 7-8

07/03/2025
Anthony Ramos in Ironheart Episodes 4-6

REVIEW: ‘Ironheart’ Episodes 4-6

07/01/2025
The Bear Season 4 But Why Tho 3
7.0

REVIEW: ‘The Bear’ Season 4 Tries to Bounce Back

06/30/2025
Squid Game Season 3
9.5

REVIEW: ‘Squid Game’ Season 3 Delivers An Emotion-Filled Finale

06/27/2025
Taecyeon in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 5-6
7.5

REVIEW: ‘The First Night With The Duke’ Episodes 5-6

06/26/2025
Cho Yi-hyun in Head Over Heels Episodes 1-2
8.0

REVIEW: ‘Head Over Heels’ Episodes 1-2

06/24/2025

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Taecyeon and Seohyun in The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8
7.5
TV

REVIEW: ‘The First Night With The Duke’ Episodes 7-8

By Sarah Musnicky07/03/2025

The First Night With The Duke Episodes 7-8 spends welcome time in pre-domestic bliss before new developments stir up trouble.

Together (2025) still from Sundance
8.0
Film

REVIEW: Have A Grossly Good Time ‘Together’

By Kate Sánchez01/27/2025Updated:07/04/2025

Dave Franco and Alison Brie’s Together (2025) is disgustingly funny, genuinely ugly, and just a good time at the movies.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4 Alcatraz
9.0
PS5

REVIEW: ‘Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4’ Gives Old Games New Life

By Kyle Foley07/07/2025

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and 4 is another example of how to breathe new life into a classic without losing touch of what makes the originals great.

Black Women Anime — But Why Tho (9) BWT Recommends

10 Black Women in Anime That Made Me Feel Seen

By LaNeysha Campbell11/11/2023Updated:12/03/2024

Black women are some of anime’s most iconic characters, and that has a big impact on Black anime fans. Here are some of our favorites.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here