An experimental romp into the mind of child popstar turned TV actor that’s a fresh take on modern-day feminism, celebrity culture, and the male gaze.

I Hate Suzie is for the viewer who loved Fleabag and I May Destroy You’s blistering comedy and realistic take on the perils of modern day femininity. Suzie—played beautifully by Billie Piper, the show's co-creator—struggles with her marriage, career, and general sense of self after intimate photos of her are leaked to the public. Within the first episode, we learn that this leak is even more compromising than it seems, as it threatens to tear her family, marriage, and entire life apart. On top of it all, Suzie and her best friend/manager, Naomi, must work to juggle the watchful eye of the public in order to both stay employed. The stakes could not be higher.

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Each episode moves the viewer through her reeling span of emotions—shock, denial, shame, anger, just to name a few—while winding through her mind, her internal monologue, and even her thought process while trying to repair her image. It's an edgy and evolved look at what it means to be a woman today, celebrity or not.

I always find myself rolling my eyes at TV shows when they try to take on serious issues and then treat them like clickbait, i.e. assault, female desire, or fidelity. I think that too often the female characters are reduced to being flat or one-sided, and it bothers me when I know how complex our experiences actually are. I was so thrilled when I Hate Suzie came along: it offers breadth, nuance, and humor to a traumatic situation in an incredibly moving and cinematic way.

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I’ve always been a fan of Billie Piper and Lucy Prebble—the show’s creators, who met working on Secret Diary of a Call Girl—and find that their voices shine through as this show addresses some of the darker aspects of femininity. The way they meld Suzie’s perspective with her not-always-morally-sound actions humanizes her character and grounds her as a truly modern and complex woman.