The Cutprice Guignol

You know, a few years ago, I wrote an article wondering what it would look like for a show to deconstruct femininity the same way that so much contemporary television has deconstructed masculinity. At the time, I couldn’t come up with an answer to that question, but little did I know that it was on its way – specifically, in the form of 2020’s I Hate Suzie, created by Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper, and starring the latter.

Look, I spend a lot of time needlessly defending bad television on this blog. I get that. I do. I’m a self-proclaimed connoisseur of the terrible TV show – as the filmmaner Werner Herzog says, “the poet must not avert his eyes”. I’m sure he was talking about Riverdale when he said that.

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Sometimes, I just don’t feel like jumping into a whole series, you know? It just feels like too much of a commitment to sit down and stick to six or eight or twenty-four episodes, when I could be spending my time brewing elaborate teas and smelling my cats head.

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