Critic Reviews

As well as wit by the bucketload and a searching intelligence informing the whole, the series has the thrilling confidence of a collaboration between people who trust each other implicitly and, secure in that knowledge, have been able to give the best of themselves to us. It’s a wild ride that feels like an absolute gift.

I Hate Suzie is a glorious mess of ideas, a potent, fizzing monument to the creativity of its makers. Piper will steal the plaudits, and she is magnificent, the camera hugging her face, making it alternately beautiful and grotesque, as we live inside her unravelling mind. However, it is far from a one-woman show, with Ings superb as the scowling, wronged, feckless Cob and Leila Farzad stealing scenes as Suzie’s long-suffering agent. Prebble’s script is typically sharp, occasionally reaching Succession-like heights of jet-black satire.

Piper gives an extraordinary performance. ... The eight-episode series tells a complete story, and the finale, "Acceptance," is an emotionally wrenching treasure. But I Hate Suzie should be Piper and Prebble's Fleabag moment.

At times excruciating to watch, at others laugh-out-loud funny, I Hate Suzie Too will probably be as divisive as the first series but this is a singular and boundary-pushing viewpoint of both the absurdity of celebrity and the impossibility of womanhood that Prebble and Piper pull off with confidence.

I Hate Suzie Too is a tour de force, in which Piper, once again, gives the performance of a lifetime.

Above all, I Hate Suzie is a masterclass in tone. ... I Hate Suzie is ambitious, thorny, darkly humorous, and incredibly charming—a portrait of vulnerability that bewitches not by prettifying itself, or making itself ugly, but instead with stark, unfiltered honesty. Suzie is not always the hero of this story—the title indicates she’s sometimes her own worst enemy—but the show’s dedication to her range of being is what ends up making I Hate Suzie so lovable.

Alas, there is no fun, nor joy, nor good tidings to anyone to be found here. And I Hate Suzie Too is brilliant for it—for once again painfully, beautifully leaning into the deleterious effects of unprocessed trauma. ... I Hate Suzie Too is much more constrained than its predecessor, in part because of its more limited runtime. But it is not short of unforgettable moments.

At each point in the season when Suzie is faced with a pivotal decision, part of what makes “I Hate Suzie” fascinating is that both paths forward for her seem plausible. For every self-destructive leaning, there’s an equally viable route that won’t erase her past mistakes altogether, but at least will be a step towards alleviating the damage they’ve caused. That this show can present both options and still generate understanding for Suzie — regardless of where she goes next — is an effective trick to pull off.

Piper has a rare gift for eliciting sympathy, even as Pickles keeps making new mistakes in her effort to disguise the old ones. What emerges is a black-comedy-horror about female friendship, modern fame, and the impossibility of true privacy in a world where everyone has an online video camera in their pockets.

The first episode lags ever so slightly towards the end, once the Petersons are in Paris and Albie runs off to do teenage boy things, leaving his parents alone with each other again. But this is classic Sunday night viewing all the same: funny and touching and acutely observed.