TV Review: SWEETPEA: Season 1, Episode 1: Sorry for Your Loss [Starz, NYCC 2024]

SWEETPEA: Season 1, Episode 1, Sorry for Your Loss [Starz, NYCC 2024]

New York Comic Con, Starz’s Sweetpea, Season 1, Episode 1, Sorry for Your Loss TV Review.

There is no shortage of serial killer and true crime content these days. Whether you prefer to digest your twisted stories through a four-hour-long podcast, read a five-hundred-page book, or watch a 10-part series on any number of streaming services, there is something out there for everyone. While the true crime boom may have waned in the last couple of years, it’s still one of the most popular genres across all media platforms. The new series from Starz, Sweetpea, enters the true crime arena just left of the ring, where dark comedy meets serial killer fiction. It asks the question, how does one become a serial killer?

Episode one, Sorry for Your Loss, lays the groundwork for what to expect from the rest of the six-episode series. It begins with our lead (Ella Purnell), who seems to be moving through life like a ghost. Her boss doesn’t notice her (Jeremy Swift, who also coins her name, Sweetpea); she has a sister who doesn’t answer her phone calls (Olivia Brady); and on top of that, she lives in rainy old London, which adds to the gloom of her character and the world of the show. And if things couldn’t get any worse for Rhiannon (spoiler, things get continually worse), her father dies. She has lost the one person on the planet who cared about her and showed her any attention or affection.

Instead of breaking down, Rhiannon freezes over. Ella Purnell has these incredibly large, doughy eyes that carry a certain sorrow in her character. It’s in those eyes that she holds all her internal pain and suffering. On paper, this is a sad event, but in the show, we laugh and squirm in our seats at the awkward interactions Rhiannon has with the guests. Most don’t even know who she is, and when they find out, offer a few petty condolences before moving past her to talk to someone else. She’s more than invisible; she’s a doormat. Another building block for what occurs at the end of the episode. Everything is pushing Rhiannon to a boiling point, and the show constantly asks the viewers, “Well, what would you do?”

Sweetpea was created and written by showrunner Kirstie Swain. The series was adapted from a novel of the same name by CJ Skuse. Which isn’t surprising; before the true crime boom about ten or twelve years ago, the genre thrived in literature for decades. I use the word “true crime” to discuss Sweetpea, but it is solely a work of fiction. Similar to the way that Mary Harron’s adaptation of American Psycho satirizes the serial killer story. Where that film explores masculinity and 1980’s consumerism, Sweetpea analyzes the world it creates through the female lens.

The first episode is strong, and it culminates in the proverbial final straw for Rhiannon. You can use your imagination, but the show is marketed as a serial killer origin story, so don’t think too hard. Keeping the series to six episodes is also a wise choice. Shows today tend to overstay their welcome and squander good episodes by keeping it going for too long. While I don’t know how well the series executes the remaining five episodes, six is much easier to digest than ten.

Sweetpea feels entirely like a product of its time. In a post-me-too world where abortion rights were just stripped federally in the United States, this revolution will certainly be televised in the form of a six-part Starz series.

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