Sweetpea

Sweetpea (2024)


Starring: Calam Lynch, Dustin Demri-Burns, Ella Purnell, Jeremy Swift, Jon Pointing, Leah Harvey, Nicôle Lecky

Once more Ella Purnell shines brightly in this familiar but enjoyable tale of murder and chaos….

If Dexter Morgan showed us anything apart from how NOT to end a TV show (twice), is how easy it is to sympathise with a killer, if they are targeting those who are doing others wrong. The delightful Ella Purnell who is vastly making waves on the small screen carries this entire tale of a young woman with a thirst for blood in this tasty offering that doesn’t rip the rule book for this particular genre, but does more than enough to make you binge-watch and hope for a second season.

Playing the shy Rhiannon, we are introduced from the off to someone who is angry at the world. With the typical voice over of her inner thoughts, we are shown those she’d like to to kill, from the till operator in the local store that ignores her presence, to her manager who treats her like a clothes rail, no one is safe from her inner rage, which is added to the sudden death of her Dad and the uncaring attitude of her sister Seren (Alexandra Dowling) who lives in France and really has no thought about the mental state and welfare of her sibling.

The emotional arc of the plot is not quite the over-kill it suggests, especially as her beloved pet Chihuahua, suffers a tragic accident, as the story does enough to try and get the viewer to side with the lead character and to be fair it succeeds, mainly because of Purnell who is such an easy and likeable watch.

The arrival of Julia Blenkingsopp (Nicôle Lecky). a former bully who made Rhiannon’s school life so awful to the point that she pulled her own hair out, just adds to the fire that is starting to burn within her mind, especially as this unwelcome return starts to invade and interfere with her own personal life.

Sick of not being seen and heard and with life becoming nothing but a constant battle, Rhiannon finally snaps, a brutal murder at her own hands awakes something. Like a coming of age drama, the kill finally makes her feels alive to this world, the bloodshed creating a huge air of confidence to go with the blooded knife in her pocket, she has released the rage, but of course, like in all these tales, once you have that taste, you want more and soon more victims are being targeted. These brutal acts catches the eye of ambitious young detective Marina (Leah Harvey), who shares similar traits with the woman she believes is a murderer and while a cat and mouse game doesn’t quite develop, there is scope in the plot between these two to suggest a bright arc if future series are greenlit!

Based on the novel by C.J. Skuse, SWEETPEA is an engaging six-episode run which cleverly gets you on the side of the killer, but offers enough hints to suggest that perhaps some of the wrong doing’s in her life are from her own actions, like is she really ignored in her workplace when she totally brushes off the charm and friendly approach of her new co-worker, AJ (Calam Lynch)?.

As each episode progresses, so does her attitude, with Julia becoming more of a target and while it loses some of its momentum during the latter stage it does build to a satisfying finale that can either be a fitting ending or a tantalising cliff-hanger, either way fans of DEXTER and YOU will no doubt be happy to share the gory antics with this new killer in town.

Rating:

SWEETPEA is available to watch on SKY or NOW TV