If you’ve been keeping up to date with the 2024 TV schedule, you’d know that Starz just premiered a new show—Sweetpea, starring Ella Purnell. The show itself is complex, with many themes, but Purnell told us that even if it can be “difficult to describe,” there’s something in Sweetpea for everyone to relate to.
For those who don’t know, Sweetpea, which is available to watch now, is a dark comedy about a young woman named Rhiannon (Purnell) who has been overlooked her whole life but starts to become more sure of herself when she ultimately murders those who take advantage of her – and of course, there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. While Starz’s best shows have never strayed from taking dark turns, Sweetpea certainly stands out as one that tests the morality of the viewer and what they think is rightly deserved when standing up for oneself.
I had the chance to talk with Purnell regarding the show and Rhiannon’s actions throughout the series, as well as how she and the Sweetpea team went about combining these different ideas of ‘female rage’ and ‘insecurity’ into a dark comedy such as this. Purnell honestly said that the series itself is “difficult to describe” since it does combine so many ideas, but there’s one question she believes is the centerpiece of the show: “How much can one person take?” Purnell shared her thoughts, saying:
“It’s a coming-of-rage story. It’s about female rage. There are inherently feminist themes in it in terms that most women can relate to Rhiannon in episode one, where she’s getting constantly overlooked, her boss has got this patronizing nickname for her, people are manspread on the bus, and she just smiles through it and can’t stand up for herself. It’s also a story of sisterhood. It’s a story of morality, of grief, trauma, childhood trauma. And there’s so many different elements – it, at times, can be challenging to tie all of those things in. But I think the one thing that ties all of it in is this question that I kept coming back to: how much can one person take? And I think…I mean, I’m sure that’s a very relatable thing for so many people, but it’s hit after hit after hit. We kind of relate to Rhiannon, we relate to her emotions, we relate to her motivations, even though we don’t relate to her actions.”
For the Fallout actress, this isn’t the first time she’s taken on a complex character that challenges her, but many fans can relate to what they are going through. She voiced the antihero/villain of Arcane, Jinx, and starred in the Yellowjackets cast in Season 1. She also portrays Lucy, the lead of Fallout, who has her own story full of grief and drama going on (and will continue to do so in Fallout Season 2).
Rhiannon is just another excellent example of that – a complex character who begins to value herself so much she begins to take out those who devalue her. Obviously, any viewer watching this might think it’s a tad far, but as Purnell continued, there’s a “small part” that just might be proud of Rhiannon for standing up for herself:
She goes through so much that by the time she finally stands up for herself, even though what she’s doing is horrific and unthinkable, a small part of you is like, ‘Yeah, how much can one person take?’ A small part of you is proud. I always say, without the murders, it’s actually quite a sweet coming-of-age story about a woman finding her voice and learning to stand up for herself and becoming a person. It’s just that she has a funny way of going about it sometimes.
There are certainly some great coming-of-age comedies out there, but Sweetpea takes the cake if you needed a dark comedy version of it—and Rhiannon is the perfect example of a character who just takes it to another level of becoming secure in oneself, if not a little too far. But you go, girl. You can catch new episodes of Sweetpea on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz.