There are so many polite ways to put it. “Compromising photos.” “Images of an intimate nature.” “Hacked nudes.” Over the course of the eight episodes of HBOMax’s I Hate Suzie, Suzie Pickles’ (Billie Piper) family, friends, and professional network uses dozens of bland innuendoes to talk around what has happened to her. Here’s putting it plainly: In the first episode, titled “Shock,” Suzie discovers that photos of her having sex have been stolen from her phone and disseminated online.
As the star of a zombie show, a former pop singer, and a beloved heroine from a cult science-fiction series, Suzie is just enough of a celebrity to be famous, but not quite enough of one to have a fleet of personal assistants and litigious lawyers at her command. Indeed, as of right now, Suzie’s success hinges on a deal that has just—just—been inked: Disney is going to hire her for a project where she’ll play an “aging princess.” This morning, a cadre of photographers and set dressers are about to take over her house, transforming her into a magazine-friendly glamazon they’re calling a Cruella DeVil type, while the cleaning lady has taken over the kitchen and her son Frank (Matthew Jordan-Caws) is playing on his iPad upstairs. In an immersive, panicky sequence, the show takes us along on Suzie’s spiral, following as she inanely unplugs the modem and gathers up all the phones and tablets, as if sequestering the internet will somehow contain the damage. The camerawork comes in close to Piper’s face, giving us a claustrophobic view of her unfolding agitation.
When the team for the photo shoot arrives, everything gets even worse. They arrive with plants, furniture, equipment, dogs (dogs!), and swarm over the house, painting makeup on her face, swaddling her in a fur coat, yanking her hair back, dripping fake blood onto the set. Accentuated with black eyeshadow and red lipstick, she twists her features into caricatures of pleasantry, every twitch betraying how shattered she is. The photographer is inches away, clicking, asking her to make different faces. The publicist says she didn’t know that Suzie was allergic to dogs, but her agent said it was okay. They hold a quick summit in the bathroom.
The sequence would be very funny if it weren’t so horribly painful, an assault on Suzie’s senses that mirrors the violation she’s experienced. As it is, the episode takes on a kind of bewildering, surreal quality, where the true stakes of Suzie’s life have to be momentarily shoved aside for the performance of authenticity that is fundamental to her work.
The stomach-churning invasion of privacy is bad enough—but the pictures, which we don’t see for several episodes, apparently reveal more about Suzie than her exposed body. Suzie’s husband Cob (Daniel Ings) flies into a rage when he sees them. Her agent Naomi (Leila Farzad) is able to date the picture based on the highlights in her hair. They, along with hundreds and then thousands of commenters, will find details in these images that will endanger Suzie’s current job, her future work with Disney, her reputation with her family, and her marriage with Cob. I
Hate Suzie takes the viewer through eight phases of Suzie’s attempt to deal—including “Denial,” “Shame,” and “Bargaining”—giving an intimate view at the contradictory expectations and assumptions that govern her life, as well as the ingrained people-pleasing and acquiescence that has guided her thus far. Piper created the show with her friend, the writer Lucy Prebble, also a co-executive producer and writer on Succession, and much of that show’s dry humor and restraint can be seen in I Hate Suzie’s approach to what is essentially—though no one says it so bluntly—Suzie’s attempt to combat the world’s basic misogyny.
After all, Suzie’s the victim of a crime, but few people in her life see it that way. Instead, they think she’s amoral, irresponsible, a party girl. Piper’s Suzie has work to do on herself, sure, and one of the most rewarding elements of I Hate Suzie is how she ultimately uses the crisis to address what’s not working in her life. But the choice to be a bigger and better person was not her own; it was foisted upon her by a world that hates women, especially those that dare to be sexual in the public eye.
The Link LonkNovember 19, 2020 at 04:17AM
https://ift.tt/35Iktm4
Sharp and Funny, I Hate Suzie Brings Us on an Eight-Episode Meltdown - Vanity Fair
https://ift.tt/3eOfySK
Funny
No comments:
Post a Comment