First Sweetpea teaser finally lets Ella Purnell be British

There are two things we should clarify right up front about Sweetpea, Ella Purnell’s upcoming Starz series. First, it has nothing to do with Sweetbitter, the largely bland 2018 show about a New Yorker who lands a job at a swanky restaurant that also starred Purnell. Second, she finally, finally, gets to be British in it. Maybe Purnell’s future costars will actually believe her when she says she was born and raised in London when the show premieres this October. 

Oh, and a third thing to note: the Yellowjackets and Fallout star gets to kill people again (or at least fantasize about it) in it. Thank god. At this point, it would be almost jarring to watch her perform without blood all over her face. 

Billed as a “deviously twisted coming-of-rage story,” Sweetpea follows Rhiannon Lewis (Purnell), a quiet wallflower who “develops a vengeful and intoxicatingly liberating taste for murder.” The series’ logline reads as follows: “Rhiannon Lewis doesn’t make much of an impression-people walk past her in the street without a second glance. She’s continually overlooked for a promotion at work, the guy she likes won’t commit, and her dad is really sick. Then everything in her life turns upside down. Rhiannon is pushed over the edge and loses control. Suddenly the wallflower is gone, and in its place is a young woman capable of anything.”

Adapted from C.J. Skuse’s novel of the same name, Sweetpea was written by Kristie Swain (Run, Pure) in collaboration with Krissie Ducker (Killing Eve), Laura Jayne Tunbridge, and Selina Lim (Sex Education). Those influences are easy to see even in just this short teaser. The overall vibe also aligns with Parnell’s philosophy around bloody shows, as she told The Independent in 2022: “It’s still very new to see a woman be violent in a way that isn’t fetishised or used for the gore tactic. In Yellowjackets, we’re not these half-naked sexy cannibals. We’re just surviving, and you don’t see that often, so it’s interesting when you do.”

Sweetpea also stars Nicôle Lecky, Jon Pointing, Calam Lynch, Leah Harvey, Jeremy Swift, and Dustin Demri-Burns. It arrives on Starz this October.