Ella Purnell shines as murderous wallflower in Sweetpea

Starz’s Sweetpea is the story of a wallflower who comes to life through death. Rhiannon Lewis (Ella Purnell from Yellowjackets and Fallout) has been ignored for too long. She’s one of those people who is so unseen by the world around her that folks often just bump into her as if she’s not there. Even worse than being ignored, she’s also harassed. Her co-workers constantly (and casually) undervalue her, with her boss calling her “sweetpea.” And she’s still holding onto memories of the bully who made her life in school such hell that poor Rhiannon pulled out her own hair. It’s not hard to relate to a character who never gets her head above water, but Sweetpea takes a dark turn at the end of its first hour, forcing viewers to question if they should root for Rhiannon to find her way through this chapter in her life or not. It’s a deft tonal balance between dark comedy and brutal violence. The show builds momentum by regularly throwing new obstacles at its protagonist to see how she’ll respond, and the excellent Purnell makes even its most chaotic moments believable.

Everything starts to collapse around Rhiannon after the death of her father, which leaves her completely alone. Even her sister, who returns home for the funeral and arrangements around dad’s business, seems annoyed by Rhiannon’s very existence. If that isn’t bad enough, Rhiannon’s school bully Julia (Nicôle Lecky) resurfaces as a potential realtor for Rhiannon’s home, which sis insists they must sell immediately. Imagine essentially being evicted by the person who ruined your life. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy.

After reaching her emotional breaking point one night, Rhiannon lashes out and takes violent action. And she doesn’t stop there. When rumors circulate around the news office where Rhiannon works of a serial killer in town, the young reporter becomes the best source for the growing story, crafting the narratives around her murders. As she starts to design public excuses for her behavior, Sweetpea adds an interesting thematic layer regarding how journalists shape the truth. The stories draw her closer to a kind colleague named AJ (Calam Lynch), even as she’s still into to the more alpha male in her life, Craig (Jon Pointing), who wants to buy her father’s business.

Success at work and two men vying for her attention? Murder has done wonders for Rhiannon Lewis. And this is where Purnell gets to shine. She’s excellent at conveying character through minor choices of body language. Look at how she reacts to a comforting hug in the premiere, as if Rhiannon hasn’t had physical contact in months. And then compare that to how she opens up her face in subsequent episodes as Rhiannon stands up for herself and the adrenaline of keeping her secrets races so quickly through her bloodstream that you can practically see it. It’s a phenomenal performance from an actor who is proving to be one of the more interesting TV presences of her generation. She’s very good on Fallout; she’s better here.

And she’s well-matched by a supporting ensemble that understands their assignments. Lynch is deeply likable as the one guy who seems as if he might be able to save Rhiannon from herself, while Pointing does more with the “dude” role than a lot of actors might with the same material, making Craig three-dimensional in his own way. Best of all is Leah Harvey as Marina, the investigating officer who starts to put it all together, someone who herself understands being ignored and underestimated at work but would never go to the violent extremes that have forever reshaped Rhiannon’s life.

All of these performances understand the deft tonal balance of this show, one that veers from pitch-black humor to shocking violence. Creator Kirstie Swain and her team walk a tightrope here, constantly threatening to get too morbid for good taste but always finding a way to ground it back in Rhiannon’s journey from being a wallflower to Dexter Morgan. They don’t ask us to root for Rhiannon Lewis as much as try to make her choices understandable in the heat of the emotional moment.

The season ends with a stunning sequence that should leave viewers gasping for air. A show that was starting to feel like it was writing itself into a moral corner bursts through the wall with bloodshed before a cliffhanger. It’s such a shocking shift that it’s hard to see how the writers will be able to pick up the pieces, but given how often they found their way out of tonal traps in the first season, they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt.

This era of television has been so drastically formed by the international obsession with true crime that tales of murder have become prevalent on the fiction side of the docket too. While most of us could never imagine taking a life or even siding with someone who does, we can all emotionally register the feeling of being bullied or just ignored by those who don’t deserve us. We all, in other words, have a little Rhiannon Lewis in us. 

Sweetpea premieres October 10 on Starz