Critic Reviews
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“Sweetpea” feels fresh from beginning to end, offering us a gripping story right down to the final episode’s shocking cliffhanger.
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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.
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Purnell is the one, saucer-eyed and deadpan, who absolutely shines, managing simultaneously to be both fragile and savage with rage. Without her waif-like presence, it wouldn’t have half as much heft.
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While its setup has familiar elements, the show really comes into its own after a couple of episodes, as Purnell and Lecky get more screen time together and a character who shares Rhiannon’s outcast perspective (Leah Harvey’s Marina) starts investigating the murders.
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What makes the British series more unsettling and ultimately more compelling is its willingness to sit in the murky middle ground separating vengeance and cruelty, victim and perpetrator.
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While other shows in this vein have had difficulty sticking the landing, Sweetpea does more than enough to inspire confidence that, no matter what happens, it remains an addictive watch through to the very end.
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Billed as a "coming of rage" story, Sweetpea is one of those rare limited series that leave you desperate for more; a perfect autumn binge-watch, it's amplified by Isabel Waller-Bridge's killer soundtrack.