[This story contains major spoilers from the season finale of Sweetpea.]
Starz’s dark comedy-drama Sweetpea is based on the book series of the same name by English author CJ Skuse. But the TV series starring Ella Purnell is less an adaptation of the novels than a prequel detailing how her heroine Rhiannon Lewis goes from a meek administrative assistant who feels invisible to a calculating reporter who uses her job at the newspaper to get her co-workers and law enforcement officials out of her way when… Her pent-up anger and grief leave a trail of murder victims in her wake.
“In the book, she’s really a serial killer,” writer and executive producer Kirsty Swain tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. “You can’t see any accumulation of it, it just is [already] I did that before. So we wanted to tell the story of what got her to that point, and what pushed her over the edge. What would happen if – in the UK it was Dawn from The Office – but Pam from The Office went on a rampage because she was tired of being ignored?
The answer to this question is murder, but only evil people deserve it. At least that’s how Rhiannon justified the three murders she carried out in the first five episodes of the show. But when AJ (Callam Lynch), Rhiannon’s co-worker and the only character in the series she actually sees, becomes her fourth victim in the shocking season finale, it opens up a new part of Rhiannon’s identity that she will now have to grapple with. With – if the offer continues.
“I think the part that Rhiannon is a little afraid of is what does it,” Swain explains. “Up until that point, none of the killings had really cost her anything. They had all helped her feel good about herself and her life, and helped her thrive, grow, and achieve. We needed one of those killings to really cost her.”
Below, Swain talks about crafting Rhiannon’s origin story, the changes to the characters from Skuse’s book and the critical response to the first season while looking ahead to what the future may hold.
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How did you approach the adaptation and what were some of the biggest changes between the book and the show?
It was a really long process. It kind of coincided with the coronavirus, so that’s what made it take so long. I start reading the book and then I put it down and just write, thinking about what I can take from the book, and what I can leave in there. We went through quite a few processes to try to get the story right, because it ended up being a bit of a rape revenge thing [plot] For a while, we moved away from that because I feel like it’s been done. We saw a lot of women being sexually assaulted on screen and we wanted to get away from that. We got to a point where we wanted to tell her origin story because in the book she’s a full-fledged serial killer. You can’t see any buildup to it, I’ve done it before. So we wanted to tell the story of what got her to that point, and what pushed her over the edge. What would happen if – in the UK it was Dawn from The Office – but Pam from The Office went on a rampage because she was tired of being ignored?
The series really relies on audiences sympathizing and empathizing with Rhiannon. How do you think you achieved that?
We were able to see her as an underdog. I think a lot of people relate to the idea of being overlooked. I definitely felt it. My partner felt it. My mother felt it. I’m sure everyone has had this experience. And to be able to tell her story of how she went from just being an ordinary person to being kind of extraordinary, but not in the best way, that was a gift. Hopefully the audience sticks with her because she does some quite questionable things. And I think that makes the audience question themselves as well.
Rhiannon’s high school nemesis Julia (Nicole Leckey) is the reason she’s worried. She also has a sister who is not nice to her, and there is a store employee who treats her poorly as well, yet none of them become one of Rhiannon’s murder victims. Why do you only kill men?
I think the people who encountered it at that time were men. I don’t think she was just targeting them, because she was planning to do this to Julia as well. So the people who got in her way in those times were men. She never wanted to be a hater of men or even hate people, it’s only people who deserve that. Not men who deserve it, people.
Is Julia’s character from the book and is her being in an abusive relationship true to the book?
No, I think in the book she has a nice husband and kids too. We’ve tried it with kids, and it’s kind of like, ‘Oh my God,’ you don’t really get along with Rhiannon. I think once there are kids, you’re not really on Rhiannon’s side. Julia wasn’t in my first draft, she was slow to come back. I think in the book, there were a lot of reasons why Rhiannon did what she did, but she told herself that it was all Julia’s fault. And that really opened something up for us because Julia didn’t see it, but in a weird way, Rhiannon didn’t see it by focusing all her attention on Julia which eroded her self-worth. In the book, Julia is not around for as long as she is on the show. But I wanted to tell the story of two women together, not in a cat fight way because I don’t think it’s that way. It’s about two women getting to know each other in adulthood when they got to know each other well in childhood, in the wrong way. It’s kind of re-educating themselves, which was really kind of meat and nuts.
Marina (Leah Harvey) is another interesting character. Can you talk about starting episode 4 with her talking about the people she wants to kill instead of Rhiannon being the narrator in the introduction as she usually is?
The split POV thing was something we played around with during development, because it started out as a POV for the protagonist throughout the entire show. But then it was like, wouldn’t it be interesting to see Marina’s point of view and see Rhiannon as she doesn’t see herself? The whole idea of an unreliable narrator. She tells herself: I’m doing this because people deserve it, and they can’t get away with it. But then Marina says: You are breaking the law. It doesn’t matter if they deserve it, they may deserve it, but you can’t just go and kill them. So, it’s like cat and mouse in a different way, because I was very aware of the cat and mouse idea of the characters in Killing Eve. You don’t want to be derivative, so just do it in a new way.
She thought the shared experience of being overlooked would make Marina lenient with Rhiannon but she seems more determined to make her pay for her crimes because of it.
I think she thinks Rhiannon is the one who ran away. There’s an element of Marina that doesn’t feel like Rhiannon sees her and feels belittled, and that’s kind of another nail in the coffin. It is a kind of retelling of her relationship with Detective Inspector Diana.
AJ is the only one, naively, in Rhiannon’s corner until the end. What does it say about her and who she became when she stabbed him in the end?
I think it’s the part of Rhiannon that you’re a little afraid of that does it. Up until that point, none of the killings had really cost her anything. They all helped her feel better about herself and her life and helped her thrive, grow, and achieve. We needed one of these kills to really cost it. For this reason, I’m afraid it was AJ. I’ve received a lot of messages about him. Sorry! He is a beautiful character. Filming was very difficult for everyone. The prop master has theories on how to bring him back if there is a second season. It really affected people. So she woke up to that part of her and we wanted to give the sense that this wasn’t going anywhere. It’s here no matter if you push it down. “I will do it no more,” she said, but she could not keep the beast; She’s a monster.
The killings are very graphic. What conversations did you have about how you wanted to approach those scenes?
Director Ella Jones had such a vision from the beginning about what the film was going to look like, and we felt it had to be graphic because female violence on screen is something that is often avoided. You won’t be able to see the drawings you’re making if it’s a man doing the killing. So we didn’t want to step away from the camera when she’s doing these really vile things. We wanted the audience to say, “Oh my God, this is really annoying.” Because it’s disturbing and I think you get into her mind and feel completely sympathetic to her, I think you need to be shocked in those moments.
Also, we talked a lot about Barry and Fargo as well in terms of those kind of scenes and the palpable feeling of it all, and how you don’t know whether you’re going to get sick or laugh. We always talked about that scene in Fargo where they put a leg in a wood chipper and it’s disgusting but actually that’s what you have to do if you’re trying to get rid of a body. So the stab in the neck at the beginning of the first episode, that’s what’s going to happen. And I wrote a lot of that into the script as well, in terms of detail, especially that scene and how, I think, quite viscerally, when you see all the blood and stuff, it’s like there are real-life consequences for doing something like that. It’s not a clinical condition, it’s very messy, and you have to live with the consequences.
How much of the books have you covered in the TV series so far?
So, in the first season, it’s almost like a prequel to the book. So, there is a lot to come. She’s an amazing character, what a gift, and there’s a lot of source material as well.
Have you already written season 2 or beyond?
No, no, no, not yet. I don’t know if I can talk about that.
There were mixed reactions from critics and audiences to the series. Did you read any comments? How do you feel about the response?
The response has been amazing. I guess with anything going, you can’t please everyone, right? So, I try to ignore the not-so-nice stuff and keep re-reading the nice stuff (laughs). Everyone has an opinion, right? And it’s a show you can have opinions about because it’s about some really uncomfortable things. But it’s amazing that people are watching it. That’s all you can hope for. You’re just hoping people will watch your show, enjoy it, be interested, and maybe think about something.
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Sweetpea is now streaming all episodes on the Starz app. Read THR’s interview with Ella Purnell.
