'I Hate Suzie Too' Is A Darker, Even More Emotionally Harrowing Sequel

What with all the tumult happening over in the world of HBO these days, you may not even be aware that I Hate Suzie returned for a second season over the holidays. (I mean, it's not like the network has done any real promotion of it at all! Just saying!) But as the new year kicks off, I'm here to tell you that this pitch-black Billie Piper tour de force is better than ever in its second season, which jettisons its stages-of-grief narrative framing for a condensed, more straightforward story that is somehow even more emotionally harrowing.

Granted, that all sounds like a weird pitch for a show that's broadly been categorized as a comedy, so if you're looking for some light-hearted fare to kick off the new year, this is probably not the show for you. Admittedly, the series' second season, creatively titled I Hate Suzie Too, is incredibly funny, but its humor has razor-sharp teeth and its raw honesty eviscerates everything from reality television and the lingering effects of personal trauma to our cultural obsessions with policing women's behavior (and bodies).

Where the first season followed the collapse of lead character Suzie Pickles' (Piper) life in the wake of a phone hack that leaked nude photos of her with a man who was most definitely not her husband, I Hate Suzie Too is much more narrowly focused on the slow collapse of her mental state. Suzie's unraveling, which begins with a medication abortion performed alone in a closet-sized room and ends with a full-on disassociative breakdown on live television, is horrific and heartbreaking by turns, yet somehow you can't quite help hoping that somehow this time, this moment, will be the moment things finally turn around for her.