Sweetpea (2024)

Purnell's great, the rest of the cast are (mostly) very strong. The writing and production let it down. The cast are strong enough to carry it, Purnell's a strong lead... It's supposed to be funny, but slides by that into farce and we're not living in the 80s or 90s anymore and farce feels very tired for an audience with even the most basic tv-literacy. The comedic moments mostly fall flat, but the flatness of them is compounded by the cliffhangers. You've seen this is pretty much every lazy, mainstream tv-show. This certainly isn't The Wire or The Sopranos, both shows that managed to have (very) funny moments that didn't detract from the show itself. If this had 10 episodes instead of 6 and didn't adhere so strongly to a formula it would be better. The other problem is SKY Atlantic, so a co-production maybe, a pretty unambitious one at that, there's no visual flair to this, it's just drab rainy England, drab rainy pubs, clubs, houses and that's fine, that's England, but damn drag some of that Arts degree out of yourself and do something interesting with the camera, there's just no ambition to it on a visual basis, nothing offensive, just very workman-like. Soundtrack's ok - but let's face it, even the Katy Perry track can't have been expensive in this day and age and the rest of it is about as contemporary - about 5 years off and giving it a Skins vibe, with an over reliance on drab singer/acoustic(boring) cover of actual famous song, seemingly inoffensive, unless you actually like music. Probably 5.5/10 - I'll watch the 2nd season if Purnell returns, but I'd imagine her career will go well and she'll be busy, maybe eventually it'll get made, but a year right now feels a long wait and it's kinda forgetable, so...