The Flight Attendant & I Hate Suzie: Women on the Verge

I recently watched two amazing TV shows that feature exceedingly complicated women. Much has been made of the antihero protagonists in the golden age of television, like Breaking Bad's Walter White or Mad Men's Don Draper. Well, in 2020, women have increasingly stepped up to the plate to play nuanced, complex, not entirely likable characters saddled with plenty of baggage. Over the holidays, if you're looking for the chance to dig into some meaty performances, dark comedy, and emotional thrills, these two shows have got you covered.

The Flight Attendant: Based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian, this is a zippy murder mystery with an extremely unreliable alcoholic guiding us through the action. Kaley Cuoco stars as Cassie, the eponymous flight attendant, who wakes up after a drunken night in Bangkok with a rich man she met on one of her flights, only to discover he is lying dead next to her. His throat has been slit, and she has absolutely no idea what happened. What follows is a tense but also weirdly comic eight episodes of international intrigue and mayhem as Cassie tries to cover her tracks while simultaneously investigating what happened. 

I fell in love with this show in the first eight minutes because the soundtrack had already featured songs from Sofi Tukker and ABBA. The production values are impeccable, and you will never get bored looking at your screen because it is shot in such an engaging way, constantly jumping through split screens and other fun narrative devices to keep you interested. And once you're hooked visually, you'll also get hooked intellectually, because this is a bonkers story with a cliffhanger after every episode. HBO Max released this show in weekly installments, but with multiple episodes at a time. So the first week you got three episodes to feel like you had a solid binge but were still left wanting more. Then you got two more, another two after that, and then the finale on the fourth week. It was a clever bit of programming that tried to find a compromise between bingeing and stoking your weekly excitement, and it certainly worked for me.

Of course, now you can just binge the whole thing in one glorious gulp. I was initially none too thrilled at the idea of yet another mystery featuring an alcoholic woman who is unreliable and difficult to deal with, but Cuoco is such a compelling actress and Cassie's background is parceled out in such careful morsels that you are desperate to piece together all this information to find out what makes this woman tick. The supporting cast is also marvelous, including a turn from Rosie Perez as Cassie's co-worker who is up to all manner of shenanigans herself, as well as one of my favorite Scottish actresses, Michelle Gomez, who you won't be able to trust for all eight episodes, and a great performance from Zosia Mamet, as Cassie's best friend, who has secrets of her own and is really struggling to deal with her friend's drama. So tune in for a slick and smart thriller, starring some insanely wonderful women, that will keep you on your toes and leave you feeling satisfied.

I Hate Suzie: Written by Lucy Prebble, this series is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But if you're interested in watching a show about a British actress who completely unravels and has multiple nervous breakdowns, look no further. It is frenetic, dramatic, funny, and wrenching. And it perfectly captures a sense of dread and anxiety that all of us are sadly too familiar with in this day and age.

Billie Piper (who co-created the show with Prebble) stars as Suzie Pickles, a moderately famous actress whose life is turned upside down when her nude photos are released on the Internet. Leila Farzad stars as her agent, Naomi, and together, the two women navigate the maelstrom that is unleashed. Each episode is titled after a stage of grief to capture Suzie's journey from Shock and Denial to Anger and Acceptance. There is so much to love and relate to in every single episode, but there are also moments when you simply have to shake your head and go "oh Suzie, what were you thinking?" Piper has the most expressive face on the planet, and as you watch Suzie go through all manner of hell in the course of eight episodes, you will not be able to resist empathizing with her even as you are silently judging her.

The show's strident feminism is refreshing and Fleabag-esque, in that it is a story about women and the things they go through, but doesn't try to pretend women have it all figured out. It merely reveals the kind of shit they oftentimes put up with until they can no longer take it and make spectacularly poor life decisions. Suzie's husband, Cob (played by Daniel Ings), is such a pompous twat but there's a sweet flashback to the early days of their courtship where you can understand how this relationship began. They have a deaf son, Frank (Matthew Jordan-Caws), which means there is a great scene where Suzie and Cob are fighting but hiding their mouths so Frank can't lipread their argument. But it also means Suzie struggles with balancing her son's needs with her career and personal obligations, and will forever face society's censure for being a bad mother. 

I Hate Suzie is a tour de force, and while it doesn't tie everything up with a neat bow, the eighth episode does offer Acceptance and a way forward for our heroine. I was astonished at how much had happened in such a concentrated period of time but getting through this series offers up as much catharsis for the viewer as it does for Suzie herself. It is a wild ride, and you will need to fasten your seatbelts, but you won't be disappointed in the journey.