Killing Eve Slays

BBC America’s Killing Eve is one of the best new shows on television. Following an MI6 agent’s attempts to track down an international assassin, the show is dark, fun, addictive, and delightfully original.

In recent years, there has been a glut of top-notch thriller series. Shows like Broadchurch, Sherlock, and Luther have attracted huge followings on both sides of the Atlantic – helped, no doubt, by the star power of leading men Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, and David Tennant. Smart and edgy female-driven shows like Top of the Lake, Happy Valley, and The Fall have been equally successful, and they feature talented actors like Elisabeth Moss, Sarah Lancashire, and Gillian Anderson as strong lady detectives trying to track down male perpetrators of crimes against women. Killing Eve, then, is in good company.

But what makes Killing Eve so unique – and perfectly timed – is that it features a female agent tracking down a female assassin who is an equal-opportunity murderer. Eve is an American woman who is recruited by MI6 to locate Villanelle, a young woman who has been killing her way across Europe. She assassinates prominent men and women with style. The series thus finds its hero and villain in ridiculously dynamic female characters, and in doing so allows women to be flawed and fierce, successful and troubled, deeply intuitive and coldly calculating. Indeed, Eve correctly theorizes that part of the reason Villanelle has gotten away with so much for so long is because her seemingly innocent looks have encouraged her victims to fatally underestimate her.

The series is also a fascinating portrait of obsession, as the two women are locked in a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game, and each finds the other strangely magnetic. Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) is an Everywoman: though she is stuck in a boring office job, she is in a stable, happy marriage with a loving husband. But things get exciting – very exciting – for Eve when her fate collides with slippery Villanelle (Jodie Comer). In Villanelle, Eve is confronted with everything she is not: the villain is young, sexy, fashionable, and free to go wherever she wants, do whatever she wants to do, and hook up with anyone she wants to sleep with. Eve’s obsession to get into Villanelle’s head and track her down threatens to upend her life and take away everything that makes Eve, well, Eve.

The series works as well as it does thanks to writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge and leading ladies Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. Waller-Bridge – whose Fleabag on Amazon has received heaps of praise – makes Killing Eve a whacky and weirdly compelling black comedy-drama. Her main characters are consistently captivating, especially since they act in believable, yet unexpected ways.

Sandra Oh absolutely owns the role of Eve, a basic American whose extraordinary job of tracking down an assassin stands in stark contrast to her run-of-the-mill life in London. Oh is perfectly cast, and she brings a bumbling, relatable charm to a character who delights in playing the role of an international agent. Jodie Comer’s “Villanelle” is creepy and compelling all at once – she is a brilliant psychopath whose life the audience is nonetheless invested in, even if her day job is to ruthlessly kill other humans.

In addition to the great writing and fantastic performances, the series also boasts location and costume eye candy. From glowing, sun-kissed Tuscan fields to bleak London landscapes and bustling Berlin streets, Killing Eve wholeheartedly embraces the globetrotting cosmopolitanism at the heart of many spy thrillers. Fashion also takes center stage, and one way that Eve and Villanelle connect is through the killer’s impeccable sense of style – and her eagerness to dress up Eve. Villanelle literally dresses to kill.

Thanks to crisp dialogue, stellar performances, unexpected twists, and riveting pacing, Killing Eve is about to become your new obsession.

Photo Credit: BBC America/AMC Networks