.
Sandra Oh, the Liz Lemon-y Hero
If you gave up on Grey’s Anatomy a decade ago (how is it still on?!) like me, but loved Sandra Oh, or if you thought Under The Tuscan Sun should have been about Sandra Oh’s character and not about Dianne Lane, than you’re gonna love Killing Eve. Sandra plays Eve Polastri, a British Intelligence Agent who probably loves true crime stories as much as I do. I could see Eve binging The Keepers, Making A Murderer, and Serial on a lazy weekend. She’s smart, quick, and can toe the line between suffering through a session of mansplaining (which we does after succeeding her own boss in a new job), and working with misogynistic men to get the information she needs.
She’s also oddly drawn to the suspects and situations behind the crimes and people she investigates. Eve is a slouchy, rumpled wife of “nice guy” mustachioed Polish man named Nico. She hangs with the boys at the office, gets drunks with her co-workers and wolfs down greasy food. The dichotomy between the Liz Lemon-esque Eve and the glamorous Villainelle are what draw Eve in and down some very strange roads for an intelligence agent.
Sandra is fun, thrilling, and spot-on to watch. Her screams should be used in horror movies for the rest of time (they really did scare me).
.
Jodie Comer as the Sorta Sympathetic Psychopath
Who thought I’d ever write a phrase like “sorta sympathetic psychopath?” Well, Jodie Comer makes that sorta sympathetic psychopath come alive on screen and makes you want to hand her the phone number of a good therapist (and maybe call the police). We first meet her character “Villanelle” as she weaves her way through Europe taking out her hits with style (give me that wardrobe!), ease, and a bit of the ol’ je ne sais quoi. But she’s a crazy killer!!! No wait, at the series moves on we see she’s been dragged into this life and is at the mercy of her ‘caretaker’ and the sinister overlords he works for. I’ve never felt as bad for a crazed murderer as I did when Villanelle’s next door boy toy bit the dust in the most tragic way.
Oh Jodie Comer! We loved you in The White Princess and in My Mad Fat Diary, and this is just icing on the layer cake of a great career she’s baking for herself. I also have to point out that you don’t see very many female characters that get to be as physical, vicious, murderous, scared, or smart in a show. Also, Jodie’s body is GOALS as the kids say.
.
The Story
Cue Sandra Oh becoming a bit obsessed with Villanelle and then (surprise!) being tasked with finding Villanelle and you’ve got a bit of a mutual cat and mouse game. You know, if the cat and mouse were both equally intrigued and scared shitless by each other. This is Killing Eve in a nutshell and it’s honestly one of the best shows I’ve seen in 2018.
.
My Only Complaint
If you’re watching Killing Eve on BBC America, let me share with you the thing that PISSES ME OFF about Killing Eve. During commercial breaks, BBC inserts weird “commercial/trailers” of what happens in the VERY NEXT SCENE before it plays. It’s the dumbest, most counter-intuitive thing I’ve ever seen. This is how I imagine this dumbass decision was made:
BBC Exec #1: I know, why don’t we cut this high tension moment with a commercial!
BBC Exec #2: Yes definitely, but then in the middle of a Graham Norton promo and the next scene of the episode, let’s just throw in a random spoiler-y clip of the next scene to deflate any tension or storyline we just set up in a previous scene!
BBC Exec #1: PERFECT! This won’t annoy anyone!
Me:
.
Watch Killing Eve on BBC America, Sunday nights.
.
All GIFs via Giphy
