Killing Eve
This was my Christmas present from 
kathyh, and a very entertaining Christmas present it was, too. A take on the "detective and serial killer: a tale of mutual Obsession" Trope, and an all-female one, with Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in the main leading roles who are, glory be, still not the only interesting women around. Most prominently, there's also Fiona Shaw as the interesting yet shady boss who hides stuff from the detective. (Though my favourite female other than the leads has to be the bratty kid daughter of Villanelle's handler Konstantin. Kudos for finding that child actress, too!) And the series was created by a woman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. (Though, I'm told, loosely based on a series of novels.)
Now, it's a law universally acknowledged that while male sociopaths, psychopaths and/or assassins central to the narrative can come in any shape or form, female ones must be sexy and preferably young. (With the glorious exception of Annie Wilkes of Misery by Stephen King fame, played in the movie version by Kathy Bates.) This is true for Villanelle in Killing Eve as well. Otoh her glossy beauty and glamorous life style are a deliberate contrast to Eve's mundane life; Eve, as played by Sandra Oh, is of course also beautiful but in a more approachable and touched by normal age way. And Fiona Shaw's Carolyn combines a no-nonsense look of a woman in her early 60s and owning it with being blatantly polyamorous, so no complaints from me on that front. Besides, Killing Eve is so unabashedly tropey while also delivering its own unique twists on said tropes, serving up most of Villanelle's murders (which are mostly, but not all very well paid for - this is how she earns her living) with the same gleeful playfulness their main Assassin displays while also managing to render at least one death truly devastating, due to the audience having gotten to know and like the victim a lot.
As far as obsessed detectives are concerned, I find Eve much more congenial to me than, say, John Luther, whom I never could really warm up to after he laid waste to his office in season 1 in a fit of brooding rage, and all I could think of was "well, who's going to clean that up and pay for all you've broken, huh? Surely not YOU!" (Meanwhile, Eve's office is tiny and cramped, which doesn't stop her deducing ingeniously from it while she does her own frustrated freak-outs elsewhere.) Eve's husband is also neither a jerk nor an angst ploy, but someone whom we can her realistically see having fallen in love with and married while also understanding why her marriage isn't enough to counteract the lure of the hunt in this particular case. Nor plays this series coy with its subtext; the sexual element in the mutual obsession our leads have going on is openly and textually acknowledged. There's a lot of black humor coming with the suspense. (One instance is a wonderful and extemely funny twist on the usual "cops need to interrogate caught mole in order to find key clue to bad guys - how far will they go?" scene; when Fiona Shaw's character Carolyn tells Eve "I'm sorry you have to see this", you expect her to get out the thumbscrewes, but no, she plays mother to the pathetic mole in question until he sobs it all out pressed to her bosom.)
While there are some lose narrative ends - mostly about the mysterious organization which pays Villanelle -, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about hearing there'll be a second season. Because right now, to me it feels like this should be the only one. If you continue the tale, either Eve would have to become a rogue assassin herself (please no - Eve is great at putting together clues and detecting, I don't want her to give that up!) or Villanelle a reformed character, the type of psycho who only kills people threatening our heroes. Either possibility to me would take from the charm of this season's set up. I'm also in two minds about the mystery organisation, because the older I get, the less I like those as a fiction device, even if they're not as annoyingly nonsensical as Hydra. What I'm also afraid of is that while this season briefly plays with but ultimately rejects the usual "tragic backstory as explanation for murderer lead" trope, a second season might go for it, and I don't want Villanelle "explained" by tragic childhood abuse or rape or what not.
In conclusion: I liked the show enormously and am so glad Sandra Oh won all the awards for her performance. Am just not sure whether I want more of it.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1327078.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
kathyh, and a very entertaining Christmas present it was, too. A take on the "detective and serial killer: a tale of mutual Obsession" Trope, and an all-female one, with Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer in the main leading roles who are, glory be, still not the only interesting women around. Most prominently, there's also Fiona Shaw as the interesting yet shady boss who hides stuff from the detective. (Though my favourite female other than the leads has to be the bratty kid daughter of Villanelle's handler Konstantin. Kudos for finding that child actress, too!) And the series was created by a woman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge. (Though, I'm told, loosely based on a series of novels.)
Now, it's a law universally acknowledged that while male sociopaths, psychopaths and/or assassins central to the narrative can come in any shape or form, female ones must be sexy and preferably young. (With the glorious exception of Annie Wilkes of Misery by Stephen King fame, played in the movie version by Kathy Bates.) This is true for Villanelle in Killing Eve as well. Otoh her glossy beauty and glamorous life style are a deliberate contrast to Eve's mundane life; Eve, as played by Sandra Oh, is of course also beautiful but in a more approachable and touched by normal age way. And Fiona Shaw's Carolyn combines a no-nonsense look of a woman in her early 60s and owning it with being blatantly polyamorous, so no complaints from me on that front. Besides, Killing Eve is so unabashedly tropey while also delivering its own unique twists on said tropes, serving up most of Villanelle's murders (which are mostly, but not all very well paid for - this is how she earns her living) with the same gleeful playfulness their main Assassin displays while also managing to render at least one death truly devastating, due to the audience having gotten to know and like the victim a lot.
As far as obsessed detectives are concerned, I find Eve much more congenial to me than, say, John Luther, whom I never could really warm up to after he laid waste to his office in season 1 in a fit of brooding rage, and all I could think of was "well, who's going to clean that up and pay for all you've broken, huh? Surely not YOU!" (Meanwhile, Eve's office is tiny and cramped, which doesn't stop her deducing ingeniously from it while she does her own frustrated freak-outs elsewhere.) Eve's husband is also neither a jerk nor an angst ploy, but someone whom we can her realistically see having fallen in love with and married while also understanding why her marriage isn't enough to counteract the lure of the hunt in this particular case. Nor plays this series coy with its subtext; the sexual element in the mutual obsession our leads have going on is openly and textually acknowledged. There's a lot of black humor coming with the suspense. (One instance is a wonderful and extemely funny twist on the usual "cops need to interrogate caught mole in order to find key clue to bad guys - how far will they go?" scene; when Fiona Shaw's character Carolyn tells Eve "I'm sorry you have to see this", you expect her to get out the thumbscrewes, but no, she plays mother to the pathetic mole in question until he sobs it all out pressed to her bosom.)
While there are some lose narrative ends - mostly about the mysterious organization which pays Villanelle -, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about hearing there'll be a second season. Because right now, to me it feels like this should be the only one. If you continue the tale, either Eve would have to become a rogue assassin herself (please no - Eve is great at putting together clues and detecting, I don't want her to give that up!) or Villanelle a reformed character, the type of psycho who only kills people threatening our heroes. Either possibility to me would take from the charm of this season's set up. I'm also in two minds about the mystery organisation, because the older I get, the less I like those as a fiction device, even if they're not as annoyingly nonsensical as Hydra. What I'm also afraid of is that while this season briefly plays with but ultimately rejects the usual "tragic backstory as explanation for murderer lead" trope, a second season might go for it, and I don't want Villanelle "explained" by tragic childhood abuse or rape or what not.
In conclusion: I liked the show enormously and am so glad Sandra Oh won all the awards for her performance. Am just not sure whether I want more of it.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1327078.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.