How I miss the days when Jodie Comer’s crazy Russian assassin would inspire excitement and enjoyment. Now all I get from an episode of Killing Eve, is the feeling of disappointment. The cat and mouse tale of intelligence operative Eve, and Villanelle, the assassin she is tasked with tracking down, felt revolutionary. It is one of the few shows where the majority of conversations were had solely by women. Male characters felt secondary to this intriguing relationship between Eve and Villanelle. Travel hopping, with gorgeous costumes putting the designer Molly Goddhard on the fashion map, it was escapist, intriguing, and gloriously dark.
For the past two series, however, Killing Eve has been dying an extremely slow and painful death.
It is hard to pinpoint an exact reason for this, but there are a multitude of problems that need talking about.
What makes Killing Eve unique is that each season is headed by a different female writer. On the one hand it is great to see new female talent showcased in each series. Each one manages to still pull out witty and interesting dialogue, and who better to write for women than women. Yet, this facet is also the shows’ downfall. Series One began with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who succeeded in helping the show reach its fullest potential. After her input however, the show never had the same quality. This isn’t because I’m riding the Waller-Bridge hype train, but rather because the series now feels so disconnected from its maiden outing.
Emerald Fennell’s second series comes close, but the Villanelle and Eve of three and four are completely different to the women we were introduced to initially. It isn’t because the characters have grown and developed. Their actions feel completely random and purposeless, and they don’t seem to have had a character arc, they’ve just changed completely. The Villanelle that used to showcase her glamorous murders with flair felt believably psychotic in the first two series. Now her actions feel tropey, an imitator of her previous character. The show has struggled with this lack of continuity and as a result the characters and plot have become jarringly disjointed.
Now onto the plot – or lack thereof. Series One and Two, you knew what was going on. The hunt for Villanelle, and Eve discovering more about the backstory of this woman. It was simple, yet so enthralling. However, always lurking in the background, was this organisation that Villanelle worked for called the Twelve. Personally, I never cared about them. That was because the heart of the show wasn’t about UK intelligence bringing this organisation down, it was Eve and Villanelle. Now this background organisation, that should have remained deliberately mysterious, is at the forefront. There are so many plot holes and it is a genuinely confusing mystery that I don’t care about being solved. It never seems to go anywhere and feels more like a narrative device to keep the show running due to its demand, rather than it actually making any sense with the plot of the series.
Instead of a solid narrative, Killing Eve is intent on repeating the same old themes and quirky tropes as an excuse to keep the television show running for as long as possible. In my opinion it should have ended a long time ago. The beautiful series it once was is now tainted by how far it has rolled downhill. It's relieving to be in its final season, which currently doesn’t even have the extravagant costumes to save it. Instead of it being remembered as one season of perfect television, Killing Eve has skipped mindlessly into an overdone mess, intent on serving its fan base, not its characters.
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