10 Ways Killing Eve Is KILLING It

The 10 Ways Killing Eve is KILLING it!

Looking Back at Season 1

Confession: I have a secret folder tucked away in my Google Drive. It's a charming little corner of my writing, cheerfully titled "The Graveyard of Unfinished Articles and Reviews" subtitled WELL looks like I'm still f*cked with time management LOL. 👻 Of the many unfortunate souls interred there, a scathing review of Tim Burton's live-action dud Dumbo, Jordan Peele's latest horror movie Us, and a review of HBO's absurdist supernatural comedy Los Espookys. The articles I didn't finish in time or finish at all and I feared would no longer be relevant. Heart. Broken.

BUT WAIT. There's a twist in the tragedy. 💁‍♀️ 

(and no, it's not that I accidentally almost added the breastfeeding emoji instead of the one above) When Phoebe Waller-Bridge swept the 71st Emmy's on Sunday September 22nd and Jodie Comer, the English goddess she is, won outstanding lead actress in a drama series, I knew the time had come to open the cemetery gates and plunge back into one dead article in particular, this one where I fangirl HARD about what I loved about Killing Eve season 1, an article I've had written since Janu-freaking-ary. Well, I pulled out my books of spells and tried my hand at being a NECROMANCER.

*frantically slaps dirt off hands and body* Here's the freshly resurrected 🧟‍♂️10 Ways Killing Eve Season 1 Killed It. Just mind the DEAD BODY smell. 🤗 (and yes, I'm awareeee that Killing Eve season 2 has finished airing, but this is my blog and I'll post outdated articles if I want to, bruh! PLUS with Jodie's recent win there are BOUND to be new fans starting Killing Eve! )

SOOOOO.....

ENJOYYYYY 

1. Eve is a Murderino! 

Fascinated with female serial killers, this true crime junkie and British intelligence special ops agent is the only MI5 agent to discover that a woman (hiiiiii, Villanelle!) is behind the rash of murders of high profile (and sketchy af) men across Europe in season one. She goes Murderino Super Saiyan in episode one when she asks her husband how he’d off her if he was a killer before launching into a breathless fervent account of how she’d kill him and dispose of his body. A blender and the pulpy fleshy remains of said body getting dumped down a restaurant toilet are integral. Georgia? Karen? You there? 

2. Villanelle’s Fashion SLAYS. 

Villanelle's love language is murder. And designer clothes. Preferably together at the same time. From the silk Miu Miu bomber jacket and photo ready boxer braids she rocks before bang-pow point-blank shooting a man in an office cubicle, to the poofy pink haute couture confection she wears to a psych eval, Villanelle is stylish AF. One of my personal favorites? The dreamy chiffon robin’s egg blue Burberry frock she wears while stabbity stab stabbing a poisoned hairpin into the eye of a dirty Italian Nonno after crashing his party. I can sum up my feels for Villanelle's wardrobe is one word: aghhhmagherddd!!! Style envy? GUILTY. AS. SIN. 

3. Location, Location, Location!

Killing Eve films ON LOCATION all over Europe. Zigzagging from country to country following Villanelle's path of destruction and Eve's relentless pursuit of the murderess, Killing Eve's world is an immersive, larger-than-life, stunner. While Romanian stands in for the scenes in Russia in the final act of season one, Paris, London, Berlin and Tuscany all feature prominently. The Historic (and currently non-operational) Reading Gaol in Berkshire and Giurgiu Prison in Romania were used to create the stark Russian prison Villanelle infiltrates in two-part episode to kill ex-flame, Nadia, nipping her chances to go to the light side in the bud with the slash of her knife with her signature gleefully wicked smile.

4. The Camera Work and Set Design is Phenomenal.

Yet another example of how tv has become a landscape for essentially small-screen movies Killing Eve has jaw-droppingly sleek and stylish cinematography. Is travelporn a thing? If it isn't Killing Eve may have just started a little somethin' somethin' for wanderlusters.  The cameras drink in the European locale while steering away from gimmicky Eiffel Tower and Big Ben money shots. Likewise, the sets are blazing. Villanelle's boho chic Parisian apartment is g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s and as majestic and dazzling as a unicorn. I'm not drooling! You're drooling!

5. The Dark Humor and Pitch-Perfect Script.

Dream team Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jodie Comer, and Sandra Oh are the wonder women of Killing Eve. The very first episode conveys what a dynamic and engaging team the trio is and sets the stage for one of the wittiest, smartest and most quotable shows currently airing. Waller-Bridge writes irresistibly hilarious dialogue and complex characters that are just the right amount of absurdly over the top and grounded in reality. I don't know how much more I can gush over this. Just, JUST Watchhhh itttttttt nowwwwww.

6. Sandra Oh Shines.

Sandra Oh is SPECTACULAR as Eve Polastri. In the Korean-American Grey's Anatomy alum's 30+ years acting Eve Polastri is her first lead role. UMM WHAT. Turns out according to the 2018 Hollywood Diversity Report on cable TV in the US Asians make up a mere 2.6% of roles. UMM WHAT x2. Of those roles, Eve Polastri is one we don’t typically see Asian-American women in. 'Till now. As Eve, Oh brings such wittiness, playful sarcasm, and a keen awareness of the world to the screen and characters around her. Oh's able to deliver dorky humor, emotional crisis and all the messy bits of being human in an impossible to ignore performance.

7. The Murders Are Creative.

Villanelle doesn’t do basic. Period. She’s got a knack for creating extremely clever, extremely effed up ways to kill her targets. Concocting a perfume to suffocate an asthmatic cosmetics mogul? Mhm! Poisoned hair pin stab to the eye? Indeed! But Villanelle is so charismatic and alluring it’s hard to not marvel the signature showy flair she has when she goes in for the kill. Her season 1 body count? Nineteen people.

8. Jodie Comer’s Performance is Oscar-worthy.

Jodie Comer brings humanity and charisma to the psychopathic assassin. The 26 year-old Liverpudlian actress is no stranger to committing herself to the roles she takes on (she SLAYED it as Elizabeth Tudor, Henry the 8th's future mother, in Starz's The White Princess; and she was equally phenomenal as Ivy Moxim, a young woman who was held in captivity for thirteen years before escaping in BBC's Thirteen) Villanelle's moral compass is busted, she has no remorse, she's borderline unhinged yet Comer brings an irresistible mischievousness to the Russian murderess that makes her almost endearing! Her brutal honesty, zero filters and wicked sense of humor ratchet up Killing Eve's deliciously dark comedy and makes her one of the most quotable characters on TV today. And, as if Comer isn't badass enough she even does some of her own stunts. Villanelle scaling the stony sidewall of the palatial Italian villa for her hairpin to the eye hit? That was all Jodie Comer!

*Update 9/23/19: Jodie Comer won Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in this year's 71st Emmy Awards.

9. Killing Eve's Women are in Power and Empowered

Killing Eve is a women-led narrative with women behind the camera directing and in the writers room penning the episodes and it shows. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is exec producer and developed it for tv (earning a 2018 Emmy nom for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series) and Sandra Oh is a producer. The characters are flawed, intelligent, and complex and the phenomenal performances and script play to that. The women are all active, driven, and capable and come from a range of ages, skin colors and body types. Eve and Carolyn Martins (played by venerated British actress Fiona Shaw) are especially powerful and refreshingly do not compete to take each other down. They don't invalidate and add drama to each other's decisions and successes. Instead they complement each other with a partnership that's believable and multilayered. Killing Eve don't have time for petty female feud bullshit.

10. There’s a Distinct Lack of Male Gaze!

No sex kitten assassin here! While Villanelle may have a taste for luxurious fashion she's not the busty, leather catsuit wearing femme fatale lady killers are often portrayed as on the big or small screen. Instead of Killing Eve defies and redefines the female spy trope that’s been a Hollywood mainstay since the black and white film noir days of the 1940s. It's a gritty, raw, unbridled show and Villanelle and Eve look and act accordingly. They're unafraid of contorting their faces into intense expressions and they're often bloodied up, bruised, and unpolished. Another boost of awesomeness? Villanelle's sexuality (she's bi) isn't fetishized. No kinky lesbian sex scenes here for horndog men to salivate over!

Bonus: The Role Reversals are Unapologetic

Role-reversals shows up time and time again in Killing Eve. ESPECIALLY so with Villanelle's doomed boyfriend, Sebastian her sweet and sensitive neighbor who wants to take care of her and be there for her. Not in possessive testosterone-fueled He-Man way, but a let's get ice cream and talk feelings and "here's some arnica for your bruised face" caretaking. Refinery29 writer Ariana Romero observes in her article how Sebastian is in the traditionally "Bond girl" role. Romero takes it a step further and looks into the cringey bad sex Villanelle and her hapless boy toy have. The murderess "practically jackhammers away at him in bed, making intense, genuinely frightening, eye contact the entire way through...[and] stays silent, in the same way the macho men of pop culture have for decades." Romero ultimately reflects, "It’s not like you’ve ever heard James Bond loudly and performatively orgasm before, have you?"

Have you seen Killing Eve Season 1 (or season 2)?! And do you also have folders set aside for DEAD articles?