Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * *
Cast: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Sean Delaney, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Owen McDonnell, David Haig, Darren Boyd, Ken Nwosu, Sonia Elliman, David Agranov.
The world of spies and espionage is nothing without its major villain, it is the binding reassurance that the tussle between two equally determined people plays out in front of an audience who always seem to have the appetite for the resource of the cloak and dagger, the thinly veiled appreciation of a war that has enthralled readers and viewers alike for decades.
It is a reflection of a war though that has had its ups and downs, the greater the antagonism between two countries, perhaps the finer the framing of the two shadow like figures who seek domination over the other, the cat and mouse mirroring of the Cold War and the wars in Europe that once was.
In figures such as James Bond, in George Smiley, and writers as diverse as Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad, and John Buchan, the masculine flavour and outlook of such global games has always had its viewpoint, but the female representation has been woefully underplayed, almost neglectful, and aside from notable true accounts in films such Carve Her Name With Pride with Virginia McKenna, and fictional works such as Atomic Blonde, La Femme Nikita, Fair Game and Homeland, real female spies such as Noor Inayat Khan, the incredible Nancy Wake, Mary Bowser and Melita Norwood have never really been given their place to be recognised and remembered for the viewers of the 21st Century.
It is a double-edged sword, audiences want and need to understand what makes a female spy tick, arguably more cunning than a man, and to quote the Liverpool band, Space, “The female of the species is more deadlier than the male”. It is a cunning that sees Phoebe Waller-Bridge experiment with the deadly, with the ruthless, and in many ways, the cruellest of all spy games in Killing Eve, the hunting of an assassin, the epitome of brutal patience, and one that leaves you wondering just who would chase such a person down, what link do they have that would give them insight and with the world of spying at their disposal.
It is a world though that seems keen to play up the insanity, the unsettling nature of the assassin, and whilst Jodie Comer gives an astonishing performance with the character of Villanelle, the whole series feels as if it is playing two different games, two sides of against each other, and in a cast that boasts Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw and David Haig, that really is the most unsettling aspect.
The two sides of the coin, even in the James Bond narrative the echoing of the double entendre and raised eyebrow response is out of date, consigned as it should be to the days of the much-loved Roger Moore’s performance; in Killing Eve, in the hands of Sanda Oh’s Eve Polastri, the eyebrow and look of constant astonishment at other’s sex lives is off putting, it is a poor showing for such a commendable actor to have to provide for what amounts to titillation of the senses and which doesn’t garner anything new to the genre.
The cat and mouse game on offer between the two leads is one that grows tired very quickly, a series which could easily have been reduced by half and still gained the same information and pleasure from. Killing Eve is unfortunately not in the same space as films such as Atomic Blonde, the feeling of pedestrian is one that simply is not enough in this new age of spies and villains.
Ian D. Hall