Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell, Sean Delaney, Edward Bluemel, Henry Lloyd-Hughes Nina Sosanya, Adrian Scarborough, Jung Sun den Hollander, Emma Pierson, Adeel Akhtar, Shannon Tarbet, Zoe Wanamaker, Nickolas Grace, Julian Barratt, Nigel Betts, Barbara Flynn.
A new television serial might be a hit with viewers from the start, the initial rush of congratulations could well be deserved, but there is always a nagging doubt that it is born of quick sensationalism, rather than the embrace of complexity, a character who titillates rather than nourishes, and whilst in a modern world there is no problem with the idea of shock tactics to win over an audience, it can leave others feeling cold, numb to the pressure to enjoy.
There is nothing quite a television series that sees its writers learn from this, to take what works and perhaps ramp it up so that the true star of the story line emerges, and which dispenses with the element that make it unappealing, and in true fashion the second season of Killing Eve does just that.
The ability to take a character and show them madness is one not to be underestimated, the sense of power that must then course through the veins of the one portraying the evil that starts to spread like a disease is one that the Gothic horror writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson understood only too well as he proved in 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The art of the black comedy is as much about the moment of terror masquerading as humour as it is insanity appearing as civilised normality, and with Jodie Comer given almost free rein to tap this unrelenting source of madness emanating from the character’s psychopathic tendencies, then perhaps we see why Mr. Hyde has always been a part which people could relish and the villain in the James Bond films nearly always stole the film.
For Jodie Comer, the realisation that she could take the character of Villanelle to the next level would surely have been artistically elevating but it is with a couple of newcomers added to the storyline that she then hits the ground running and flourishes in the role. Whilst her relationship with Sandra Oh’s Eve Polastri remains one that is designed to stimulate the audience, it is in the introduction of Henry Lloyd-Hughes as the equally psychotic Aaron Peel, Adrian Scarborough’s dominating presence as Villanelle’s new handler Raymond, and the disturbingly creepy Julian, whose collection of porcelain dolls is enough to scream potential victim or assailant and portrayed magnificently by Julian Barratt, that catches the eye and makes the programme one that lives up to its hype.
A series that smiles with the charm of a killer and one that entices you in, luring you to the point where you actually look forward to another moment of compulsive viewing; Killing Eve’s second series is a complex study in how to avoid being drawn into another’s psychosis.
Ian D. Hall