The appeal of BBC America’s Killing Eve has been a mix of the creative energy Phoebe Waller-Bridge brought to season 1 and the electric charge generated by its two leads, Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, whenever they’re in the same room together. Both Oh and Comer have netted a few awards between them for playing MI:6 agent Eve Polastri and the Russian-trained killing machine/fashion icon, Villanelle, and in season 3 the two live up to the same high standard set forth by the terrific first season and the decidedly less engaging second, as the attraction between the two has once again soured, leaving one presumed dead and the other seemingly adrift.
It’s a familiar spin on the season 1 finale, which finally brought Eve and Villanelle together, only to push them apart in the final moments — more to keep the show going than anything else. That necessity, the urge to push Killing Eve beyond that which makes it appealing is also the thing that keeps it from being as great as it was in season 1. In a sense, Killing Eve is a bit like Homeland, a TV series that was probably destined to be a terrific one-and-done show, one that nabs viewers with a killer hook and then pushes them over the edge with an equally shocking ending. Now on its eighth and final season, Homeland serves as a reminder that while some TV series can endure well past their expiration date, in this day and age of Peak TV, they don’t necessarily have to. After the first few episodes of season 3, it’s time to wonder if the same is true of Killing Eve.
Season 1 tested the nature of the series as its game of cat-and-mouse between a bored and under-stimulated security agent and an international assassin began to introduce elements of a larger narrative, one involving a secret cabal known as the Twelve, as well as Villanelle’s former handler Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) and Eve’s former boss Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw). While the efforts at world-building were a sign of the times for a more traditional weekly TV series, that element also diverted considerable creative energies away from the reason everyone was watching. The issue became more pronounced in season 2, which, though shepherded admirably by Emerald Fennell, following Waller-Bridge’s departure as showrunner, struggled to recreate the magic of season 1, while also illustrating how the show’s primary conceit is also a major roadblock to its own story.
Killing Eve is in top form when Oh and Comer are sharing the screen, as their chemistry is some of the best television has seen in recent years. But because a season of television has certain other needs that must be met — even an eight-episode one — the two are often kept apart for extended periods of time. The result is a story that spins faster at its edges than it does at the center, meaning the characters who would benefit the most from the chaotic energy they seem inexplicably drawn to are often the last to come in contact with it. As such, the show relies too heavily on fringe characters taking the brunt of what big narrative swings the series makes, while Eve and Villanelle remain largely the same.
That’s evident in the season 3 premiere, ‘Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey,’ which seemingly imagines what would happen if Eve and Villanelle were caught up in a particularly violent Richard Curtis script. As with the season 2 premiere, the two are separated by the specter of death. This time, though, it’s Eve who is presumably dead — at least to her psychotic, would-be paramour. The hour spends the majority of its time catching up with Eve and Villanelle, as the two adjust to their new normal. For Eve’s part, that means working in a kitchen, listening to line cools bemoan their romantic lives while she methodically makes dumplings and debones chickens. Villanelle, meanwhile, reengages with a woman from her past, getting back into the murder-for-hire business, a profession that necessitates Comer play dress-up again and again and make use of her considerable comedic talent.
There is intrigue to be had, but unfortunately, it rarely involves Eve and Villanelle’s relationship. Instead, season 3 is intent on getting the gang back together — or at least slowly drawing its two leads back into the bloody game they’re meant to be playing. That means several hours playing catch-up with the show’s primary cast, as circumstances eventually push them toward one another. At times, it can feel as though the series is spinning its wheels, and as enjoyable as that can be when it involves such talented performers as Oh, Comer, Shaw, and Bodnia, it also forces Killing Eve to drift further and further from what made it so attractive in the first place. With the chaotic energy of season 1 largely dissipated, the series is left to find new liveliness in an expansive plot and conspiracy. It’ll likely keep the show going, but it’s unlikely that Killing Eve will ever be as exciting or entertaining as it was in the beginning.
Killing Eve season 3 premieres Sunday, April 12 on BBC America and AMC.
