If I've talked with you for more than five minutes in the last few weeks, I've probably recommended the BBC America show Killing Eve. For those unaware, its eight episode first season focuses on burgeoning MI5 officer Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and her stylish serial killer counterpart Villanelle (Jodie Comer). Throughout the season, they track each other down, endlessly attempting to predict the other's next step. Their relationship is marked more by respect than opposition.
I'm a sucker for British crime television and its various iterations. AMC's (and later Netflix's) The Killing is probably the show that first drew me in. It's not British and was based on a Finnish series but it shared plenty of, what I'm calling, British crime show attributes. At the time, I was eating up anything AMC was producing - thank-you Mad Men and Breaking Bad, and then later Halt and Catch Fire, The Walking Dead, and Better Call Saul. But The Killing drew me in for its slow burn approach to solving a case. I was, until then, used to crime television resolving the mystery by the end of the episode. Perhaps, in a special circumstance, the crime took two episodes for the killer to be found. Yet the singularity within The Killing fascinated me and had me hooked. Two seasons to solve the first case!
What followed was plenty of other shows. Shetland is probably my favorite. But The Fall, The Missing, Happy Valley, Top of the Lake, and Marcella also have my recommendation. I haven't watched Broadchurch front to back but what I've seen, it would also come with my recommendation. Even more campy series like Paranoid or Safe hold my attention. What these all hold in common is prolonged gratification. Clues slowly resolve themselves. Extra time is given to the detectives or community members. The plot moves forward, rarely losing momentum. Women are just as often playing the role of protagonist. There's fewer unholstered guns.
Killing Eve share many of these traits. What it adds to the genre is a lightness, a finesse. The series is produced and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, otherwise known for her work in comedy. With a comedian at the helm, this, once again, proves that blood and dark themes are often best told by those who have a sense of humor (see Get Out as exhibit A). It doesn't hurt that the two leads are strong women with their respective skills. The leading performances are award worthy. The editing is brilliant. The music choices are dynamic and fit within the fabric of the series. It is effortlessly diverse on the gender, race, and LGBTQ fronts. I was fully engaged front to back, as much interested in the inner-workings of the two leads as I was on the "case" being resolved. Check it out this summer if you have the time.
