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BBC confirms transmission date for series three of Killing Eve, acquires series four
A double-whammy of good news for Killing Eve fans.
The BBC has not only confirmed the transmission date for series three, but it has also revealed that it has acquired series four of the award-winning cat-and-mouse thriller.
The third series continues the compelling cat and mouse story of two women with brutal pasts now trying desperately to live their lives without the other. For Villanelle (Jodie Comer), the assassin without a job, Eve (Sandra Oh) is dead. As for Eve, the ex-MI6 operative is hiding in plain sight, hoping that Villanelle will never find her. All seems fine until a shocking death sets them on a collision course yet again. The journey back to each other will cost both of them friends, family, and allegiances. And perhaps a share of their souls.
New cast additions include Dame Harriet Walter, Danny Sapani, Gemma Whelan, Camille Cottin, Steve Pemberton, Raj Bajaj, Turlough Convery, Pedja Bjelac and Evgenia Dodina.
Killing Eve (series 3): Sunday 19th April (starting on iPlayer Monday 13th April), 9pm, BBC One
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BBC America drops series three Killing Eve teaser and transmission date
Killing Eve is a bona fide global phenomenon, and with series three on its way, the TV adaptation of Luke Jennings’ novels continues apace this year.
The show’s US home – BBC America – has dropped a new, 15-second, Valentine’s Day-themed teaser for the new third series and has revealed its transmission date.
Deadline says: “The third season continues the story of two women with brutal pasts, addicted to each other but now trying desperately to live their lives without their drug of choice. For Villanelle (Jodie Comer), the assassin without a job, Eve (Sandra Oh) is dead. For Eve, the ex-MI6 operative hiding in plain sight, Villanelle will never find her. All seems fine until a shocking and personal death sets them on a collision course yet again. The journey back to each other will cost both of them friends, family, and allegiances…and perhaps a share of their souls.”
It also reports that Suzanne Heathcote is this series’ lead writer and the cast includes Harriet Walter, Danny Sapani, Gemma Whelan, Camille Cottin, Steve Pemberton, Raj Bajaj, Turlough Convery, Pedja Bjelac and Evgenia Dodina.
The channel also revealed that the series is set to drop on 26th April.
REVIEW: Killing Eve (S2 E7/8)
Villanelle’s amusing herself with a couple of lovers, Eve’s increasingly isolated from her colleagues and husband, and Peel’s evil plans are still obscure – but with the Rome meeting coming up, will Eve’s plans bear fruit, or come to dust?
We’ve found out a lot more about Villanelle’s twisted psychology since her AA meetings, but can we believe her when she tells Eve that she feels things only when she’s with her? Or is this another mind game?
Villanelle’s picked up a couple of party girls for a sexfest, or was it just to annoy Eve? Anyway, she’s in with Aaron Peel, and after a flirty dinner with him, gets an invite to his Rome conference. Her instructions are to find out what Peel’s weapon is and who he’s selling to, and definitely not to kill anyone. Should be easy.
We’re uncomfortable with the fact that Eve seems so fixated with Villanelle that she overlooks the fact that she murdered Bill – is this likely? Moreover, Villannelle has not forgotten Nico, who she tracks down to his storage unit, where the ripe Gemma gets in the way. What are Villanelle’s intentions? Nothing good, surely.
Eve has another meeting with psychologist Martin to discuss Villanelle, but just ends up revealing her own lack of perspective.
Carolyn is unsure of Eve’s ability to manage Villanelle in Rome, and Kenny warns her that the operation is compromised, but Villanelle proves to be a surprisingly good spy, indulging Peel in his pervy psycho games and managing to avoid killing anyone.
Eve, though, becomes increasingly unhinged, watching Villanelle as obsessively as Peel does, and predictably sleeping with the slimy Hugo (as much to entertain Villanelle as anything). Villanelle though emerges unsullied, as Peel seems to have no interest in sleeping with anyone.
The predatory side of Eve’s personality has certainly developed under Villanelle’s influence, as she’s used both Nicro and Hugo for her own gratificiation.
Peel’s data mining weapon proves to be everything he promised his buyers, so the mission is a success up to this point; what no-one knows is that Nico and Gemma are still imprisoned in the lock-up, Gemma dead and Nico unconscious.
The timeline here is a bit confusing – has Nico been unconscious all the time Eve is in Rome? We’re also bemused that Peel’s elaborate observation system doesn’t seem to extend to audio as well as video.
Nonetheless, things have moved along to the extent that we can expect a slam-bang finale next week, with Nico out for revenge, and Eve presumably still determined to protect Villanelle against all comers.
Lovely outdoor and indoor sets in Rome are an added bonus in this episode – presumably next week we’re back to rainswept London, but then where? Can the pairing of Eve and Villanelle survive another confrontation?
Chris Jenkins
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE THREE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE FOUR REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE FIVE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE SIX REVIEW
REVIEW: Killing Eve (S2 E5/8)
Villanelle is bored, The Ghost is enigmatic, Eve is frustrated – how are the three going to collide, now that we’re past the mid-point of this gallingly inconsistent season?
Unlike Villanelle, who loves to be the centre of attention, rival assassin Jin, The Ghost, is impassive and unresponsive – she taunts Eve with a few sassy remarks, but gives no real information. Eve’s breakthrough comes when she realises that even Jin is frightened of Villanelle, the Dalgyal Gwishin, the Egg Ghost, the Demon with No Face, and she hatches a barmy plot to recruit Villanelle to break Jin.
We have three problems with this. First, if it was so easy to contact Villanelle by putting out a hit on someone, why not do it before? Second, that’s not how contract killing works – the client doesn’t know who the killer is, or the other way around, so this is an unrealistic plot device. Third, this moves Villanelle further into Hannibal territory – firstly, acting as a sort of consultant psychopath, and secondly, as she breaks Jin merely by whispering to her in a shipping container, becoming a nightmare figure operating in the recesses of other malefactors’ minds.
It’s also unconvincing that Jin vouchsafes the information that her employer on the Peel hit was the victim’s son – again, the hitter shouldn’t know the employer’s identity, precisely to prevent this sort of information coming out.
Villanelle has been bored, taking up out-staring human statues as a hobby, not even entertained by punching a victim to death in a carwash (and emerging remarkably unbloodied), but she does regain her mojo when she comes to Eve’s house to cut a deal.
Villanelle is so excited that she dresses up in a lacy black number (and it’s a sight to see her tripping around the Forest of Dean in it) – Eve’s so turned on by meeting Villanelle again that she drags limp noodle Nico upstairs for a quickie (an unsubtlety we think Phoebe Waller-Bridge might have avoided).
Eve herself is tremulously wondering whether she does in fact have it in her to kill, perhaps by pushing someone under a train – certainly she’s developed a streak of ruthlessness which leads her to falling out with Kenny, and allows her to expose Jin to Villanelle (Jin calls Eve a “monster” for doing it). When Carolyn’s pet psychologist comes in to lecture the team about psychopaths, he’s actually assessing Eve for psychotic tendencies.
Yet when she has Villanelle in her clutches – and let’s not forget that Villanelle murdered Bill and many others – Eve simply lets her go. If she was doing her job, Villanelle would by now be strapped to a trolley, wearing a bite mask, and locked in a big plastic cage.
Instead, she’s wandering around Oxford, dressed as something out of Brideshead Revisited and confronting a baffled Nico.
While we think the writers have lost their way in this implausible episode, they’re obviously working up to a confrontation between Eve, Villanelle and Nico – so will the limp noodle finally become aroused enough to fight to save his marriage from the toxic influence of the psychopathic Villanelle?
Chris Jenkins
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE THREE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE FOUR REVIEW
REVIEW: Killing Eve (S2 E4/8)
With some hints of the quirky humour and transgressive plotting of series one starting to return to what has been a lacklustre second series, a lot hangs on this episode – Villanelle is back in the killing business, and Eve is hot on her trail. But there are stumbling blocks along the way, not least the elusive assassin The Ghost.
It’s getting harder and harder for Killing Eve to produce anything surprising – so when we discover that the quirky Carolyn has an equally quirky boss to report to, it hardly rocks our world. That it’s Helen, played by Zoe Wanamaker, wearing a cardigan, munching Pringles, and coming out with a lot of colourful sexual invective, hardly adds to the novelty value – okay, we get it, you want to find work for a lot of ageing actresses.
We see Carolyn leaving Vauxhall Cross (the MI6 headquarters on Albert Embankment, famously destroyed in Bond movie Skyfall) and heading back to her own scabby office, where Eve has been working all weekend on identifying The Ghost (Hugo asks whether she has Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box, a reference to David Fincher movie 7even).
Eve has figured out that all the suspicious deaths around the Peel dynasty require some medical knowledge; maybe The Ghost is a rogue doctor or nurse? A visit to arrogant Aaron Peel reveals nothing – but why are Eve and Jess so submissive when he dismisses their concerns? Nonetheless the hunch pans out – when another body is found, killed in an almost merciful manner, Hugo’s research leads to a suspect. Eve confronts her on a school playground and she surrenders – next week, then, we should get her backstory.
Villanelle, meanwhile, is kicking around Amsterdam, goading Konstantin, getting stoned, picking fights in bars and missing Eve. She only perks up when a hit-job offers the opportunity for some fun. She’s inspired by a particularly brutal painting in the Rijksmuseum, The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers, attributed to Jan de Baen, c. 1672-1675. This shows the mutilated corpses of two politicians who picked the wrong side in the accession of William of Orange; eviscerated, castrated and hanged upside-down, they hold a particularly gory place in Dutch history.
Villanelle, though, loves the example, and slaughters her next victim by displaying him inverted in a window in the red light district, and disembowelling him in front of his wife (who had presumably paid for the job).
What worried us about this routine is that it’s all too similar to psycho gore-fest Hannibal, which was one ritualistic, artistic slaughter after another – Villanelle isn’t particularly culturally attuned (apart from her liking for designer couture and massive ear-rings), so we don’t warn to this direction she’s going in. Maybe she just does it because it will attract Eve’s attention – certainly she’s disappointed when the pregnant Jess turn up to investigate instead.
As both Eve and Villanelle stare into a mirrors, perhaps neither liking what they see, we do get a spark of the deeply psychotic relish of Series One – maybe co-writer of this week’s episode DC Moore (Not Safe For Work) has brought a refreshing new voice. But we’re still wondering where all this is going – another encounter between Eve and Villanelle is inevitable but seems distant. After Eve’s flirty lunchbreak with slimy Hugo, we think a triangle involving drippy Niko and pining colleague Gemma may well develop – if Villanelle doesn’t chop a bloody swathe through London first.
PS – rather than Desperate Times, we’d have titled this episode after Villanelle’s complaint in the museum, that everything was just paintings of ‘Grapes or Naked Women’. Or her complaint to Konstantin about her targets – ‘Scorned Wives and Scumbags’. They can have those two for free.
Chris Jenkins
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE THREE REVIEW
REVIEW: Killing Eve (S2 E3/8)
The problem with series two of Killing Eve was always going to be that there were only two ways it could go: option one, the same thing all over again, attempting to repeat the success of season one by imitation; or option two, something different, taking the risk of losing the original spark in the search for novelty. Our money was on option one, and guess what, that particular fleabag (see what we did there?) has passed the winning post first.
Because, utterly predictably, the old gang from season one has been reunited with the return of Villanelle’s original handler, Konstantin (Kim Bodnia). Anyone who didn’t see this coming needs a refresher course in TV clichés; first, you don’t break up a winning line-up of star power, and second, you don’t assume a character is dead unless you actually see them dismembered. Crucially, if you only hear reports of a character’s death off-stage – well, they ain’t dead.
So it was with weary predictability that we welcomed back Konstantin (well, Kim Bodnia is a great asset to the series, but the freshness of the writing is undermined by such an obvious twist).
Konstantin survived being shot in the tea-room (always painful) by Villanelle, and Carolyn now has him stashed away, trading information for the safety of his family (who think he is dead). Eve greets his resurrection with weary acceptance, but is wrong-footed when he warns her to forget Villanelle – he mixes his metaphors a bit when he describes her as a hungry caterpillar. She’s actually more like the chestburster from Alien.
Villanelle, consigned by new handler Raymond to a disgustingly sleazy hotel (with louche concierge Larry played by old stager Nickolas Grace) is back to her old ways, flamboyantly dispatching a financier by trapping his tie in a lift (could this work? We must try it some time). But what of her rival operative, The Ghost? Raymond taunts Villanelle about her success – but it appears that she doesn’t work for The Twelve, so who?
Eve tries to cosy up to Niko by making him what looks like the most disgusting breakfast ever, but Villanelle has other ideas, plotting sexual shenanigans to get him in hot water in school, with the unwitting aid of besotted colleague Gemma (Emma Pierson).
Gemma, meanwhile, who is implausibly single, is easily manipulated into causing a rift – but why is Raymond, who is watching Villanelle closely, allowing her to indulge in this peccadillo?
Eve, figuring she needs some leverage, persuades Kenny to find her the location of Konstantin’s family – information she knows Konstantin will exchange for Villanelle’s location. But Konstantin beats her to it, receiving a surprisingly tender reception from Villanelle, though the power games between the two are as twisted as ever.
By the time Eve and her SWAT team turn up, Konstantin has persuaded Villanelle to go freelance, with him as her partner – Eve is distraught at missing her by inches, and Carolyn is hurt by Konstantin’s betrayal. Even Eve begins to question her own motivation, until she finds that Villanelle’s parting gift of lipstick contains a deadly surprise.
Twisty, psychologically complex and pretty much devoid of gore, this episode felt like the series was getting into its stride again, though maybe that was just because Kim Bodnia was back, and Villanelle got into some tasteful outfits again (we’ll forget the hippy ensemble with the pasta jewellery).
But we’re still no nearer finding out anything about The Ghost, and until we engage fully with that mysterious character, we aren’t getting much of a sense of direction. But we can already predict what’s going to happen in series three; Villanelle will be recruited by MI6, and will be tasked with hunting down other killers, with Eve as her boss. We’ll put money on that, and where Killing Eve is concerned, our betting average is pretty good.
Chris Jenkins
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE TWO REVIEW
REVIEW: Killing Eve (S2 E2/8)
With episode one offering little in the way of plot development, and only a smidgeon of the psycho action we have come to expect from Killing Eve, we have to hope that this week’s episode moves things along a bit faster, and with a bit more panache.
Certainly things are progressing, with a substantially recovered Villanelle heading for Britain in the boot of a tourist family’s car. We anticipated her spinning them some sob-story about being a poor exploited migrant when they pop it open at the other end, but no, she just sneaks off into the wilds of Basildon, still clad in her superhero pyjamas. In due course she picks up a patsy in a supermarket – Julian (Julian Barratt) is putty in her hands, and immediately offers her somewhere to recuperate, entertaining an angel unawares, he thinks – well, an angel of death, maybe.
Meanwhile Eve follows up a lead on murdered entrepreneur Alister Peel – assuming that Villanelle killed him, does this give some clue to the plans of the Twelve? Carolyn introduces her to her new team, including her son Kenny (Sean Delaney) who we’ve met before, Jess (the inevitable Nina Sosanya), and obnoxious Old Etonian, Hugo (Edward Bluemel). Eve confesses to Kenny that she found and stabbed Villanelle, but he agrees not to tell Carolyn – but the longer they delay the inevitable, the worse the fallout will surely be.
As Eve fills in the team on her pursuit of Villanelle, or Oksana, we’re reminded that she shot her handler Konstantin – but we still reckon he isn’t dead (it’s a fair rule of thumb in this sort of thing that unless you actually see someone bisected, they’re usually alive). And did Villanelle leave a clue for Eve in her French hospital – a half-eaten apple in the hand of her victim?
Hugo turns out to be familiar with psychopaths – well, he did go to boarding school – while Julian turns out to be a nutcase with a house full of dolls and a demented mother. He helps Villanelle to lick her wounds but keeps her locked up and is clearly a creep.
Alister Peel’s son and daughter Amber and Aaron take the news that he was murdered fairly calmly, but can’t identify Villanelle – is another assassin at work, one who can pass unnoticed anywhere she goes, masquerading perhaps as a cleaner to slip her next victim a poisoned coffee?
A weakening Villanelle takes a gamble and calls a contact from the Twelve, only to be blanked – it seeems she’s burned her boats there. She can’t get through to MI6 either – but the message she leaves is enough for them to close in on her.
After a murderous fight with Julian where he gets what’s coming to him – a knitting needle in the neck – Villanelle is rescued by her new handler Raymond (Adrian Scarborough). He promises her she’ll be kept on a tight leash from now on – let’s see how she takes to that.
Carolyn and Eve narrowly miss Villanelle as she escapes from Julian’s, and Eve realises that she really is in danger – Carolyn’s next move doesn’t do much to reassure her though, as she takes her to see Konstantin (Kim Bodnia).
See, we told you he wasn’t dead – perhaps now we’ll get a bit more detail on his and Carolyn’s relationship with The Twelve.
Will Villanelle be allowed to continue her dangerous obsession with Eve, and vice versa? What role will new assassin The Ghost play? And will Villanelle finally get out of her flannelette nightie and into something more glamorous?
While this episode certainly had a lot more pep to it, it really needs Villanelle to be on top form, wise-cracking and making mayhem, for this series to get back into its stylish form. Maybe next week, with Konstantin back on the scene and Villanelle pumped full of antibiotics, we’ll finally get back in the groove.
Chris Jenkins
READ MORE: OUR EPISODE ONE REVIEW
REVIEW: Killing Eve (S2 E1/8)
Previously on Killing Eve… well, the critics loved it, everyone won awards, writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge became the hottest property in Hollywood, and everyone said it was the best thing since sliced bread.
So how do you follow such success? Buoyed by three stellar performances, by Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer and Fiona Shaw, powered by a transgressive gender-bending plot and fashionable violence, and sauced with dark humour and stylish costumes, Killing Eve could well have bowed out after one series as a classic.
Having pursued psycho assassin Villanelle across Europe, dowdy MI5 agent Eve could have taken her revenge for the killing of her colleagues, embraced her new more dynamic personality, and that could well have been that. But by chickening out in the final encounter – stabbing Villanelle but not killing her – Eve leaves the plot open for a follow-up.
While we’re now departing from the story of the original Villanelle novelettes by Luke Jennings, new writer Emerald Fennell has to recapture the spirit of the first season without repeating its tropes aimlessly.
The action follows on 30 seconds after the end of the last series, with Eve escaping from the Twelve’s clean-up team onto Eurostar, as the injured Villanelle staggering off into the Parisian streets, and managing to trick her way into a hospital.
Returning home to drippy Gabriel, Eve is traumatised by her experience – but is it because she fears she’s killed Villanelle, or because she couldn’t? ‘Sometimes when you love someone you will do crazy things’ as Villanelle says. She is soon finding her feet – though she isn’t comfortable in a stolen pair of Crocs – and is wrapping the doctors, patients and relatives around her little finger.
Eve has to confront her boss Carolyn, but lies to her about finding Villanelle – presumably because she suspects Carolyn is one of the Twelve. But if she hoped to be taken off the case, she’s disappointed, as Eve finds herself sucked in even deeper, as Carolyn drags her along to the autopsy of internet mogul Alister Peel, apparently a victim of Villanelle, according to informant Nadia.
Perhaps unwisely, Eve now asks Carolyn about her relationship with Villanelle’s controller Konstantin, and with the Twelve – but gets no answers.
Villanelle discharges herself from hospital – thoughtfully euthanising a despairing patient on the way – and gets as far as Calais, where she stows away in the boot of a family car. They’re going to have a shock at the other end. As she approaches London, she’s evidently looking forward to her reunion with Eve as much as Eve is dreading it – but surely Villanelle is in no condition to take her revenge?
Apart from Villanelle’s one casual murder, Eve’s obsessive consumption of Pick’n’Mix, Carolyn’s borrowing of a boy in the park and a little business about double-glazing, there’s little sign in the first episode of the humour of the original series – or of its fashion sense, unless you count Villanelle’s comic-book pyjamas.
Is Emerald Fennell (best known as an actress in Call the Midwife) just not up to the task? – she certainly has very little in the way of a writing track record. Or is she holding something in reserve? Let’s hope so – Killing Eve is too hot a property for it to be allowed to suffer from ‘difficult second series’ syndrome, but on the evidence of the first episode, it may already be in trouble.
Chris Jenkins
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Killing Eve series two transmission date confirmed by BBC One
Killing Eve is coming back to the BBC in the UK after its globally-successful first series.
That first series saw Jodie Comer play unhinged psychopathic assassin Villanelle – a role she won a BAFTA for – and Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri, a security operative.
Together they formed an unlikely bond in a high-octane cat-and-mouse chase.
READ MORE: Killing Eve series three acquired by the BBC
We join series two at a crucial time.
After everything that happened in Russia, Eve (Sandra Oh) went rogue. Turning up at Villanelle’s (Jodie Comer) home and coming face to face with her, in a moment that shocked even Villanelle, Eve has just stabbed her in the stomach.
Now Eve is alone in Villanelle’s flat with nothing but a knife, her handbag and a rising sense of panic. Meanwhile Villanelle is already on the run and using all her many skills and instincts to survive. She’s wounded in more ways than one, and if she can escape the wrath of her Russian handlers, she is heading straight to London.
READ MORE: All our reviews of Killing Eve series one
The series is set to play out weekly on BBC One, but the entire eight episodes will also be available to view on the BBC’s iPlayer.
Look out for the likes of Sophie Okinido and Julian Barratt in this series.
Killing Eve: Saturday 8th June, 9.15pm, BBC One
The Killing Times 