"Killing Eve," Year Two

Moderate spoilers ahead.

I've heard "Killing Eve" described as the sapphic "Hannibal," and that's a fair comparison. You have a cop and a serial killer playing cat and mouse games with each other as their mutual obsession grows. "Killing Eve" doesn't have quite the nightmarish visual sense or flair for the horrific, but it makes up for it with a much stronger supporting cast and a good sense of humor. Also, the plotting is a lot more coherent, which is a big plus.

Picking up pretty much right where the first series left off, Eve and Villanelle continue their careers as British intelligence agent and contract killer respectively. Eve gets a new case involving a new female assassin and several new co-workers, notably Hugo (Edward Bluemel) and Jess (Nina Sosanya). Villanelle, having displeased her employers, has to deal with an annoying new handler, Raymond (Adrian Scarborough). We also get a lot more of Fiona Shaw as Carolyn Martens, Eve's supervisor, and Owen McDonnell as Niko, Eve's increasingly frustrated husband.

The departure of creator and showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge definitely has an impact here. The second series of "Killing Eve" loses a lot of its unpredictability and edge. There are still plenty of twists and turns, but the show largely falls into the pattern of similar serial killer stories, though I won't spoil which ones. I like the new villains who crop up, particularly the creepy tech mogul Aaron Peel (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), but I miss the sense of chaos and anarchy. Villanelle is still mercurial and selfish, but a lot more vulnerable to meet the demands of the plotting. She rarely feels as dangerous as she ought to.

Still, the performances of Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, and Fiona Shaw are all great stuff. Oh and Comer spend much more time interacting, and a real relationship develops between the two. It becomes a tug of war, with Villanelle trying to provoke Eve's dark side and Eve trying to find ways to use Villanelle's lethality for good. Sexual attraction is definitely part of the equation, though nobody ever quite confronts it directly. Of course, this doesn't resolve to anyone's satisfaction except the audience's. And perhaps Carolyn Marten's, who is quickly becoming my favorite character in the show. Her epic unflappability is simultaneously unnerving and terribly funny. I'll keep watching if only for the chance to see Carolyn and Villanelle interact more.

The show's production values feel like they've taken a step up. The action sequences are a little more elaborate, and the settings a little more varied. There's still a good deal of globetrotting and lifestyle porn, with the finale taking place in Rome. There are also some fun instances of the heroines playing with disguises and accents, doing their own spins on the usual spycraft tropes. There are other moments that play on typical crime drama and action thriller scenarios. My favorite is a reveal that takes place halfway through the season and uses Sandra Oh's ethnicity - still refreshingly a total non-issue - to take advantage of the the audiences assumptions and pull the rug out from under them.

However, there are a few iffy structural choices that I felt impacted the show negatively. Though there is an overarching mystery to follow from week to week, and compelling characters to follow, it has a troubling habit of leaving dead ends everywhere. The first half of the season spends a lot of time building up and having Eve chase the new killer, the Ghost, and then it seems to completely forget about her halfway through the season. Maybe this character will become important again next year, but the storyline is dropped so abruptly, without a satisfying conclusion, that I was left reeling. Other minor characters have a habit of disappearing without explanation. I know the actress left the show, but what happened to Kirby Howell-Baptiste's Elena Felton from last season?

Also, as much as I love the actor, there's a major resurrection that I wish wouldn't have happened. That was my biggest beef with the second season of "Hannibal" too. They killed so many characters, but never let the dead stay dead for very long. It's a little disappointing to learn that "Killing Eve" really is a standard crime drama at its core - but it's a very good one.
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