Episode 1 of the fourth and final series of Killing Eve sadly suggests that the end can’t come quick enough
“Villanelle pushed the last one under a train”
Watching the last three series of Killing Eve in fairly quick succession really exposed how the show has really struggled to match the explosive fantasy of that first season. And as the fourth and final season arrives, helmed by another new showrunner (Laura Neal) as is its wont, signs aren’t looking good for a late revival of fortune.
The main problem was, and still is, that there’s no real point coming across from the storytelling. Everything is just vaguely there. Eve and Villanelle have a connection which is…? Everyone’s chasing The Twelve because they want to…? What has the sum total of three series’ worth of assassination drama added up to? Who knows.
Neal shuffles the cards once again and leaves her key protagonists fairly well scattered in new locales. Carolyn’s in some sunny diplomatic posting, Konstantin’s mayor of somewhere in Russia, Eve is now in private security and Villanelle? Well she’s apparently now a religious convert and is seeing vision of God, who looks like her but in a beard.
It’s early days yet for this final season but it doesn’t feel like a winner. It does feel awfully like we’re retreading familiar ground here and for little substantive purpose. The most interesting aspect seems to be this idea that Eve is getting darker, Sandra Oh relishing these moments, but Jodie Comer is marooned with the opposite move, can Villanelle ever really be good? Would anyone want her to be? I guess we’ll find out…
