Just A Little Old Killing Eve Thread [NO SPOILERS PLEASE]

nighttimer

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Do you like psychopaths?

Do you like female psychopaths?

Do you like two female psychopaths obsessed with each other? Well, do I have a TV show for you! Lemme talk to you about my new obsession: Killing Eve.

09-killing-eve.w330.h330.jpg


Eve's life as a spy is not adding up to what she had hoped it would be when she started. She is a bored, very smart, MI5 security officer who is very desk-bound. Villanelle is a very talented killer, mercurial in mood, who clings to the luxuries of her job. Eve and Villanelle go head to head in a fierce game of cat and mouse, each woman equally obsessed with the other as Eve is tasked with hunting down the psychopathic assassin. Sarah Barnett, BBCA president, says, " `Killing Eve' stands out in a sea of scripted stories as refreshingly entertaining and great fun."


Is it any good? Well, the star is Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri, a scruffy little office drone working for MI5. Oh stepped out of her Grey' Anatomy role and she and her fabulous hair won a Golden Globes award for it. The other star is Jodie Comer and she won a BAFTA award this year. So did Fiona Shaw as the inscrutable MI5 spymaster, Carolyn Martens. Then there's Phoebe Waller-Bridge who was Season#1's showrunner and won kudos for her own series, Fleabag. She won some awards too and she's been tapped to help write the next James Bond flick.

So, yeah. It doesn't suck.

The show premiered last year on BBC America, but weirdly America got the show first and it showed up in England after it completed over here. Season 2 played out the same way and how was it received?

The audience figures for Killing Eve's second series have been revealed, and they're shocking.

Shockingly good, that is.

3.7 million people tuned in to watch the first episode on BBC One, and 2.6 million people requested the boxset for the second series in the first thirty-six hours of it being available.

Wow.

Wow, indeed. Much to my shock and awe, there was no Killing Eve thread on Absolute Write's Movies, TV, and Theater forum. Problem. Solved.

Let's see if I'm all alone in my fondness for this great show that continually subverts convention, avoids tropes, and keeps you in your feelings. Eve and Villanelle forever. :e2kissy:
 

Laurasaurus

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I've seen series 1 and the first ep of series 2. I love it so much. Everything about it is perfect, even her ridiculous outfits.
I need to get some boy's pajamas.
 

nighttimer

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I've seen series 1 and the first ep of series 2. I love it so much. Everything about it is perfect, even her ridiculous outfits.
I need to get some boy's pajamas.

Villanelle looks good in anything she wears. Except for Eve's clothes. That's a lost cause. The poor thing. But Eve does have that fabulous hair, so there's that.

Hollaback Laurasaurus when you finish Season Two. I'd particularly like to know your thoughts on the fifth and final episodes. Cause I'm still shook.

:Jaw:
 

muse

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Love the show! Watching Series 2 at the moment.
 

Laer Carroll

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SPOILER ALERT *****************************************






































Is Eve coming back? Or did she really get killed AS THE TITLE SUGGESTS? Or just seemed to? Have the writers left wiggle room for her to come back? I've no interest in an Eve-less "K. Eve" even though a season 3 has been greenlit.
 
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-Riv-

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Is Eve coming back? Or did she really get killed? Or just seemed to? Have the writers left wiggle room for her to come back? I've no interest in an Eve-less "K. Eve" even though a season 3 has been greenlit.
GAH! Huge spoiler, and this thread isn't labeled for spoilers, so I wasn't expecting one with no warning (though, if a spoiler is at the top of a post, it comes up in the activity stream anyway). Consider editing your post to push the spoiler down and giving a warning of the spoiler? I'm just in Series 1, so, yeah.... spoiler... and others avoid it. :greenie

All the best,
Riv
 
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Laurasaurus

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Dude, literally the posts before that spoiler were people saying they'd just started season 2.
*goes off to wash brain out and forget spoiler*
 

nighttimer

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SPOILER ALERT *****************************************

Ugh. While I'm glad you're a Killing Eve fan, Laer Carroll, I'm going to ask if you would kindly edit out the last line of your post. I haven't figured out how to use the hidden text feature, but you just dropped a massive spoiler and there are folks who haven't finished Season Two.

Thanks.
 

AW Admin

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If you're going to have a spoiler, you need to change the text color to make it harder to read inadvertently.
 

nighttimer

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Thank you, AW Admin. Appreciate you. :Thumbs:
 

Laer Carroll

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SPOILER ALERT


























































If you re-read my post carefully there is no spoiler. It does not state that Eve is killed, only that the title of the series suggests it.

I've now watched that final episode. It's now obvious that Eve is not killed, only shot and left to die. It was a typical cliffhanger, intended to bring curious viewers back for the next season.

And in fact there will be a third season. It has been greenlit according to Variety. There has not yet been an announcement if Sandra Oh will return, but it would be highly unlikely for the producers to continue without her. It's likely that Oh's agent and the net are negotiating a new deal. In the end the likely outcome is that Oh will end up with a substantial boost in pay.

All sorts of interesting possibilities have been opened up by Eve's attack. Such as Eve become a more hardened agent and doing things she would not before have done. And/or going on a quest to find her attacker and wreaking revenge. And so on.
 
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Laer Carroll

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I'm puzzled. How does a reader who wants to read the text see it? And why is a full page of blank space not sufficient protection? Changing the text in that situation seems pointless.
 
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AW Admin

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I'm puzzled. How does a reader who wants to read the text see it? And why is a full page of blank space not sufficient protection? Changing the text in that situation seems pointless.

Select the text that is "invisible" Laer.

Moreover, the thread's OP has request no spoilers.

People reading the thread all at once may be scrolling rapidly; blank space isn't really enough. Notice that there are people in this thread who are upset that a key plot point was ruined for them.
 
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nighttimer

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Is the will-they-or-won't-take dance between Eve and Villanelle only an exercise in queerbaiting?

Some say YEA:

Killing Eve has been accused of queerbaiting by viewers after Sandra Oh dismissed the chance of an on-screen romance.

Ahead of the show’s second season debut in the UK, it releases on Saturday 8 June, fans of the BBC spy thriller have speculated as to whether the dysfunctional dynamic between MI5 security officer Eve Polastri and deadly assassin Villanelle will finally culminate into a romantic relationship.

The finale of season one ended with Eve telling the assassin she thinks about her all of the time, to which Villanelle replied, “I mean, I masturbate about you a lot.”

The “will they, won’t they” relationship teases continued when the show dropped its first season two trailer on Valentine’s Day.

The clip, which featured an eerie rendition of “Addicted to Love”, hinted at a potential romance between the two characters with Villanelle saying ominously in a voice-over: “Sometimes, when you love someone, you do crazy things.”

Despite the insinuations, Oh recently dismissed the idea of a relationship between the two leading ladies in an interview with the Gay Times, saying: “You guys are tricky because you want to make it into something… but it just isn’t.



“That’s also why I think sexuality and discovery of the wider reaches of sexuality is the theme of the show – why it’s interesting to people. It’s not one thing or another.”

Following the comments, fans of Killing Eve have accused the show of queerbaiting – a term used to describe purposely teasing the possibility of a character being queer in an effort to appeal to LGBT+ audiences without properly exploring it on-screen.


“You don’t get to play up the relationship in marketing and then imply the fans are delusional for shipping it,” one person wrote on Twitter.


“And to think before this week I defended them against accusations of queerbaiting.”


Another added: “Sigh. I need to stop putting any trust in shows to show me representation of queer couples outside of side characters. #KillingEve is one of the most disgusting examples of queerbaiting to date.”


A third person agreed, writing: “I'm not mad that they're apparently never going to have a sexual/romantic relationship. I am, however, rather annoyed that they clearly led us on and used us.

Some say NAY:
Anyone with a heart couldn’t fail to be moved by Villanelle’s agony at having to slide her feet into a pair of Crocs in the first episode of season two’s Killing Eve, which hit BBC One screens last night.


Murder, deceit, cruelty, a dagger to the gut – nothing comes close to the pain this fashionista with a firearm appeared to feel upon realising that her sartorial choices were to suffer if she wanted to survive. Such are the compromises this irrepressible assassin may have to learn to endure.



The return to our screens of the charismatic Killing Eve character who gives zero f*cks is long overdue. Here is a woman who meets the beauty standard, but whose lack of interest in male sexual attention in a society where women’s acceptability is so often invested in their ability to conform to sexual and gender norms, is wholly refreshing. Rarely has a female character been less in need of “saving” than she. In almost every sense, Villanelle is deviant and I’m an absolute sucker for the underdog.


While the award-winning show has been critiqued for being yet another example of how queer women are portrayed as mad, bad and dangerous, I consider Villanelle to be an indisputable delight. Is she a psychopath? Undoubtedly.


Granted – Villanelle is probably not someone you want in your life, but her charm, comic timing and panache leave me, like so many others, utterly seduced. I’m no more excited by violence than the average person, but representations of women with power (even when this is abused) are so rare, that when we’re presented with one – particularly one as compelling as Villanelle – it makes Eve’s obsession with her completely understandable – and she’s not even queer.


Or is she?


In a recent interview with Gay Times, Sandra Oh’s response to the suggestion of romance between MI5 agent Eve Polastri and Villanelle led to accusations of queerbaiting: a term used to describe when a show leads an audience to believe that a character is queer to titillate and attract new viewers without ever developing this beyond hints.



“You guys are tricky because you want to make it into something … but it just isn’t,” said Oh.


To dismiss the palpable sexual tension between these two characters is naïve, and for Oh to categorically deny the possibility of any romance between the pair struck me as bizarre – but I don’t necessarily believe the show is guilty of queerbaiting.


Villanelle is played as an openly queer woman; her ex-partner even makes an appearance in season one. Eve – whose sexuality has never been clarified thus far – is clearly infatuated by Villanelle and I suspect Eve’s feelings for the assassin are as muddied and complicated as the viewers.



When Eve comes clean with Villanelle about her fixation at the end of season one, words effusively falling from her lips, Villanelle’s response clears up any ambiguity about her feelings towards Eve: “I think about you all the time. I think about what you’re wearing, and what you’re doing, and who you’re doing it with. I think about the friends you have, I think about what you eat before you go to work, and what shampoo you have, and what happened in your family. I think about your eyes and your mouth, and what you feel when you kill someone, I think about what you have for breakfast. I just want to know everything,” bleats Eve.


“I think about you, too. I mean, I masturbate about you a lot,” deadpans Villanelle.


Rather than queerbaiting, Killing Eve is simply continuing to keep its audience on its toes by building tension between its two protagonists, who happen to be women. It’s impossible to say if equivalent friction between straight male and female actors would be as effective, but I’m more than content to watch it play out. A lack of rounded and realistic representations of queer women on our screens means that when they do appear, it’s easy to critique them for their failure to reach the impossible standard of being all things to all people.


A romance between Villanelle and Eve would be undoubtedly thrilling, but I won’t be holding my breath. Life’s grey areas are often the most fascinating and this queer woman, for one, can’t wait to watch how Eve and Villanelle’s intriguing relationship continues to develop.


From a het male perspective, I'm the worst person in the world to make a call whether or not Killing Eve is engaged in queerbaiting. So I won't.

What I can say is in the Eve/Villanelle fanfic, there is no ambiguity. Far from it. Ah, you writers...:e2BIC:
 

Laurasaurus

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Well I finally finished season 2. :O

(spoilers)














I really don't think Eve is dead (I hope). Someone pointed out that after Hugo got shot he told Eve he was playing dead. So I think Eve laying still at the end is a callback to that. Also it looked like there was blood pooling around her stomach, and as we know from Reservoir Dogs, it takes hours to die from getting shot in the stomach (unless Mr White was lying to us).

Villanelle would totally shoot Eve to hurt her, but not to kill her, I think.

I want to know what happened to Hugo! I have a soft spot for him now, along with poor Kenny.
 
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nighttimer

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Season 3 began filming this week.

Plus, it's worth noting Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer were both nominated by the Emmys for Best Actress in a Drama and Fiona Shaw for Best Supporting Actress as the ever-dodgy Carolyn Martens. All n' all, the show scored nine nominations.

The second season wasn't as good as the first, but it wasn't because of the acting as Oh, Comer and Shaw elevated the occasionally tepid material they were given to work with.
Best of luck, murder babes. :Clap:
 

nighttimer

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Ahem...

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones)
Robin Wright (House of Cards)
Viola Davis (How To Get Away With Murder)
Sandra Oh (Killing Eve)
Jodie Comer (Killing Eve)
Mandy Moore (This Is Us)
Laura Linney (Ozark)


This was Comer's first Emmy award nomination and she took home the trophy over her co-star, Sandra Oh, who now has double-digit losses (10).

9k=


But she's a pro and a woman who supports other women. Congratulations, Jodie. You are a star on the rise. :thankyou:
 

nighttimer

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Oh, hello. Just wanted to mention that Jodie Comer performance on Killing Eve was nominated for...

A Golden Globe award.
A Critics Choice award.
A Screen Actors Guild award.

But somehow nobody's watching this show but me and a handful of other losers? Oh well. We all can't be Game of Thrones or The Mandalorian (and thank God for that!)
 

nighttimer

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I have no idea why no one but me seems to give a shit about this show, but I'm going to stay here in my circle of one doing me while y'all do you.

EWk1_RMWkAE0b7h.jpg
 

mrsmig

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I actually just started watching it this week. It's a show I've always meant to watch, but my schedule is usually fairly wonky so I don't often commit to series.

My husband and I started from Season 1, Episode 1 two days ago, and finally caught up to the current season this morning at 3 AM. So yeah, we're hooked.

(And I love Sandra Oh. The first thing I remember seeing her in was Sideways, where I was amazed she could do so much with such an under-written role.)
 

muse

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Love, love this show! One of the best out there.