Killing Eve, series 4 review: Jodie Comer gamely persists in a show long past its best
The scene in which Jodie Comer strode through Paris in a billowing pink dress was the biggest thing to happen to the espionage thriller genre since James Bond ordered his first off-menu martini. But even at its best, that blend of deadpan comedy and kinetic action always had the quality of a high-wire act that could come tumbling down at any moment. And as Killing Eve returns for a fourth and final season – beginning weekly from today on BBC iPlayer and airing on BBC One from Saturday at 9.15pm – and with original writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge long since departed for Hollywood, it is safe to say that gravity has well and truly reasserted itself.
The problem with Killing Eve continues to be that all the tension evaporated after cloak-and-dagger antagonists Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Comer) finally sat down face-to-face towards the end of series one. Everything that has unfolded since has been a game of cat and mouse in which neither cat or mouse have had much to do.
Having seemingly run out of plot, and with the pandemic pushing production back 12 months, the response of its new show-runner, Sex Education writer Laura Neal, has been to dial up the surrealism. Series three concluded with sociopathic Russian assassin Villanelle meeting and then killing most of her own family – before she and her obsessive ex-MI6 pursuer Eve agreed to walk away and never meet again. But, of course, Villanelle is still unwilling to let go of their connection – with its romantic overtones.
The tone really is all over the place. Is Killing Eve an absurdist dark comedy with an escalating body count? Or a thriller with a few zany laughs squeezed in? With Waller-Bridge writing the zinging dialogue, that confusion was not a problem. Fourth time around, the sense is of having spent too long on a carnival ride. Nausea is kicking in.
Comer, to her credit, is reliably effusive and elusive. Alas, she is up against a plot that that has all the urgency of treacle flowing uphill. The first two episodes see Villanelle find God, while Eve is working in private security while continuing in her efforts to track down “The Twelve”, the shadowy order of assassins pulling the strings of global governance (and which wouldn’t feel amiss in a Marvel movie).
That is likewise the mission of her old MI6 boss Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw), seeking revenge for the death of her son Kenny. And there is a cameo from Villanelle’s old chaperone Konstantin (Kim Bodnia), who’s happily embarked on a new life as mayor of an obscure Russian town until Eve tracks him down.
Killing Eve at its peak was a dizzying victory for style over substance. Now the substance is gone and all remains is empty dazzle. The blaring retro soundtrack overstays its welcome. Even the hyper-stylised fonts with which the latest exotic location is introduced have started to feel hammy.
That Comer is a star is obviously beyond question. And, notwithstanding the failure of her Ridley Scott movie the Last Duel, she has better things to do than reprise Villanelle’s greatest hits. For her and the rest of the cast, the imminent demise of Killing Eve is surely a mercy long overdue.