Why the quirky spy-thriller, Killing Eve is a hit

Killing Eve is a British drama television series produced by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America. Photo / Supplied

With eight perfectly formed episodes, quirky spy-thriller Killing Eve was TV's sleeper hit of 2018, taking audiences by surprise – and by storm – as it topped 'best of' lists right around the world.

But the show's success shouldn't have been a surprise at all, given the pedigree of its talent both on screen and behind the scenes.

Based on a series of novellas by Luke Jennings, the series was adapted by Phoebe Waller-Bridge of Fleabag fame and starred the phenomenal Sandra Oh in a Golden Globe-winning performance as British intelligence officer Eve Polastri.

Eve's life as a spy is not adding up to what she had hoped it would be when she started. Photo / Supplied

Oh's Eve spent the first season locked in a cat-and-mouse - or rather cat-and-cat - chase through Europe with deliciously ruthless assassin Villanelle (played to perfection by Jodie Comer). The story was darkly funny and often shockingly violent as Eve and Villanelle edged ever closer to each other, engaging in a twisted love story that viewers lapped up in their droves.

Now, almost a year later, Eve and Villanelle are back with season two - and any fears they couldn't possibly recreate the magic of their first outing are almost immediately dispelled.

Choosing not to fix that which isn't broken, the makers of the show begin this new season precisely 30 seconds after the brutal end of season one, which saw Eve stabbing her beloved assassin in Villanelle's Paris apartment.

It's an act that separates the duo once more, with Eve fleeing to London, unsure if she's committed murder, and Villanelle going quite literally into survival mode.

So while the dynamics of the show look much the same as last year – with two fantastic lead characters dealing with their own story arcs as they orbit back towards each other – neither of them start this new journey in great shape.

Eve is clearly suffering from PTSD following her act of violence and is choosing to cope with it in typical Killing Eve fashion – buying large bags of candy to stress-eat and comically latching on to cold calls from people trying to sell her expensive windows.

The series are based on a series of novellas by Luke Jennings. Photo / Supplied

Villanelle, meanwhile, is very much on the back foot and trading barbs with a teenage patient in a hospital room, as she tries to recover from her stabbing without anybody finding out who she is.

Villanelle is also currently without the amazing wardrobe she got to play with in season one and is instead forcing herself to slip on Crocs and pyjamas as she looks for a way back to the woman who apparently stabbed her "to show me how much she cares about me".

But as welcome as it is getting back to this original dual story structure, it does all feel a bit too easy.

Eve is suddenly "un-fired" from her job at MI6, with her wonderfully prickly boss Carolyn (Fiona Shaw) giving her another chance without much in the way of an explanation. Her marriage also seems to quickly snap back to a relatively even keel.

Still, it's easy to forgive these rather convenient story elements when the rest of the show is so very, very good.

Waller-Bridge may have stepped away from writing the show this time, but new head writer Emerald Fennell has ensured the characters have the same wry, snappy dialogue as they navigate a story that's still engrossing.

And, of course, the show retains that which made it all the more exciting in the first place – a female skew on the spy-thriller genre. It's still very welcome seeing roles that are normally played by men – the spy or the unhinged killer – being smashed out of the park by women.

Representation matters when we get to see Oh playing a sharp-minded and equally sharp-tongued intelligence officer. Representation also matters when it comes to having a merciless assassin played with unmistakeable female energy.

As Waller-Bridge told the BBC last month, it's "instantly refreshing and oddly empowering" to see a violent female lead after decades of "seeing women being brutalised on screen".

And she's not wrong. We so very rarely get to see female characters as complex and layered – and, well, monstrous – as Villanelle or Eve, so seeing the script flipped that way still feels like a strange, but welcome, change.

Killing Eve may not have the same element of surprise the second time around, given we now have a very good idea what these characters are capable of, but with a story that's as quirky and sharp as ever, there's definitely no sophomore slump to see here.

Killing Eve screens Saturdays on TVNZ OnDemand and Mondays at 9.30pm on TVNZ 2.