When a spy tracks down a stylish assassin, the hunter becomes the hunted. A bloody, funny thriller about two women lethally obsessed with each other. A television series by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, starring Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell, and Sean Delaney.

Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) has been working at MI5 with Bill Pargrave (David Haig) for over a decade. One Saturday morning, they are called in for an emergency meeting with their supervisor Frank Haleton (Darren Boyd). Head of the Russia Section at MI6, Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw), informs everyone that high-profile Russian politician Victor Kedrin was assassinated in Vienna. The autopsy reveals that Victor’s femoral artery was sliced by the assassin without him or his girlfriend, Kasia Molkovska (Edyta Budnik), noticing. He bled to death within minutes. His girlfriend, the only witness, fled the scene and was traced entering the UK by Interpol. MI5 is assigned to protect her as a potential witness.

Carolyn is surprised by Eve’s suggestion that the killer is likely a woman. Basing her theory on Victor’s known misogyny and sex trafficking involvement, Eve believes this would allow a woman to get close to him easily. Eve, without Bill’s approval, goes to interview the witness. However, the witness is utterly intoxicated and speaks only in unintelligible Polish, leaving the translator grasping at straws for anything useful.

Eve gives the interview recording to her Polish husband Niko Polastri (Owen McDonnell) and the young Polish bridge player Dom (Billy Matthews), asking them to listen for what she believes might be teenager slang words. Their translation confirms Eve’s theory: the killer is a woman.

When Bill asks Eve to check on the witness at the hospital, she sees an opportunity. Pretending Dom is the witness’s cousin, she brings him along to talk to the witness again. However, the assassin follows through on an order to kill the witness, along with three others. Held responsible for the incident, Eve and Bill are both fired from MI5.

Following standard MI5 protocol upon termination, employees have their computers and hard drives wiped clean. However, Eve’s notebook catches Carolyn’s attention. It seems Eve’s theory about a new female assassin aligns with Carolyn’s own interest. Intrigued, Carolyn offers Eve a unique proposition: lead a secret, unofficial team to hunt down the assassin. As her partner, she’ll have the young computer hacking expert Kenny (Sean Delaney) by her side. Furthermore, Carolyn grants Eve the freedom to recruit two additional members. Her choices? Her former boss Bill, and her trusted assistant Elena Felton (Kirby Howell-Baptiste).

Attempting to identify a nurse she met in the hospital restroom before the incident, hoping to bring her in for an interview, Eve realizes a chilling truth: she’s already crossed paths with the assassin she seeks. Meanwhile, across the globe, psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer), working for the infamous The Twelve crime syndicate, learns from her associate Konstantin (Kim Bodnia) about a new department in London, led by Eve Polastri, dedicated to hunting her down.

The first series of KILLING EVE was helmed by head writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. This eight-episode spy thriller television series adapted from the novel Codename Villanelle by British author Luke Jennings, first published on 3 April 2018, as a compilation of four serial e-book novellas published between 2014 and 2016.

KILLING EVE captivates from the first note, where a beautiful young woman notices a little girl looking at her in a Viennese ice-cream parlour. The girl smiles, but the woman doesn’t know how to react. She sees a man smiling back, so she copies his expression. However, as she exits the shop, we suddenly realize something is amiss with her. This unsettling introduction is further amplified by the show’s sublime music selection.

Eve, the protagonist, has stagnated in her security job for so long that she craves adventure. So, when the opportunity to pursue a mysterious assassin arises, she leaps at it without hesitation. However, her growing obsession with the killer comes at a heavy price, costing her not only her personal life but also the life of her colleague.

In reality, the protagonist wouldn’t stand a chance against the highly trained assassin. But this particular psychopath develops an obsession with her, seeing a resemblance to someone she loved in the past. We’re drawn in, unable to look away as this cat-and-mouse game unfolds, driven by the intriguing theory voiced by a character: “I think if you went high enough, you’d find we work for the same people.”

KILLING EVE premiered in the US on 8 April 2018 on BBC America and was broadcast in the UK on 15 September on BBC One. The series features visually stunning locations include Tuscany, Paris, Berlin, Cheshunt, Turville, and London. Jodie Comer’s exceptional performance earned her Best Leading Actress from British Academy Television Awards.