Television series

Killing Eve

Name: Killing Eve
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
Released: 2018
Cast: Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Owen McDonnell

A spy thriller that trades tradecraft for desire: MI6 officer Eve Polastri hunts psychopathic assassin Villanelle, and the chase curdles into mutual fascination on both sides. Stylish, funny, and genuinely unsettling, it's less about who catches whom than what happens when obsession outpaces professionalism — thriller plotting with a queasy erotic charge underneath.

TVMaze rating

4.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a rivalry built on mutual fascination, where the sharpest scenes are two smart people sizing each other up, and you don't mind a killer being glamorous and funny.

Skip it if you want a procedural with a steady case-of-the-week rhythm, since the plot leans on obsession and character, and its violence can jolt sharply.

What it asks of you: Its episodes run about 55 minutes across four seasons, so you need to stay alert to shifting loyalties, but each episode goes quickly.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Hannibal2013

Another hunter and killer locked in mutual fascination, rendered with operatic, painterly style. The intimacy between pursuer and pursued is just as central, just as strange, and just as compulsive.

But The violence is far more grotesque and surreal, and the tone leans gothic rather than sardonic.

Fleabag2016

Same creator, same wicked comic instinct — sharp fourth-wall asides, women behaving badly, real feeling hiding under all the jokes. Watch it for the voice you already love, minus the murder.

But No spies, no killers, no chase — an entirely different, much smaller-scale story.

You2018

Narrated from inside a charming predator's head, it shares that uneasy pull toward liking someone you shouldn't. Slick, addictive, and unashamed of its own bad taste.

But Grimmer and more claustrophobic, without Killing Eve's globe-trotting gloss or its comic lightness.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Killing Eve

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Persona1966

Killing Eve's central idea — two women becoming obsessed with, and slowly indistinguishable from, each other — is Persona's entire subject, stripped of genre trappings and pushed to its most unsettling extreme.

Bergman's black-and-white masterpiece about two women whose identities begin to dissolve into each other — the psychological fusion Killing Eve only flirts with, taken all the way.

But Slow, elliptical, and deliberately ambiguous — arthouse cinema with none of the plot or violence.

The Americans2013

Spy tradecraft with genuine emotional wreckage — a marriage doing the work Eve and Villanelle's obsession does, patient, devastating, and beautifully controlled.

But Slower and more procedural, demanding real patience across long seasons before it detonates.

Slow Horses2022

Espionage with proper jokes and shambolic heroes, sharp plotting that refuses to take itself too seriously. If you loved Killing Eve's wit, this scratches the same itch.

But Grubbier, ensemble-driven, and missing the single obsessive duet at Killing Eve's core.

The Fall2013

A detective and a serial killer locked in mutual scrutiny across a moody Belfast backdrop — quieter, but the same uncomfortable intimacy between hunter and hunted.

But Much bleaker and slower, with almost none of Killing Eve's dark humour.

Orphan Black2013

One extraordinary lead actress playing wildly different identities inside a tense conspiracy thriller, anchored by a fierce, unpredictable woman at its center.

But The sci-fi cloning premise is a much bigger genre swerve than fans might expect.

Nikita1990

The stylish assassin-with-a-past template that helped invent this whole subgenre — cool, morally slippery, and surprisingly influential on everything since.

But Dated pacing and effects, more austere and French New Wave-adjacent than playful.

The Night Manager2016

Glossy international espionage with a magnetic, dangerous villain, gorgeous locations, and tailoring to match — pure spy-thriller seduction.

But Straighter and more traditional, without Killing Eve's dark comic edge or gender-flipped chase.

The Imposter2012

Villanelle survives by constant reinvention and performance; this documentary is a true story about exactly that kind of chameleon deception, and it's even harder to look away from because it's real.

A jaw-dropping true-crime documentary about a man who convinces a grieving family he's their missing son — a real-life study in performance, deception, and how easily people believe a lie.

But No violence, no chase — just interviews and reconstruction, and the discomfort of real people's grief.

Kill Bill: Vol. 12003

Where Killing Eve treats its killer's glamour with wit and unease, Tarantino goes all the way trashy and operatic — same fascination with a stylish female assassin, dialed up rather than examined.

A woman with a code name, a body count, and impeccable style, hunting and hunted in equal measure — the same assassin-mystique, cranked up into maximalist, blood-soaked pulp.

But Cartoonishly violent and stylised, with none of Killing Eve's psychological subtlety or restraint.