History Series / KillingEve

''Killing Eve'' is a British thriller drama series developed by Creator/PhoebeWallerBridge, based off of a series of novels, ''[[Literature/CodenameVillanelle Villanelle]]'', by Luke Jennings. The series is a co-production between [[Creator/TheBBC BBC America]] and [[Creator/TheBBC BBC iPlayer]]; in the U.S., it aired on both BBC America and Creator/{{AMC}} (the latter beginning with Season 2).

[[Creator/TheBBC BBC America]]'s ''Killing Eve'' is a 2018 thriller drama series developed by Creator/PhoebeWallerBridge, based off of a series of novels, ''[[Literature/CodenameVillanelle Villanelle]]'', by Luke Jennings. The series is a co-production between BBC America and [[Creator/TheBBC BBC iPlayer]]; in the U.S., it airs on both BBC America and Creator/{{AMC}} (the latter as of Season 2).

Eve Polastri (Creator/SandraOh), a desk-bound [=MI5=] Officer begins to track down talented, psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Creator/JodieComer), while both women become obsessed with each other.

In genre, ''Killing Eve'' is a fairly traditional piece of SpyFiction -- the main characters are government agents, assassins, and spies (and quite a few of them are Russian). But in themes and tropes, ''Killing Eve'' is quite unique. It places the homoerotic subtext between [[FoeRomanceSubtext hero and villain]] at the center of its narrative. Villanelle is a LikableVillain who is still unquestionably a ''horrible'' person. Set against a backdrop of politics and intrigue, it largely ignores them, directing its focus instead toward an introspective look at its characters.

The first season was released in 2018, the second in 2019, and the third in 2020. The fourth and final season was [[ReleaseDateChange delayed due to the ongoing]] UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, before ultimately premiering 2022. The series concluded its run on April 10th, 2022. Episode recaps can be found [[Recap/KillingEve here]].

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Eve and Villanelle successfully team up to destroy The Twelve once and for all. But immediately afterwards, just as the two are celebrating, Carolyn shoots and kills Villanelle, leaving Eve devastated.]]

* ArtisticLicenseSports: The gymnastics scene from 1974 seen in Season 3 is in some respects extremely accurate (the leotard Dasha wears, for instance, is an exact replica of a leotard worn by Soviet superstar Elena Mukhina, and the gym looks very similar to those seen in the Eastern Bloc at the time), but in others is completely ''in''accurate. What will leap out to any gymnastics fan is the very 2010s-era uneven bars set on which Dasha, wearing a very modern pair of Velcro grips, is doing an admirably accurate but ''very'' modern uneven bars combination[[note]]a Jaeger-Pak salto-Shaposhnikova, to be precise, variations of which appear in every elite Russian bars routine ever in the modern era[[/note]]. In the '70s the uneven bars were set ''much'' closer together, meaning that routines looked one heck of a lot more like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDb9vpQwdKI this]] than like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNkrywRC3t8 this]]. In the intervening years, the apparatus changed so much that it's practically a different event now. Possibly justified though -- where on earth are you going to find a gymnast these days who can do '70s-era bars?[[note]]The stunts were done by elite British gymnast Lucy Stanhope, who has competed internationally for Great Britain -- which definitely explains the grips.[[/note]]

** She also gives her an ArmorPiercingSlap in the Season 2 finale after [[spoiler:Eve kills Raymond]].

* DeadlyHug: In Season 1, Villanelle kills [[spoiler:Nadia]] while giving her a hug, and then gives a male hospital patient a hug just before snapping his neck.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Villanelle. {{Justified}}, as it is a codename.
** A [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle villanelle]] is a type of poem. Likely a ShoutOut to the character from Winterson's ''Literature/ThePassion'', which is the first example of it being used as a person's name.
** It obviously sounds like ''villain'', except as a feminine name.
** There's also something vaguely French-sounding about Villanelle, in the vein of names like Arielle, Gabrielle, Emmanuelle, Giselle, and Marielle. This makes sense for a Russian girl looking to distance herself from her Russian origins and establish a new version of herself in Paris.

* MoodWhiplash: ''In spades.'' The series employs this as well as its characters. Villanelle uses this as a diversionary tactic when Eve starts to ask her [[spoiler: why she castrates her victims, as well as about her past.]] Villanelle appears to cooperate... until she asks about Eve’s wardrobe and how it confounds her which made Eve smile for a bit and appeared to be on the verge of laughing, [[UpToEleven then Eve asked]] [[BerserkButton about Bill]].