“Killing Eve” and Women Who Love Murder
“I think about you all the time. I think about what you’re wearing and what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. I think about what friends you have. I think about what you eat before you work and what shampoo you use and what happened in your family. I think about your eyes and your mouth and what you feel when you kill someone. I think about what you have for breakfast. I just…want to know everything.” (Killing Eve, S1E8)
Heavily featured in trailers and beautifully delivered by Sandra Oh’s Eve on the first season finale, “I think about you all the time” perfectly captures the feeling of watching BBC America’s breakout hit, Killing Eve. After a season of thrills, bad-ass kills, and one terrific villain, it’s easy to become absolutely obsessed — just like the show’s titular character. In fact, Killing Eve has found itself smack in the middle of a current phenomenon as a series particularly about, and created for, women who unapologetically love murder.
Killing Eve, this spring’s hottest spy thriller, based on a series of novellas by Luke Jennings, just finished its first series run to great acclaim (receiving 97% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes). Created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (whose previous work includes the excellent Fleabag), Killing Eve stars Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri, an MI5 agent tasked with tracking down the elusive killer Villanelle, played by newcomer Jodie Comer. Over the course of its eight-episode run Killing Eve broke records for viewership in two key demographics (adults 18–59 and 25–54) and delivered a season finale that doubled its premiere audience. (Serious SPOILER ALERT for what’s ahead!)
Whether it be the mass popularity of true crime podcasts like Serial or My Favorite Murder, or the work of Michelle McNamara (the true crime author whose recent investigations led to the capture of the Golden State Killer), women are coming out of the woodwork and expressing their interest in murder, true crime, and the previously taboo. In fact, women have long been some of the biggest fans of the true crime genre. A study published in 2010 cites the genre as allowing women to process all-too-prevalent misogynistic violence in society through these tragic, real-life stories. On My Favorite Murder, comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark tackle these appalling tales with endless wit and effortless banter. They are self-described as murder obsessed, and have amassed a largely female following who call themselves “Murderinos,” and live and breathe true crime.
So, why am I bringing up the resurgence of true crime in the context of Killing Eve? It’s definitely not a true crime series. Killing Eve is first and foremost a spy-thriller, involving two women chasing each other across the globe, out-maneuvering government agencies, and featuring bucketloads of double-crossing and intrigue. At a closer look, we see that there are certain parallels between women who eagerly consume true crime and the obsessions of titular character Eve Polastri on Killing Eve.
When we find Sandra Oh’s Eve in episode one she is a bored MI5 agent whose career has seemingly plateaued. She has settled into the boring life of a middle-aged woman with a loving husband, stable job, and a knack for singing karaoke with her boss on the weekends. Then Eve has her world cracked open as she is exposed to the crimes of international assassin Villanelle. Yet even as she is thrust into a world of psychopathic murderers, Eve remains remarkably unvexed, intrigued even.
Carolyn Martens: “Somehow, about fifty yards from the restaurant, the assassin managed to slice Kedrin’s femoral artery with a blade without him or his girlfriend noticing. He was bleeding for about a minute before he collapsed.”
(in response)
Eve Polastri: “Cool.” (Killing Eve, S1E1)
In this scene from episode one, Eve’s soon-to-be-boss Carolyn Martens, head of the Russian sector of MI6 (steelily performed by Fiona Shaw), describes Villanelle’s first detected kill. It’s some deliberate foreshadowing. What begins as Eve’s mere fascination with the psychotic becomes something much more serious as the episodes unfold, as her obsession with this insane person grows. Eve is seduced by Villanelle, in more ways than one.
By the end of the first season Eve has lost friends, risked her marriage, and gambled with her own sanity in pursuit of Villanelle. Yet, as the show progresses it becomes more and more clear that what Eve is after is not necessarily capturing the insane murderess, but understanding her. Eve disregards all warning signs of Villanelle’s unhinged nature —killing her friends, breaking into her home, and having a complete disregard for normal human emotions — all just to have another moment with a psycho. Even when the assassin is in her grasp Eve lets her get away in exchange for one more question, one more conversation, or one more chance at getting to the heart of why Villanelle does horrible, heinous things.
“You’re not saving the world honey-bunch. You’re getting off on sniffing out a psycho.” (Killing Eve, S1E6)
In a pivotal argument in episode six, Eve’s husband Nico (Owen McDonnell) calls out her reckless obsession with tracking down Villanelle after yet another one of her colleagues has been murdered. Eve has now been face to face with the assassin multiple times, and is about to head to Russia, where her mission will become more dangerous than ever. As viewers we are aware of the heightened risks involved, both to her life and the lives of others, but we still want her to go. We understand where she’s coming from.
Eve is us — the fangirls, the obsessed ones. The character is a surrogate for this bizarre kind of fascination with the demented, or subjects ordinarily considered to be inappropriate for polite conversation. As Eve falls deeper and deeper into the grips of her infatuation with Villanelle the audience is left contemplating its own strange interest in this psychopathic murderer, while simultaneously enjoying the endless thrills of watching two leading ladies chase each other across Europe. For any fan of true crime who has combed through Wikipedia pages or messaging boards, scouring the internet for answers to questions about our favorite murders, Eve’s obsession — while certainly extreme — is all too relatable. For us, the show exists as an allegory for our own obsessions with psychopaths — our thirst for the ability to understand what cannot be understood.
Killing Eve is a show created by and for women who aren’t afraid to revel in a good kill. Unlike other programs dominating television screens the series does not utilize violence against women to shock its audience into paying attention. In Killing Eve there is no “dead girl,” but two grown, accomplished women playing cat-and-mouse with each other, encircling the investigations of murders where the victims are — more often than not — men. Crazy, right?
At the end of the day, Killing Eve is a show that knows its audience. While the series may not have an army of “Murderinos” behind it — what are Killing Eve fans called? Eve Killers? Sandra Oh’s Personal Fan Club? someone help me — Killing Eve is a show that delights in its darkness, finds humor in the most unexpected places, and most importantly knows that women are watching and loving every second.
To Phoebe Waller-Bridge: whatever you decide to dream up next, I’m in.
Paley Matters is a publication of The Paley Center for Media.
Lucy Ellman is a curatorial intern at The Paley Center for Media. She is a senior at Vassar College. At age ten she received an I Love Lucy box set for Christmas and it’s all been downhill from there.
