Killing Eve S2 - Review, well sort of..
Jun. 1st, 2019 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatDid laundry and watched the last three episodes of Killing Eve S2, which apparently was controversial and a lot of people disliked. (I liked it -- it tracked and felt earned. Also, I sort of knew that's where we were headed by the end of the first of the last three episodes. And -- I must say that I was relieved that Villanelle didn't decide to do something that...ahem, would have been a bit too Titus Adronicus for my taste. The writers certainly lead us to believe she was going to do that.)
I will say that at least Killing Eve isn't quite as gruesome in its displays of violence as some other series I've watched. It pulls back a bit, and doesn't show everything.
It was slow in places, but not as slow as the previous season, and I think it worked overall. And yes, yourlibrarian nailed it when she said that it felt a bit like Buffy stealing off to have adventures with Drusilla, under the auspice of Angel and Darla, while Riley is left sputtering in the background. You either see that metaphor or you don't -- my mother really didn't.
If Fosse/Verdon felt at times like a slow and rather painful Tango, this feels like a Viennese Waltz with a touch of Mambo Salsa.
The title -- Killing Eve pretty much tells us where the story is going from the beginning. Various players are slowly bit by bit killing off portions of Eve.
And her somewhat self-involved husband Nico doesn't realize it until it is far too late to do much, outside of back away slowly.
Caroline and Constantine cleverly set Eve up to pull in Villanelle to take out an assassin and the assassin's noxious employer, Aaron Peele. Then they employ as clean-up the 12 to take out Villanelle, setting up the assassination of Aaron Peele as a hit by the 12, MI6 was never there.
Meanwhile Villanelle is playing Eve -- she sees Eve as an extension of herself -- someone who is just like her. And is determined to push Eve to reach the point in which they are "morally" the same and can take off as well not Bonnie and Clyde so much as Thelma and Louise.
She does it by tearing away those closest to Eve, such as Nico. She can't kill Nico, but she can steer him away from Eve. One of my favorite scenes is the disturbing confrontation scene between Villanelle, Nico and Nico's girl-friend in his storage space. I was convinced that Villanelle would kill the girl-friend -- if anything as an offering to Eve, but I wasn't sure about Nico. And for a while I worried that she'd chop them up and feed them to Eve in Shepard's Pie. (Highly relieved that did not happen. There's a mislead in there that she was going to do that.)
The series does like to mislead the audience -- making us think it will go one way, then flip in the other direction. Villanelle comes close to "killing Eve" so many times, that we and Eve decide she won't. I'm not even sure Eve cares any longer at the end. Eve's sort of lost of everything by this point, her morals have been circumscribed, she's been manipulated by everyone she trusted, her husband has left her, and she's can no longer trust her employers. Also -- she discovered both her employers and Villanelle have set her up to commit murder. Death from Eve's perspective at this point seems like a consolation prize.
Eve almost seems to have a death wish at this point -- when she visits the pscyhiatrist and talks to a psychopath...the pyschiatrist informs her that the guy she's talking to killed three women, Eve shrugs it off -- "he can kill the shit out of me".
Villanelle mistakes Eve's boredom and general malaise as being similar to her own.
Villanelle feels nothing, is a lone, and desperately want to connect to something but never quite can. She is a product of her country and her handlers. When she runs across Eve, she sees someone who is equally bored with her life and seems to be sleep-walking. Eve, when she runs into Villanelle, wakes up -- she's turned on, and fascinated. The malaise she's been feeling, her boredom with life, seemingly melts away.
When the psychiatrist asks her what she feels in Villanelle's company -- she says she feels "wide awake".
But her obsession with Villanelle begins to unravel the fabric of her own life.
And she can't be what Villanelle wants.
The Thelma and Louise ending that Villanelle craves -- is ruined when Eve realizes Villanelle could have easily killed Raymond at any time, with a gun.
"You have a gun?" Eve asks in the Roman ruins, after they've surfaced from the catacombs.
"Yeah."
"Since when?"
Villanelle shrugs.
"Why didn't you kill him with it?" Eve backs up when it dawns on her. "Because you wanted me to do it?"
"We're the same now."
"No, we're really not. What did you envision that we'd go on some killing spree like Bonnie and Clyde?"
"No, no, we don't have to do that.."
No, actually, I think Villanelle had more Thelma and Louise in mind.
"I love you," Villanelle tells her.
"You don't understand what that is."
"I thought you'd be more interesting, more like me."
"Sorry to disappoint. I'm going home." Eve moves to walk away. And Villanelle shoots her, then leaves the ruins, Eve's sprawled form on the floor of the ruins.
Is Eve dead? We don't know. Villanelle assumes so, or does she? It ends there.
But in a way, Eve sort of comes back a bit in this conversation -- it's arguable that she's been dead up to this point, allowing people to manipulate her. Pushing her this way and that. Caroline manipulates her, as does Constantine, as does Villanelle -- but she allows them to. Her obsession permits it. Eve only cares about Villanelle...and one can't help but wonder what she wants or expects from Villanelle?
Has she done the same thing with Villanelle that Villanelle has done with her?
Both Caroline and Constantine try to extricate Villanelle and Eve from Rome without the other, but both refuse to leave the other, and both refuse to believe the other would leave without them. And they don't. But...well, I'm reminded of the old story of the scorpion and the frog...carry me on your back, I won't kill you -- but of course you will, you are a scorpion and you can't do anything else. (I'm not sure I got that right.)
"I have no family, my family is dead. But I have Eve."
"Do you?"
"Yes, Eve's like me. We're the same."
"Are you certain of that?" Constantine asks.
Villanelle thinks if Eve kills she'll be like Villanelle...but seriously, it's no different than Aaron Peele thinking because Villanelle and he are both killers and psychopaths, that they are alike.
Anyhow the series works best as a Viennese Waltz between Villanelle and Eve, circling each other...but never quite working, since the two come from two opposing moral perspectives. While Eve may bend the rules, she has a moral center, while morality such as it is has no meaning for Villanelle, she doesn't even appear to understand what it is as a concept. Eve's a bit of an arrogant fool for thinking she can tame or even catch a scorpion by a tail, and Villanelle all the more fool she, for thinking she can turn a frog into a scorpion.
Overall? I liked it. But I also wasn't really all that emotionally invested in the characters -- which probably helped. I liked them. But didn't ship them, if that makes sense.
I will say that at least Killing Eve isn't quite as gruesome in its displays of violence as some other series I've watched. It pulls back a bit, and doesn't show everything.
It was slow in places, but not as slow as the previous season, and I think it worked overall. And yes, yourlibrarian nailed it when she said that it felt a bit like Buffy stealing off to have adventures with Drusilla, under the auspice of Angel and Darla, while Riley is left sputtering in the background. You either see that metaphor or you don't -- my mother really didn't.
If Fosse/Verdon felt at times like a slow and rather painful Tango, this feels like a Viennese Waltz with a touch of Mambo Salsa.
The title -- Killing Eve pretty much tells us where the story is going from the beginning. Various players are slowly bit by bit killing off portions of Eve.
And her somewhat self-involved husband Nico doesn't realize it until it is far too late to do much, outside of back away slowly.
Caroline and Constantine cleverly set Eve up to pull in Villanelle to take out an assassin and the assassin's noxious employer, Aaron Peele. Then they employ as clean-up the 12 to take out Villanelle, setting up the assassination of Aaron Peele as a hit by the 12, MI6 was never there.
Meanwhile Villanelle is playing Eve -- she sees Eve as an extension of herself -- someone who is just like her. And is determined to push Eve to reach the point in which they are "morally" the same and can take off as well not Bonnie and Clyde so much as Thelma and Louise.
She does it by tearing away those closest to Eve, such as Nico. She can't kill Nico, but she can steer him away from Eve. One of my favorite scenes is the disturbing confrontation scene between Villanelle, Nico and Nico's girl-friend in his storage space. I was convinced that Villanelle would kill the girl-friend -- if anything as an offering to Eve, but I wasn't sure about Nico. And for a while I worried that she'd chop them up and feed them to Eve in Shepard's Pie. (Highly relieved that did not happen. There's a mislead in there that she was going to do that.)
The series does like to mislead the audience -- making us think it will go one way, then flip in the other direction. Villanelle comes close to "killing Eve" so many times, that we and Eve decide she won't. I'm not even sure Eve cares any longer at the end. Eve's sort of lost of everything by this point, her morals have been circumscribed, she's been manipulated by everyone she trusted, her husband has left her, and she's can no longer trust her employers. Also -- she discovered both her employers and Villanelle have set her up to commit murder. Death from Eve's perspective at this point seems like a consolation prize.
Eve almost seems to have a death wish at this point -- when she visits the pscyhiatrist and talks to a psychopath...the pyschiatrist informs her that the guy she's talking to killed three women, Eve shrugs it off -- "he can kill the shit out of me".
Villanelle mistakes Eve's boredom and general malaise as being similar to her own.
Villanelle feels nothing, is a lone, and desperately want to connect to something but never quite can. She is a product of her country and her handlers. When she runs across Eve, she sees someone who is equally bored with her life and seems to be sleep-walking. Eve, when she runs into Villanelle, wakes up -- she's turned on, and fascinated. The malaise she's been feeling, her boredom with life, seemingly melts away.
When the psychiatrist asks her what she feels in Villanelle's company -- she says she feels "wide awake".
But her obsession with Villanelle begins to unravel the fabric of her own life.
And she can't be what Villanelle wants.
The Thelma and Louise ending that Villanelle craves -- is ruined when Eve realizes Villanelle could have easily killed Raymond at any time, with a gun.
"You have a gun?" Eve asks in the Roman ruins, after they've surfaced from the catacombs.
"Yeah."
"Since when?"
Villanelle shrugs.
"Why didn't you kill him with it?" Eve backs up when it dawns on her. "Because you wanted me to do it?"
"We're the same now."
"No, we're really not. What did you envision that we'd go on some killing spree like Bonnie and Clyde?"
"No, no, we don't have to do that.."
No, actually, I think Villanelle had more Thelma and Louise in mind.
"I love you," Villanelle tells her.
"You don't understand what that is."
"I thought you'd be more interesting, more like me."
"Sorry to disappoint. I'm going home." Eve moves to walk away. And Villanelle shoots her, then leaves the ruins, Eve's sprawled form on the floor of the ruins.
Is Eve dead? We don't know. Villanelle assumes so, or does she? It ends there.
But in a way, Eve sort of comes back a bit in this conversation -- it's arguable that she's been dead up to this point, allowing people to manipulate her. Pushing her this way and that. Caroline manipulates her, as does Constantine, as does Villanelle -- but she allows them to. Her obsession permits it. Eve only cares about Villanelle...and one can't help but wonder what she wants or expects from Villanelle?
Has she done the same thing with Villanelle that Villanelle has done with her?
Both Caroline and Constantine try to extricate Villanelle and Eve from Rome without the other, but both refuse to leave the other, and both refuse to believe the other would leave without them. And they don't. But...well, I'm reminded of the old story of the scorpion and the frog...carry me on your back, I won't kill you -- but of course you will, you are a scorpion and you can't do anything else. (I'm not sure I got that right.)
"I have no family, my family is dead. But I have Eve."
"Do you?"
"Yes, Eve's like me. We're the same."
"Are you certain of that?" Constantine asks.
Villanelle thinks if Eve kills she'll be like Villanelle...but seriously, it's no different than Aaron Peele thinking because Villanelle and he are both killers and psychopaths, that they are alike.
Anyhow the series works best as a Viennese Waltz between Villanelle and Eve, circling each other...but never quite working, since the two come from two opposing moral perspectives. While Eve may bend the rules, she has a moral center, while morality such as it is has no meaning for Villanelle, she doesn't even appear to understand what it is as a concept. Eve's a bit of an arrogant fool for thinking she can tame or even catch a scorpion by a tail, and Villanelle all the more fool she, for thinking she can turn a frog into a scorpion.
Overall? I liked it. But I also wasn't really all that emotionally invested in the characters -- which probably helped. I liked them. But didn't ship them, if that makes sense.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-01 09:03 pm (UTC)Haha, I'm with you there.
Various players are slowly bit by bit killing off portions of Eve.
Yes, this! I heard an interview with Sandra Oh this week and the interviewer was asking her about the title, whether it meant killing Eve dead vs. Eve becoming a killer (the Eve who kills), but I thought that it was much more what you said -- changing who Eve is, killing the old Eve.
And for a while I worried that she'd chop them up and feed them to Eve in Shepard's Pie.
I wondered about that as well for a moment, though I think it would be too on the nose as a Hannibal reference.
I'm not even sure Eve cares any longer at the end.
Yes, she's had a lot of her former life (and assumptions) stripped away.
Villanelle mistakes Eve's boredom and general malaise as being similar to her own.
I think this is very true, and a reason why she thinks Eve can meet her in the middle. Because she knows that Eve is much more of a "normal" than she is -- otherwise she wouldn't have cared about Nico -- but that Eve is something of her mirror image. The most important thing is that she realizes that Eve admires her skills, which is true, and she also recognizes Eve's recklessness and that she's not well suited to a hierarchical structure.
Yeah, that death wish is very Buffy S5/S6, which is of course the time where Spike tries to do what Villanelle does.
When the psychiatrist asks her what she feels in Villanelle's company -- she says she feels "wide awake".
Or as Buffy tells Spike, he makes her feel things. That feeling can also be, in a way, depressing. Because in moments of pure happiness or complete mental engagement (or, I'd guess, adrenaline highs, which I don't tend to react to in the same way) it can be disconcerting to realize that what one took for contentment before was really more a conformist acceptance of one's life.
Eve only cares about Villanelle...and one can't help but wonder what she wants or expects from Villanelle? ...Both Caroline and Constantine try to extricate Villanelle and Eve from Rome without the other, but both refuse to leave the other, and both refuse to believe the other would leave without them. And they don't.
Exactly, they're neither entirely wrong nor entirely right. They just have enormously different frames of reference.
it's no different than Aaron Peele thinking because Villanelle and he are both killers and psychopaths, that they are alike
Yes, he's probably never run into a female psychopath before but I'm pretty sure he's not Villanelle's first given her background. And she doesn't want someone exactly like her, there would be nothing new there. Plus, Aaron's excessively controlling nature is a poor match for her impulsiveness.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-01 10:09 pm (UTC)Yeah -- it wasn't until this season, or the very end of it, that I understood the title. It's not meant to be taken "literally" so much as metaphorically -- it's changing Eve or killing off Eve's preconceptions and worldview and portions of her psyche, replacing them with new bits.
Also, I found what the psychotherapist told her very interesting...that she should get out now, because she didn't want to end up in a place like this. (Note he didn't say dead -- he said criminally insane.)
though I think it would be too on the nose as a Hannibal reference.
Agreed. One of the reasons I was relieved. They lead me to believe it -- because it follows her pattern of behavior, I was happy with the twist -- she sleeps with the women instead, and teases it with Nico and his girlfriend, but doesn't do that.
Villanelle's appeal to me at least, is her unpredictability. Too many serial killers are predictable in these series. And Villanelle isn't really a serial killer -- she's a paid assassin. She kills for money or necessity. Which isn't quite the same thing as a serial killer -- who like Aaron Peel, kills to well feel something or for sport.
Because in moments of pure happiness or complete mental engagement (or, I'd guess, adrenaline highs, which I don't tend to react to in the same way) it can be disconcerting to realize that what one took for contentment before was really more a conformist acceptance of one's life.
Yeah, I don't either -- not an adrenaline junkie. Adrenaline highs make me ill and want to retreat into a ball. I wonder if it is how people are wired? I talked to co-worker once about this -- she has troubles feeling things intensely, she's always sort of numb, and doing something really frightening or crazy spikes her adrenaline and wakes her up. She loves scary movies, zip-lining etc. While -- I do feel things intensely, and am rather tightly wired, and struggle with anxiety -- so scary movies, zip-lining, etc -- make my heart race, blood pressure sky-rocket, and I want to run away.
Eve strikes me as someone who is numb or deadened. Possibly depressed when we first meet her in season 1. She's chronically bored with her job. Bored with her husband. Bored with her friends. Going through the motions. Not unlike Buffy in s6, actually. Dead inside. Or better? Asleep. Sleepwalking through her life.
Villanelle -- changes all that, it's like getting a shot of adrenaline.
Villanelle mistakes Eve's depression as similar to Villanelle's boredom. And you're right Villanelle sees Eve as a mirror of herself. Keep in mind, Villanelle is a narcissist -- everyone is a projection of herself or about her.
Eve doesn't exist to Villanelle, outside of Villanelle. Eve doesn't see Villanelle as a mirror, but is drawn to her -- as well, a what-if scenario.
A puzzle she can't figure out. And the dark craziness...is alluring to someone who is bored and depressed with their life.
The Buffy/Spike comparison is apt -- because it is a similar relationship. Spike mistakes Buffy's malaise and depression and feeling dead inside -- for well the amoral void that he's in. From Spike and Villanelle's perspective life, other's lives, have no real value. They aren't serial killers per se, so much as they just don't care if someone lives or dies if that person is not connected to them in any way. They both mistake Buffy/Eve's depression as their own, and both believe that if Buffy/Eve kill someone -- they'll get off on the adrenaline and be like them. Also, they are both confused by Buffy/Eve's reactions to their actions or the fact that they care for them -- they see it as "romantic" love.
It makes them "feel" good, but when Buffy/Eve condemn or reject them -- they attack.
Neither is capable of understanding why Buffy/Eve don't want them dead or try to save them -- if it's not romantic love, or to have a relationship with them, then why bother? From their point of view -- you only protect or save a life if there is something in it for you. A sexual relationship, a job, something. Just as you kill -- if it furthers your own personal gain. Neither Spike nor Villanelle can comprehend someone wanting to save them for any other reason. That's outside their frame of reference. It's alien to them. And Eve/Buffy can't understand why Spike/Villanelle view killing in the way they do. As I write this, I'm reminded of the episode Dead Things -- where Spike does not understand why Buffy is so upset or why she feels the need to turn herself in. Or why she's upset with him for covering it up and being okay with it. Here, I saw the same thing with Villanelle, she doesn't understand why Eve is so upset about killing Raymond or why she's upset with Villanelle for manipulating it. They don't understand each other's frame of reference or point of view at all.
And both Spike and Villanelle thought that Eve and Buffy did.
he's probably never run into a female psychopath before but I'm pretty sure he's not Villanelle's first given her background. And she doesn't want someone exactly like her, there would be nothing new there. Plus, Aaron's excessively controlling nature is a poor match for her impulsiveness.
I think Villanelle found Peele boring. Also, she doesn't like male bullies and seems to have a sexual preference for women.
And...I think Peele is more your typical run of the mill serial killer, while Villanelle is an assassin, who is rather flamboyant, reckless, and does it for the adrenaline rush.
Sort of like Angelus vs. Spike...in a way? Spike was more impulsive, Angelus was a control freak. They had fun for a bit, but ultimately drove each other crazy.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-02 12:04 am (UTC)As for our "heroine", Eve? I'm sorry, but I'm right on the edge of not caring anymore. I know she's just waking up after sleepwalking through most of her adult life--and I empathize with the sense of exhilaration that comes with realizing your true potential. But she made so many bad decisions, she was manipulated so easily; and by giving Villanelle so much space to play, she's indirectly responsible for leaving a trail of blood across Europe. Amber's handler and Gemma didn't deserve to die for Eve's mid-life crisis.
Still, I am curious: if the series is about "killing" the old Eve, what exactly is the new Eve going to be like? Will she go crawling back to Carolyn and MI6, or is she going rogue and settling scores on all sides?
no subject
Date: 2019-06-02 12:38 am (UTC)I did care about Eve, who really was in over her head. I mean, she had no idea what she was getting into -- she's a profiler from MI5, who was thrown into MI6 by the manipulative and sociopathic Caroline. Kenny even attempts to warn her.
I'm not sure you've ever been truly depressed? But when you are -- you don't make good decisions. The world is the color of concrete, and the show does a good job of depicting it in drab undertones in Eve's perspective. It's no accident that Eve is always wearing dark colors, her house and her husband are sort of drab in her eyes. While Villanelle is all bright pinks, and bright colors, flamboyant. Eve's life in her perspective is drab. Villanelle is filled with technocolor. She's seduced by it.
No one took her seriously at work. When she mentioned Villanelle -- they shrugged it off, the only person who did appear to take her seriously was Caroline. Eve was as seduced by Caroline -- a strong woman at the top of game -- in fact I think she's more seduced by Caroline than Villanelle. And ripe for manipulation by a master.
Her husband is a schlub. She's a clever and smart woman who is underused. But not a killer, and not a field operative, and untrained.
Why would she be able to do any of the things you've listed? And why wouldn't Villanelle and Caroline be able to manipulate her? She didn't know their world -- and from her perspective, it was like an adrenaline shot in the arm.
I think Eve will look into a way of taking down Caroline and the 12, and more power to her.
[ETA: I admittedly think Sandra Oh can do no wrong and Fiona Shaw is highly overrated as an actress...so there's that. LOL!]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-02 12:54 am (UTC)I'm seeing it regardless of the reviews. If the reviews and attendance is low? I'll just see it that much faster.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-02 04:20 am (UTC)Did you know they reshot the ending? Completely? The original ending was supposedly "too similar" to another Marvel movie.
This does not bode well.
The 15th?
no subject
Date: 2019-06-02 01:30 pm (UTC)I know they re-edited and pushed it back after Disney re-acquired the rights. It was allegedly supposed to be the first of three movies, but that changed. Didn't know that they completely re-shot the original ending...
I also know that this shoot was the best for the actors, it wasn't chaotic, it was organized, it was on time -- so the delay wasn't director or production based, but distributor/studio based. (Apparently Bryan Singer is a nightmare to work with and left mid-way to do Bohemian Rhapsody, which he got fired from. The director of this one -- Jennifer Lawrence had begged to direct a film, and agreed to do the movie if he directed it. Also, he's the writer of Last Stand, felt it wasn't at all true to the original comic and wanted a chance to do it right.)
So...it could go either way. It's not going to be the same as the comic (sort of know that going in -- with the casting and the fact that it takes place in the 1990s and Jessica Chastain's character.) Apparently they've chosen to have an alien and the Phoneix force mess with Jean as opposed to Mastermind (Hellfire Club) and the Phoenix force -- which actually may work better and be less...campy and more current.