Critics and fans alike loved the first season of BBC America’s, Killing Eve, starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer. Lauding the chemistry between Eve (Oh) and her would-be nemesis, Villanelle (Comer), as well as the series’ winding mysteries and dry off-kilter wit, critics called Killing Eve‘s first season “addictive,” “emotionally complex,” and “one of the most fun and feminized cat-and-mouse games of the last few years.” It remains steadily Certified Fresh at 96%.
Needless to say, the bar was set high for the show’s second season.
Is Killing Eve season 2 up-to-snuff? Now that critics have had the chance to review the upcoming season’s first two episodes (it officially begins airing April 7), it looks like the answer so far is… yes. Despite a change in showrunner — Phoebe Waller-Bridge has stepped back and Emerald Fennell, a writer on both seasons of the show, has stepped forward — critics say the series maintains the elements that made its first run so compelling, and ups the ante, too.
Can Killing Eve: Season 2 (2019) 92% hold on to its Fresh Tomatometer score? Check out what critics have to say about the series so far:
(Photo by Aimee Spinks/BBCAmerica)
Picking up 30 seconds after the last shot from the finale, Eve is in a panic within Villanelle’s empty apartment. There’s blood everywhere, but the source — her target — is nowhere to be found. — Ben Travers, IndieWire
A shell-shocked Eve must shake off her post-stabbing haze and resume the search for the escaped Villanelle, who herself must find a way to stay out of reach long enough to recuperate. — Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly
Much of what happens in the premiere consists of pieces moving back into place, but it nevertheless makes for a lively hour. — Jen Glennon, Newsweek
(Photo by Aimee Spinks/BBCAmerica)
Killing Eve is better than ever. — Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Killing Eve‘s second season, at least the two episodes screened in advance for critics, didn’t let me down… The new episodes, brimming with crackling electricity, elicited the same amount of joy I experienced when I watched Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) dance around each other during the first go round, only this time the stakes were considerably higher. — Kaitlin Thomas, TV Guide
To paraphrase Villanelle herself, it’s going to be hard to trust Killing Eve again, but let’s give it time to prove itself. — Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly
Season 2 tends to act a little more like Villanelle than Eve. — Ben Travers, IndieWire
(Photo by Aimee Spinks/BBC America)
The new episodes, brimming with crackling electricity, elicited the same amount of joy I experienced when I watched Eve (Sandra Oh) and Villanelle (Jodie Comer) dance around each other during the first go round, only this time the stakes were considerably higher. — Kaitlin Thomas, TV Guide
These women are still thoroughly obsessed with one another… Villanelle reckons she knows Eve better than anyone, better than Eve even knows herself, and she’s probably right. — Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Autostraddle
Is Eve just attracted to Villanelle, or does Eve kinda-sorta want to be like Villanelle? Or both? Did she stab Villanelle for revenge, or approval? None of that’s entirely clear yet — to Eve or to us — but watching all the possibilities flit across Oh’s face is alternately laugh-out-loud funny and fascinating. — Jen Glennon, Newsweek
(Photo by Aimee Spinks/BBC America)
This season, Waller-Bridge has stepped back a bit, with Emerald Fennell stepping in as head writer. Anyone worried that this change-up might alter the show significantly can rest assured. — Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Eve and Villanelle and their complicated, dangerous, seductive, vulnerable connection are in very capable hands with Emerald Fennell, who has stepped in as head writer and showrunner in place of creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge. — Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya, Autostraddle
I’ll place my faith in Comer, Oh, and Eve’s writer-turned-showrunner Emerald Fennell. — Kristen Baldwin, Entertainment Weekly
(Photo by Gareth Gatrell/BBCAmerica)
The writing is what makes Eve so whip-smart and unique, but it’s the lead performances of Sandra Oh, as MI5 agent Eve Polastri, and Jodie Comer, as sociopathic assassin Oksana Astankova, AKA Villanelle, that make the series tick.— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
It’s the sly feminism at the heart of the show’s cat-and-mouse game that makes it all so infectiously fun. — Jen Glennon, Newsweek
Killing Eve is a sexy show about two women who clearly have a magnetism drawing them together. To call it anything other than sexual would do a disservice to the chemistry between Oh and Comer. — Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Emporium
(Photo by Parisa Taghizadeh/BBC America)
Killing Eve kicked off its inaugural season as an intriguing riff on some of the greats of the spy genre… But the show has since evolved into something wholly its own, in large part due to stellar writing and the consistently impeccable performances of Oh, Comer and Shaw. — Jen Glennon, Newsweek
There are awkward jokes, quirky new characters, and even a surprise twist on the formula in Season 2 — Eve and Villanelle’s two-person tête-à-tête is going to get a third caller, unwanted by at least one of the primary parties — but Killing Eve remains very much grounded in its original identity. — Ben Travers, IndieWire
Killing Eve is still a fantastic and well-made show that is not only worth celebrating for any number of its own obvious merits, but worth embracing for taking a familiar set up and crafting it into a series that is also refreshing and new. — Kaitlin Thomas, TV Guide
This is a lean and complex drama that blends what would otherwise be a pretty generic concept with a biting sense of humor that works every step along the way. — Alex Maidy, JoBlo’s Movie Emporium
