Killing Eve season 2 is as good as ever, even without Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Note: contains spoilers for season 2 of Killing Eve.
The second season of Killing Eve has arrived, and it picks up the bloody, twisted and bitingly funny story of intelligence office Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) and the assassin she is chasing, Villanelle (Jodie Comer).
The new season kicks off just 30 seconds after Eve stabbed Villanelle, making it feel as if we never left her Paris apartment. But there have been some significant shifts behind the scenes since the first season – changes that could have impacted the series' strange and unique tone.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, head writer on the first season, has taken a step back (though she remains on board as a producer) in order to work on Fleabag and other projects.
Thankfully, though, there's no need to panic. On the basis of the first two episodes shown to the press, season two of Killing Eve is just as delightful and addictive as the first.
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Actress/writer Emerald Fennell, who played Patsy in Call The Midwife and will be Camilla Parker Bowles in the new season of The Crown, has been brought in as new head writer. And, having worked with Waller-Bridge on the series Drifters, she perfectly captures Killing Eve's mix of black humour, style, tension and outlandishness.
From early on in the first episode, it's clear Waller-Bridge has left the show in great hands. As a wounded Villanelle disappears, a shocked, numb Eve makes her way by train to London.
And she does just what you'd expect any rational person to do after stabbing her first human – buys an overflowing bag of candy at the Gare Du Nord station, gulps the sweets down, then wanders, dazed, to the security desks – only realising at the last moment that she still has the bloody knife she used on Villanelle in her coat pocket.
However, while Eve and Villanelle are (mostly) just as we left them – check out style queen Villanelle's face when she has to slip on a pair of hideous plastic hospital clogs – the shocking first-season finale has changed them both.
Eve, after all, can't exactly return to 'normal' life not knowing whether she has killed Villanelle or not, while Villanelle is the most vulnerable we've seen her – badly wounded, on the run with her former employers after her, and drawn to the one woman who is a match for her.
The chase is on again, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Both Oh and Comer are superb, and riveting to watch. Sandra Oh gets to show Eve's pain, but also has moments that will make you laugh out loud, such as her enthusiastic acceptance of a window salesman's phone call – presumably just to have a connection with something 'normal' – to the funny wordless scene between her and computer whiz Kenny (Sean Delaney) as they wait to talk about events without one of their colleagues listening in.
Comer, meanwhile, gets the quirkier storyline, that ranges from the sublime (her time in hospital with 12-year-old patient that shows a new side to her and doesn't end how you'd think) to the almost ridiculous – once in England, she selects someone in a supermarket to help her and all we can say is that it's not her best decision and leads to a mad (even for Killing Eve) plot twist.
No matter how strange things get, though, Comer is a joy to watch: funny, electric and cool, even when she's wearing kids' comic book pyjamas.
And while much of the new season remains enjoyably familiar, as these two women circle each other once more – alongside the return of the brilliantly deadpan Fiona Shaw as Carolyn – a new direction is also hinted at with the introduction of a second female assassin, whose face we have yet to see.
Killing Eve may be a drama, a comedy and a spy thriller, but it's also a love story between Villanelle and Eve. It'll be fascinating to see how this third person will fit into their twisted dynamic – whoever this female killer may be, she's sure to challenge both of them and provide even more reasons to watch the deliciously complex and compelling show.
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