Killing Eve: What makes this thriller so different from what’s come before?

BBC America’s Killing Eve is not your average thriller, despite its familiar packaging. What makes this show so compelling? One word: Women.

On paper, BBC America’s latest original series, Killing Eve, isn’t particularly groundbreaking. It is a spy thriller at heart. So that means exotic locations, glamorous fashions and a couple brutal murders thrown in for good measure. It features a smart, capable protagonist facing off against a calculating, obsessive villain and at the end of the day, the two are more similar to one another than either would like to admit.

Honestly, there are a lot of versions of this particular story. Yet despite its many familiar elements, Killing Eve feels like something entirely new. Part of that freshness is undoubtedly due to the fact that the series stars two women. That in and of itself is enough to make the show extraordinary. If only because seeing these familiar tropes played out by women makes somehow manages to make them feel brand new.

There’s something else at work here too, however. And it’s a fact that a lot of series like this forget: Things don’t have to be so deadly serious all the time. I know, I know, this is the age of the grimdark thriller. Everything’s shot in muted grayscale tones, it’s always raining and someone’s always staring pensively out a window or into a cup of coffee at least 50 percent of the time. This impetus makes sense, in a way. Most shows like this are pretty dark in tone and content. (They’re about murder after all.) It’s natural that the folks that make them want the overall packaging to reflect the series’ tone.

The problem is, though, is that those series aren’t exactly fun to watch.

Killing Eve remembers to have some fun in the midst of all the gloom and death, and that actually makes a surprising amount of difference.

Yes, Eve works an intense job in a demanding field. She’s obsessed with female assassins and obviously spends way too much of her free time thinking about death. But she also gets wasted singing Disney songs at karaoke. She has familiar inside jokes with her co-workers. She gets tetchy at her husband when he doesn’t understand her job. She’s both relatable, and honestly just straight up funny.

Oddly enough, the same is true for her adversary Villanelle. Sure, she’s a cold-blooded psychopath who doesn’t flinch at stabbing a guy in the eye. But she also admires pretty clothes and fine bedding, cracks jokes about the marks she must kill, mocks her neighbors and makes fun of strangers.

If she weren’t a murderer, you get the sense that Villanelle would actually be kind of fun to hang out with. (Until you remember that her idea of a good time is staging a fake suicide to shock the one person on earth who appears to — maybe — be her friend.)

The razor-sharp wit of Killing Eve doesn’t just flesh out its lead characters into real people. It also gives the audience a break from the constant dour tension that often serves as a hallmark of shows like this. The series’ writer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, also penned the hilarious and unconventional comedy Fleabag. So we probably shouldn’t be surprised that the same level of detail and care is applied here.

I’m not sure that a male writer would have bothered to take the time to do the same. (But I’m glad I don’t have to find out.)  And I can’t wait to see where we go from here.

Next: Killing Eve premiere review: Nice Face

Killing Eve airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on BBC America.