Author: Francine Brokaw

Enjoy ‘Tea with the Dames’ on Blu-ray

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

Viewers are like a fly on the wall listening and watching four of Britain’s most legendary actresses discuss their lives, their careers, and their friendship. Tea with the Dames brings together Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Joan Plowright, and Dame Eileen Atkins as they reminisce in a British countryside cottage. While many of their stories are discussed, there are plenty of clips and photos from their past that play on screen.

In the beginning it might seem like 84 minutes of these four women discussing their lives is a bit boring, but after they start interacting with each other and viewers learn how their lives have progressed over the decades, this is an intriguing film.  They are not only British “Dames” but they are also each amazing actors and also great friends. Their dramatic talents are on display as well as their biting wit and humor.

Plowright was also Baroness Olivier, having been married to Laurence Olivier. The four women talk about working with Sir Laurence. Plowright discusses having two titles: Lady and Dame.

Smith was married once to an actor (Robert Stephens) and a playwright (Beverley Cross).  Atkins was married to actor Julian Glover and producer Bill Shepherd. And Dench was married to actor Michael Williams. The foursome has fun stories about their pasts and working on various projects.

Each of the four began their careers on the stage and theater was their main focus. Little by little they added films and television to their resumes. Dench was in several Bond films, and Smith was in Downton Abbey. She admits she has not seen all the episodes however has a box set of the series. Tidbits like this are priceless for fans of the renowned actors.

Some of them were awarded their titles by Queen Elizabeth and some by Prince Charles. Becoming a Dame is like men becoming a Sir. They are women who have achieved greatness in drama. This is the highest level of award for Brits.

Tea with the Dames is a fun way to experience the lives of these four extraordinary women. It is not rated but will have appeal to adults and older teens.

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment industry for over 25 years. She also writes about products and travel. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as Internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books, is the entertainment correspondent for Good Day Orange County, and has her own TV show, Beyond the Red Carpet, on Village Television in Orange County. Follow her on Twitter.

Good-bye to Twilight Time Movies. Pick up your favs before they are gone

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

This is a sad press release from Twilight Time. For those of us who love movies, this is a great opportunity to pick up your favorites for a special price.

After nine years of successful operations in which 380 motion pictures from the 1930s to the 2010s have been released on DVD and Blu-ray disc, the home video label Twilight Time founded by veteran Hollywood studio executives and filmmakers Brian Jamieson and the late, dearly celebrated Nick Redman, will not release any further titles and we will be winding down operations this summer. A changing market, the rising costs of title acquisitions and the passing of longtime partner and company spokesman Nick Redman, are key reasons for the closure.

As part of our winding down process, there will be a one-time reduction in prices to $3.95,$6.95 and $11.95 as of Monday, May 11th at www.TwilightTimeMovies.com. Cinemagistics/TwilightTimeMovies.com will continue to sell titles while available through June 30th, at which time they and Twilight Time will cease operations.

Remaining inventory will be acquired and distributed exclusively by Screen Archives – effective July 1st 2020.

When launched in 2011, Twilight Time pioneered the concept of bringing rare and distinctive films of all genres to the marketplace in 3,000-unit Limited Editions, exclusively available at two website destinations: Screen Archives Entertainment and later Twilight Time Movies. This allowed devoted movie fans to obtain physical copies of highly desired titles which did not command shelf space at local brick and mortar stores. Nick aptly named the venture Twilight Time, because eventually the concept of film as physical goods would have a ‘sell-by date’ possibly sooner rather than later. Nick once said, “At the onset we never envisaged we would be around for nearly a decade before it was time for the sun to set on the company.”

During that time, the Twilight Time catalog has included fabled films from the libraries of Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Pictures, MGM/United Artists, Universal Studios, Film 4, Protagonist Pictures, Toei Company and other entities, and showcased many Academy Award®- and international prize-winning titles. Thanks to Nick Redman’s 30+ years as an award-winning film music historian and preservationist, most releases have included synchronized Isolated Music or Music-and-Effects Tracks that provided a rare platform for the lauded and unsung composers so vital to the filmmaking process. Many offerings also provided informative Audio Commentary tracks involving co-founder Redman and a host of internationally noted film historians that expertly contextualized and enhanced the viewing experience.

From the beginning, the core Twilight Time players – essayist and commentary contributor Julie Kirgo, packaging designer Louis Falzarano, soundtrack editor/music historian Mike Matessino, disc authoring supervisor Jeff Jewett, and our project coordinator Mike Finnegan – have played essential and “best in class” roles in this unique venture. We also want to recognize the extraordinary help of our Distribution and Marketing partners at Screen Archives and Twilight Time Movies. Most importantly, from the bottom of our hearts we thank you, the appreciative film collector. You have supported us throughout this marvelous journey and will hopefully continue to do so while these “one of a kind” limited-run titles are still accessible to you.

‘The Split’ is an unflinching and witty examination of modern marriage through female lens

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

Since its UK debut in 2018, The Split has done a monumental task of examining a legacy of divorce being passed on for generations to come with only six episodes tightly compressed into a season. This gem of a TV series ticks all the right boxes for grown-ups: sisterhood, tumultuous mother-daughter relationships, love, marriage, divorce, unfinished business, emotional baggage, and then some.

Set in the acrimonious battleground of London’s high profile, high-end divorce circuit, this one-of-a-kind series revolves around the tight-knit Defoe family; the matriarch Ruth (Deborah Findlay) and her three daughters Hannah (Nicola Walker), Nina (Annabel Scholey), and Rose (Fiona Button). After Oscar (Anthony Head) took off thirty years ago, Ruth single-handedly ran a tight ship at home as well as at the family law firm the couple had founded together. When Oscar came back with a hidden agenda, Ruth’s carefully woven web of deceit and lies started unraveling. The ramifications of Oscar’s betrayal and abandonment and Ruth’s overt/covert messages baked deeply into the daughters’ psyches are unmistakable.

Hannah Stern, married with three children, was fed up with Ruth’s tight grip on her career and the first one to jump ship. Noble Hale, one of the Dafoe’s competitors, offered her a position. She is the kind of divorce lawyer any woman would be lucky to have (if you can afford her, mind you) in her corner; she can be ruthless if necessary, but treats her clients with respect and compassion and genuinely wants to help them fly out of their ‘cages’ with plenty of resources.

Hannah’s underlying belief that men cannot be trusted proves to be a double-edged sword, however. It makes her the fierce yet compassionate divorce lawyer, but becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for her romantic relationships. Hannah seemed to have it all, but when Nathan’s (Stephen Mangan) indiscretion was exposed in Season 1, she lost confidence in her marriage and womanhood. In order to compensate for the shaky ground she was standing on, she turned to Christie (Barry Atsma), her colleague and old flame from law school who confessed his unfinished business with her. Whether it’s a retaliatory act to get back at Nathan or just a wish fulfillment fantasy, Hannah’s world has turned upside down.

Nina also practices family law. Being compared to Ruth, the eminent/legendary lawyer, and the “have it all” Hannah weigh heavily on the middle sibling. The eternal party girl turns to her loose lips, atrocious love choices, and addictive behavior. Although Nina is not at the top of her game, the most attractive Defoe sister might have to settle for a partner who doesn’t mind playing a traditional wife role to nurture and support her. Her underlying belief? “There is something wrong with me. I’m not good enough.”

Rose was only 14 months old when Oscar left so she seems to be the least affected by the parents’ sins. She is the only Defoe sister not in the family trade. She neither has goal nor drive because the overprotected baby sister gets away with anything. Although she was told by Nina of all people to “stop looking to a man to find you,” she got married to the most boring man (sorry!) you’d ever met in your life. Rose’s underlying belief that men always leave led her to choose the safest man on earth. Let’s see how this marriage works out.

The Split returns to SundanceTV for a second season on May 21, 2020. Season 2 will be definitely messier on all fronts. At the newly merged law firm Noble Hale Defoe (NHD), the former rivals work side by side under scrutiny of a merger consultant. Hannah is involved in her most public and lucrative divorce case that would put NHD firmly on the map. Fi Hansen (Donna Air), battered celebrity, wants out of the aggressive pre-nup she had signed when she was nobody. Richie Hansen (Ben Bailey Smith), her controlling and abusive husband/producer, would stop at nothing to retain his position of power. This volatile case seeps into Hannah’s already rocky marriage as well as her double life until they all spin out of control. The Stern children would be the next generation to suffer the full brunt of spectacular collision between Hannah’s reality and fantasy. Watch for Hannah’s subtle art of fact management, particularly how much and when to reveal her personal truths to Nathan! I take it that’s an occupational hazard of lawyers.

Nina’s chaotic and lonely existence starts bleeding into her workplace and forces her to grow up in an unexpected way. Rose decides to get a real job in order to support her unemployed husband. Ruth finds a way to make herself indispensable to the industry.

The Split Season 2 premieres Thursday, May 21, 2020 on SundanceTV. If you haven’t watched Season 1, I earnestly urge you to check it out on Sundance Now, Hulu, or Amazon streaming services. Without any prior knowledge or insight into the intricate web of secrets and lies woven among the Defoes and their men, it will be harder to experience Hannah’s emotional buildup to her ultimate demise.

About the Author

Meg Mimura is a TV critic who actually watches shows zealously in search of thought-provoking and paradigm shifting human drama worth our precious time. She is a member of Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter.

‘Upload’ poses more philosophical questions than it answers

Posted on by Francine Brokaw


While walking around NY, Greg Daniels (The Office, Parks and Recreation) had an “aha” moment for a three-minute Saturday Night Live sketch for Dana Kirby in the late 1980s. “If you’d be stored on a computer, we could program a virtual reality afterlife,” said Daniels at our virtual press conference held on April 21, 2020. “It would mean that human beings can actually create our own idea of what an afterlife would be, but it would have all the same flaws of our human society because in a sense we’re just re-creating our human society.” Since then he had been mulling over the idea to make a go of it in print form until he decided on a 10-episode streaming show format in 2013.

On May 1, 2020, Daniel’s passion project  – three decades in the making  – debuted on Amazon Prime Video. Upload, pitched as “a philosophical romantic-comedy/science fiction/murder mystery,” takes place in 2033.

Nathan (Robbie Amell) was a 27-year-old game designer who took his charmed life for granted before he was fatally injured in a self-driving car crash. While being rushed to the operating room, he had to make a split-second decision either to die the old-fashioned way from a punctured lung or to be uploaded to a plush digital hereafter. Shortly after being scanned, Nathan finds himself in a luxurious virtual utopia, known for its TV ad “You did well – You deserve Lakeview.” His first day of the rest of his afterlife is crowded with shocks, surprises, and things to learn and unlearn. Now that he’s Ingrid’s (Allegra Edwards) kept man, his every move is observed and controlled by his privileged and entitled girlfriend and he’s stripped of his independence and critical faculties. His health and looks are intact, all right, but he’s in a bad place emotionally and mentally.

Nora (Andy Allo) is a customer service representative at Horizen, the company that manages the Lakeview domain and its digitized residents, known as uploads. The reps are called angels and they act as concierge/navigator of this brave new world. It’s a perfect job for a people-pleaser like Nora, but she is uncomfortable selling products to her uploads to get ahead. Clearly rampant capitalism perpetuates the division between the haves and have-nots even in Horizen’s utopia. Nora finds Nathan charming and bends over backward to assist him in assimilating into this unexpectedly imperfect heaven by accepting the unacceptable. Nora also starts restoring his damaged memory files and digging deeper into his questionable “accidental death.”

Daniels had evidently done his homework; Upload presents some foreseeable future technology and problems coming down the pike. His satire on commercialism, social inequality, loss of privacy, and powerlessness before giant data mining companies is spot-on. The devil is in the details. So you can imagine my surprise when he concluded the virtual press conference by saying “My hope is that Amazon is so happy with the show that they actually try to do the technology and that I get a free upload at the end for me – that’s what I’m looking for at the end of this experience.” Amazon has already ventured into the health care business by acquiring Health Navigator and PillPack in the last few years. I have no doubt they are inching forward toward the grand scheme of digital life extension. It’s no longer a matter of if but when Daniels’ free upload would be granted.

I went to a Catholic school growing up and was under the impression that heaven is the eternal peaceful home where only the good people get to go. Also I vaguely remember that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God’s kingdom. So I can’t help wondering if the digital hereafter might be for the overlords to have their cake and eat it too. I guess this shouldn’t disturb me because I am definitely moving on to my next life when I die; living death certainly does not appeal to me. I just hope I would be reincarnated into a brighter human future way beyond this surveillance capitalism society. I need to get off the grid first, don’t I?

All 10 episodes of Upload are now available on Amazon Prime Video.

About the Author

Meg Mimura is a TV critic who actually watches shows zealously in search of thought-provoking and paradigm shifting human drama worth our precious time. She is a member of Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter.

Disney Face Masks add whimsy to the Covid 19 Crisis

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

“We realize this is a challenging time for families and wearing any type of mask can be daunting,” says Edward Park, senior vice president, Disney store and shopDisney. “Our hope is that Disney’s cloth face masks featuring some of our most beloved characters will provide comfort to the families, fans and communities that are so important to us.”  There are six different sets of four cloth face masks in each pack.

Select your favorites to brighten up you social distancing dilemma.

Select from:

Star Wars – with Yoda, logo, original artworl from the first film, and R2D2

Role Play with bottom half of Pooh, Stitch, Mickey Mouse, and Bunny

Princess – with a variety of colors and Disney princess images

Pixar – With Forky, Mike Wazaski, and images of iconic Pixar  characters

Mickey and Minnie – with the two Disney mice

Marvel – with images and logos from the world of Marvel

Each set of four lists for $19.99.

Disney is donating one million cloth facemasks for children and families in underserved and vulnerable communities across the U.S. that will be distributed by MedShare (http://www.medshare.org). Disney will also donate all profits from the sales in the U.S. of Disney’s cloth face masks to Medshare, up to $1 million, now through September 30, 2020.

Apple TV+ ‘Home’ – A timely and welcoming oasis amid this current apocalyptic hellscape

Posted on by Francine Brokaw


I used to have a sanctuary, but all hell broke loose when a clan of crooks moved into my adjoining unit over three years ago. ‘Danger, Will Robinson!’ warned my trusted BS detector at first sight. There hasn’t been a single moment of peace since then, but this pandemic induced a domestic pressure cooker situation and has given them a license to kill. Nobody pays attention to them any longer except for me! Stir-crazed rug rats stomp around every inch of their unit as well as our tiny backyard. Since none of them know how to deal with any difficulties or challenges, the whole clan resorts to throwing temper tantrums day and night. I’m talking about the kind of people who will take a mile if you give an inch; even incarceration couldn’t keep them on the straight and narrow. Imagine my terror!

My escape has always been to immerse myself into somebody else’s world, namely, TV shows. As a big fan of HGTV’s Extreme Homes and You Live in What? that features homeowners who had thought outside the box to create one-of-a-kind living spaces, I jumped at the opportunity to make my getaway to the Apple TV+ original docuseries Home, scheduled to debut on April 17, 2020.

How would you like to live in a house that can heal and give you hope? “Naturhus” in Sweden, a green house built by Anders Solvarm, just does that. I want that house! Right now! How about an awe-striking bamboo house? Elora Hardy, a trailblazing young woman born in Canada, builds bamboo houses to express her gratitude to Bali, where she calls her “home.” She does what the bamboo wants to do. Isn’t that something?

All nine episodes touch, impress, and inspire you in a different way; each episode delves into the minds of the people who dreamt and built them. Surprisingly, some of them are not architects by trade. They are visionaries with boundary-pushing imaginations and out-of-the-box solutions with a tremendous amount of patience, thoughtfulness, and perseverance. Their innovative houses are an extension or an expression of their beliefs, life philosophy (environmental and ecological sustainability of the planet to name one), and most of all, unconventional interpretation of a sanctuary. Needless to say, all of these world’s most innovative homes have special connections to nature; one invites nature in, the other communes with it, and yet another impacts it in a very spiritual way. In other words, they all spoke to my heart and soul.

The docuseries Home provides a timely emotional/mental oasis for the weary and restless amid this apocalyptic hellscape. I felt like I’ve just got a shot in the arm with a huge dose of hope! Home is also a much-needed visual pep talk to think outside the box and redefine/rethink your place in the world. Now how many TV shows can do all that?

Home premieres on Apple TV+ streaming service on April 17, 2020.

About the Author

Meg Mimura is a TV critic who actually watches shows zealously in search of thought-provoking and paradigm shifting human drama worth our precious time. She is a member of Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter.

It is indeed a small world

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

As the citizens of the planet Earth have discovered during this Corona Virus pandemic, it is a small world.

The latest edition of the Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction collection highlights “It’s a Small World.” Each month Minnie Mouse dresses in a different outfit to focus on an attraction in Disneyland. This month she is touting the memorable and beloved boat trip that takes guests on a trip around the world. This is “the happiest cruise that ever sailed” as guests see children singing and dancing in their native outfits and languages. And for anyone who has been on this attraction, the song is unforgettable…literally!

Minnie is dressed in a colorful dress in teal, pink, yellow, and purple. She has a teal bot on her head and a smile that says she loves the way she looks. Minnie is a fashion icon and there’s no doubt she is happy with her special attire.

To go along with this specially dressed plush Minnie Mouse, there are other items in the collection. A pink Hip Pack from Loungefly is perfect for when guests are allowed back in the park. It is small but can hold a phone, some money or credit cards, and of course the ticket to the theme park.

A coffee mug is also part of the collection. It is also done in pink with colorful designs depicting the entrance to the attraction. A special Minnie Ears headband matches Minnie’s real ears. A pin set rounds out this month’s collection.

The newest collection for the Minnie Mouse: The Main Attraction Disney It’s a Small World will be available beginning April 18, 2020 from shopDisney. Items are limited so get your favorite soon!

And if you want to relive the fun of that memorable cruise around the world, click here.

About the Author

Francine Brokaw has been covering all aspects of the entertainment industry for over 25 years. She also writes about products and travel. She has been published in national and international newspapers and magazines as well as Internet websites. She has written her own book, Beyond the Red Carpet The World of Entertainment Journalists, from Sourced Media Books, is the entertainment correspondent for Good Day Orange County, and has her own TV show, Beyond the Red Carpet, on Village Television in Orange County. Follow her on Twitter.

‘Mrs. America’ answers our burning question – ‘How did we get here?’

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

I was born and raised in Japan, the eternal Mad Men land, and I saw no bright future in the patriarchal and chauvinistic society. So I escaped to the Land of Opportunity! Since then my life experiences have been decidedly and drastically better than those in my motherland. I genuinely thought I had died and gone to heaven. So you can imagine my surprise when I previewed FX’s fascinating eye-opener Mrs. America. I neither grew up here nor was around in the 1970s. I had no idea women’s rights are still not constitutionally guaranteed!

Mrs. America, a thought-provoking limited series, tells the story of the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and how the amendment was stopped in its tracks. The show contrasts the conservative women’s movement led by Phyllis Schlafly with the feminist women’s movement represented by the likes of Gloria Steinem. “What really struck me about all the women from this period was how messy they were. They’re contradictory in nature. They quarrel. There’s joy, there’s love, and there’s hate. I wanted to have all the characters contain multitudes,” explained Creator/Showrunner Dahvi Waller at a press conference held early this year.

Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett) aka ‘the sweetheart of the silent majority’ was, indeed, a woman of contradictions. While she advocated ‘pro family, pro life value’ by projecting a perfect wife and mother at home, she stood on the shoulders of her successful lawyer husband to get into the good ole boys club in DC, where she dismissed as ‘Godless leftist city.’ She knew how to schmooze her way into her domain of military & defense strategy by tailoring her ‘little ol’ me’ persona to neither antagonize nor intimidate high-ranking government officials and powerful industry leaders.

As a matter of fact, Schlafly ran for Congress twice, in 1952 and 1970, and lost both times. Waller took her failures to imply “she wasn’t getting any traction in terms of defense strategy and managed to find a different way into the politics.” This conservative activist emerged out of nowhere and created controversy when the ERA was about to get bipartisan support. She led the STOP (Stop Taking Our Privileges) ERA campaign and stopped the amendment in its tracks. The ERA is a constitutional amendment designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens, regardless of sex, but Schlafly argued that the measure would lead to gender-neutral bathrooms, same-sex marriage, and women in military combat, among other things.

The other side of the decades of equal rights history is represented by lionized second wave feminists such as Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne), Betty Friedan (Tracy Ullman), Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale), and Shirley Chisholm (Udo Aduba). And believe me they fought and argued about their vastly different agenda! Mrs. America shines a light on some sore spots and tensions (a lot of it!) within the pro-ERA women. Whatever side of the fence they were on, they were all flawed and of all different political, ethnic, and religious persuasions and socioeconomic backgrounds. No wonder they didn’t have ‘one voice’ like the silent majority. They simply couldn’t have.

The ERA is considered as one of the toughest battlegrounds in the culture wars of the 70s, but according to Waller the series is “like an origin story of today’s culture wars, and you can draw a direct line from 1972 to today through Phyllis Schlafly and really understand how we became such a divided nation.” Yikes! This skillfully interwoven story sure enlightened me as to how we got to the current ‘unhappily divided place,’ but at the same time it disappointed, distressed, and depressed me to no end. I was under the impression that I had moved to the most advanced country in the world that constitutionally guarantees equal legal rights for all Americans regardless of sex, but if that was merely my wishful thinking…where do we go from here? Does Virginia’s vote to ratify the ERA mean it will be adopted as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution eventually? Experts say that an amendment that is already nearly a century in the making is not likely to end in 2020. Talking about the Constitution, I’ve always wondered why there is not a separation between church and state in this country’s “democracy.” I thought that is unconstitutional…Just saying. So many questions! So little time!

Mrs. America streams the first three episodes on April 15, 2020 and every Wednesday a new episode drops on FX on Hulu, the FX-labeled part of the streaming service.

About the Author

Meg Mimura is a TV critic who actually watches shows zealously in search of thought-provoking and paradigm shifting human drama worth our precious time. She is a member of Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter.

Editor’s note: What is the ERA? This is exactly what it is: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

For information about the ERA, click here.

‘Killing Eve’ Season 3 returns on April 12 for totally bored adults during the coronavirus stay-at-home order

Posted on by Francine Brokaw

 

There seems to be a consensus that this pandemic crisis demonstrates interconnectedness like nothing else. Really? Every time I hear “We are all in this together!” from for-profit organizations, it makes me wonder if it is just a self-aggrandizing lip service to fill airtime with.

Actions speak louder than words. Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group, is stepping up to rescue the cooped up and totally bored adults. She has moved up the season premiere of Killing Eve from April 26 to April 12. She made the decision “knowing how adored this series is and how keen people are for great content right now.”

In a nutshell, Killing Eve is a dark spy thriller depicting an intricate yet bizarre love-hate relationship between a ruthless assassin and a MI5 security officer and its deadly ripple effects on their loved ones.

Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) is a MI5 security officer, but totally bored with her desk-bound job and mundane married life. She is secretly into profiling psychopaths and desperately in need of adrenaline rush, she’s set her heart on becoming a spy! When she suspects a female psychopath is responsible for the recent high-profile murders across Europe, Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw), head of the Russia Section of MI6, comes to her rescue and tasks Eve with tracking this attention-seeking assassin.

Villanelle (Jodie Comer) is a mercurial, talented assassin who relishes fashion-forward and gourmet lifestyle her job affords her. She enjoys getting into character to complete her assignments, but most of all watching her targets taking their last breath. When Villanelle and Eve meet, a fascination for each other is palpable. Against her husband’s numerous plea, chasing Villanelle fuels Eve’s inquisitive nature to explore her own dark side. In the first season, this epic game of cat and mouse ended in Paris when Eve stabbed Villanelle!

The second season showed us that given a common enemy, Eve and Villanelle could indeed work together. However, Villanelle tricked Eve to ax her then-handler and that was exactly the moment Eve realized that she had been only curious and fascinated by the danger Villanelle had represented. Neither could she turn into Villanelle nor was she in love with her. It climaxed with Villanelle shooting Eve. Message? “If I cannot have her, nobody will!”

The third season of Killing Eve picks up six months after last season’s cliffhanger in Rome. Still nursing her bullet wound as well as her hurt and pride, Eve camouflages herself with dreary routine of working and living. Sure, everybody tells her to move on, but Eve prefers the very British way of gunny sacking her guilt, grief, resentment, disappointment, and fear. Unfortunately, more death and destruction follow Eve this season. Is she going to finally find out what kind of person she is capable of being?

Heartbroken, Villanelle tries hard to move up in the world. She’s in the process of becoming a keeper for The Twelve, a shadow organization her present and former handlers work for. However, she quickly finds out that she is not fit for the managerial position.

Carolyn is reprimanded for the debacle in Rome and her future at MI6 seems to be bleak. She doesn’t know what to do with herself; work is the only escape from her stoical existence.

The upcoming season follows the three women with three distinctively different obsessions; Villanelle with control, Eve with curiosity, and Carolyn with workaholism in order to cope with emotional discomfort and feelings of inadequacy.

The eight-part Season 3 of Killing Eve returns to BBC America and AMC on April 12, 2020. This is a show for adults only.

About the Author

Meg Mimura is a TV critic who actually watches shows zealously in search of thought-provoking and paradigm shifting human drama worth our precious time. She is a member of Television Critics Association. Follow her on Twitter.