Killing Eve excelled by moving beyond the sexy serial killer trope

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"What’s different about Killing Eve isn’t the serial killer, it’s Eve," says Alex Cranz of Sandra Oh's character. "She’s the character who elevates this show above the trope. Oh has long been one of the best actresses working on television; I mean, watch this monologue where she talks about staying awake for four days and hearing her best friend’s sister get eaten by wolves on Grey’s Anatomy. The woman can act, and if she’d been the traditional foil to the Sexy Serial Killer this show still would have been good. But Eve isn’t a foil, she’s the primary focus of Killing Eve, and the show is more interested in exploring her—a messy middle-aged woman who shops at Uniqlo and Gap and is horrified that chickens poop eggs—instead of the serial killer, which helps it transcend the trope."