Suspense thrillers have been a mainstay in the entertainment industry since always. The genre consists of amazing movies and shows that keep you at the edge. While the movies are always praised, the TV often gets overlooked when it comes to thrillers. One such show is the hit British series Killing Eve, released in 2018.
Killing Eve features Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer as the lead protagonists. Sandra Oh plays Eve Polastri who is an MI5 spy. Jodie Comer plays the role of Oksana Astankova, better known as Villanelle, a female assassin who is Eve’s point of interest.
Eve gets obsessed with Villanelle after she gets fired from MI5 and joins MI6 to start chasing after her. Villanelle, on the other hand, she gets obsessed with the spy chasing her.
Killing Eve received acclaim for its production, story, humor, and the acting of the lead actresses. The show and its cast have been nominated for numerous awards and have won some too.
Killing Eve is truly unique and irreplaceable. But once it is over and you are done with the rewatches,
Here Are Some Similar Shows To Killing Eve That You Can Watch:
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
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The only thing more peculiar than its name, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, is the whole premise of the show. Dirk Gently’s HDA is a combination of science fiction and detective television inspired by a novel witted by Douglas Adams.
The story of the show revolves around a wacky protagonist named Dirk Gently played by Samuel Barnett. Dirk is a spiritual believer and claims to be a holistic detective who solves his cases with his spiritual powers. Dirk is being chased by CIA agents who were a part of “Project Blackwing”. This project was centered on conducting experiments on specially-abled people, one subject of which was Dirk.
Dirk finds a lethal enemy in the face of a former Blackwing subject, Bart Curlish, played by Fiona Dourif. Bart considers herself a “holistic assassin”, a parallel counterpart of Dirk. The tension between Dirk and Bart will surely remind viewers of that between Eve and Villanelle. The show began airing in October 2016 and ended in December 2017 after two seasons.
The Night Manager
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The Night Manager is a British spy drama based on the novel written by John le Carré in 1993. The show features an ensemble cast of stars like Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston, and Olivia Colman.
Tom Hiddleston plays the role of the protagonist Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier who works as a hotel manager. Hugh Laurie portrays Richard Roper, an illegal arms dealer and the antagonist of the show.
Olivia Colman stars as the manager of an FCO task force, Angela Burr. Angela gives Jonathan a task to infiltrate and investigate Roper’s illegal circle. the cast of the show also includes Tom Hollander, Elizabeth Debicki, Alistair Petrie, and Natasha Little in supporting roles.
The Night Manager has won a total of 11 Emmy awards out of 36 nominations. It includes one Emmy each for the three lead stars Tom, Hugh and Olivia for acting.
The Following
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The Following is an excellent American psychological thriller created by Kevin Williamson. Psycho-thrillers are known for generating horror from subtle elements and The Following fares well of its execution.
Kevin Bacon stars as the lead protagonist Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent. The story kicks off with the escape of an infamous serial killer Joe Carroll, played by James Purefoy.
The first season focuses on Ryan’s chase after Joe. The second season focuses on a cult led by Lily Gray and her twin sons Mark and Luke. Connie Nielsen stars as Lily while Sam Underwood plays the role of both the twins.
The third season follows the aftermath of the previous two seasons. Ryan Hardy has to not only deal with his past demons but also a new serial killer on loose.
The Game
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The Game is another British show to make its way on this list. The Game shares a few key elements with Killing Eve. That includes it being a spy thriller based around the MI5 and MI6 agencies. The show follows an MI5 operative Joe Lambe’s life from the year 1972. Actor Tom Hughes plays the role of Joe Lambe.
The story kicks off when an alleged Soviet professor Arkady Malinov played by Marcel Lureş warns MI5 of ” Operation Glass “. Operation Glass is a deadly nuclear attack on Britain planned by the Soviet Union.
Arkady does not want to be a part of it and wishes for immunity in return of the information. Not completely trusting of Arkady, the MI5 still takes upon the task to avoid the disaster. The show takes you through a series of twists and tension that keeps you guessing and waiting.
Luther
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Luther is an excellent crime thriller created by Neil Cross that features the megastar, Idris Elba, in the lead role. Idris plays the titular character of Detective Chief Inspector John Luther.
John is a dedicated police officer whose life turns upside down when he comes across a psychopathic murderer, Alice Morgan. Ruth Wilson plays the role of Alice Morgan.
The relationship between Luther and Alice can remind the viewers of Villanelle and Eve. Luther and Alice keep switching between being enemies and companions while the show keeps on rolling. Luther goes through tough cases and circumstances while his relationship with Alice keeps changing.
Luther was a critical success and became an instant fan-favorite. Luther first aired on 4 May 2010. After a total of 5 seasons, Luther finally ended on 4 January 2019.
Jessica Jones
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Jessica Jones needs no introduction to any comic buffs. The Marvel’s strong and independent female superhero got her own series adaptation in 2015 on Netflix. The show stars Krysten Ritter in the lead role who does an exceptionally good job at playing Jessica Jones. Jessica is forced to start-up her own detective agency after being ousted from her former superhero career.
The show revolves around Jessica trying to solve various cases over the course of its three seasons. She has to deal with enemies not just in the outside world, but the ones inside of her either.
A major credit of which can be given to the villainous Kilgrave, played by David Tennant. Kilgrave has the powers of controlling other people with which he made Jessica kill someone. Jessica Jones aired between 2015 to 2019 before being unfairly canceled after the third season.
Veronica mars
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Veronica Mars is a noir detective drama that paved the way for modern shows like Killing Eve. It’s a blend of black comedy into suspense and tragedy has been praised for years. The show revolves around the titular protagonist Veronica Mars.
Played by Kristen Bell, Veronica is a private investigator. She is also the daughter of the Sheriff of the Balboa county, Keith Mars, played by Enrico Colantoni. Veronica’s normal life was sent into a turmoil that began with the death of her best friend Lily Kane, played by Amanda Seyfried. Keith Mars accuses of her murder on her own father Jake Kane but can not prove it.
Jake Kane, a powerful tycoon played by Teddy Dunn, abuses his connections to remove Keith from the post of the Sheriff. From the point on, the show dwindles down a dark path of mystery and drama.
The Little Drummer Girl
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After The Night Manager, The Little Drummer Girl is another show based on the work of John Le Carré. The Little Drummer Girl is a spy drama created by Michael Lesslie and Claire Wilson with the source from a Le Carré novel.
The lead role in the show and the novel is of an English actress named Charmian “Charlie” Ross. Florence Pugh portrays her role in the show. The story kicks off with Charlie being recruited by Martin Kurtz for the investigation of a Palestinian terrorist. Martin Kurtz is an Israeli spymaster and is played by Michael Shannon on the show.
Charlie is then sent away to a Palestinian refugee camp to infiltrate. However, there she grows sympathy towards the Palestinians as a conflict takes birth in her mind. The show keeps viewers bound to a tense drama as Charlie struggles to choose between her duty and her humanity.
Homeland
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Homeland is probably the most popular spy thriller to be seen on American TV. Homeland began airing in 2011 enjoyed a successful reign of 9 years before going off-air in 2021. The whole of the show revolves around the female protagonist Carrie Mathison, played by Claire Danes. All the seasons of Homeland feature different stories.
The first season features Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, who escaped the captivity of Al-Qaeda. Hailed as a hero, Carrie instead suspects him of being working for al-Qaeda. This kicks off a chain of events that shake up Carrie and take place throughout the series.
The first three seasons of the show received critical acclaim. The later seasons were not as highly rated but still watchable once viewers become engaged in the life of Carrie Mathison.
Treadstone
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The Jason Bourne franchise is a pioneer for modern spy thrillers on the bigger screen. Treadstone follows its suit as it is officially set in the Bourne universe, connected to the Bourne movies.
The show revolves around the origin and the goals of Operation Treadstone. Treadstone was a program seen in the Bourne franchise which turned normal people into superhuman assassins. The projects get brainwashed and their memories erased to make them able of committing the most heinous crimes.
Treadstone has a lot of sleeper agents that live a normal human life. The show’s story kicks off with these sleeper agents present across the globe, suddenly getting awakened. With their abnormal abilities and altered mindset, they pose a threat to the whole world.
The show also goes into the past of Treadstone. It follows John Randolph Bently, played by Jeremy Irvine, escaping from the operation’s captivity.
Rubicon
Rubicon is an American thriller created by Jason Horwitch. It is inspired by retro 70’s conspiracy movies. The show stars James Badge Dale as the lead protagonist Will Travers. Will is the senior analyst in a New York City-based intelligence agency called the American Policy Institute.
Will Travers loses his family in the 9/11 tragedy and dedicates himself to its investigation while becoming distant from everything. Soon, he finds out a matching pattern in all crosswords published on the tragic day of 9/11.
This leads to him believing in a bug conspiracy set against American security. Will notifies his mentor in API, who is also his father-in-law David Hadas of his theory. However, Hadas gets killed in a suspicious accident after revealing the matter to his seniors in the API. Travers refuses to believe it is an accident and the incident affirms his belief in a conspiracy going on around.
Patriot
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Patriot is a spy drama created by Steven Conrad that was released in 2015. Patriot features themes similar to Killing Eve in the form of black comedy and spy-drama.
The story revolves around a nuclear threat on the US, courtesy of Iran. Intelligence officer John Tavner, played by Michael Dorman, is given the tasks of preventing this disaster. Tavner takes upon the role of an industrial engineer to complete the assignment while being undercover. However, his time in a piping corporation is far from comfortable.
His daily life turns mundane and he is forced to act unintelligently. Soon one of his co-workers begins to doubt him and a doubtful cop sets to find out John’s true identity as well. Patriot was released on Prime Video in 2015. It went on for a total of two seasons before going off-air in 2018.
Orphan Black
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Orphan Black is a twisted Canadian sci-thriller created by Graeme Manson and directed by John Fawcett. Tatiana Maslany plays the lead role or leadership roles to be more precise. The story starts off with Sarah Manning, played by Tatiana, witnessing a woman named Beth Childs commit suicide. Beth looks exactly like Sarah and is also played by Tatiana.
Sarah is a con artist by profession and takes upon the identity of Beth, as well as her job as a police detective. However, things do not go any pleasant for her from there. She finds out that she was a part of a human cloning experiment called Neolution which created many clones of her.
Sarah teams up with her foster brother Felix Dawkins, played by Jordan Gavaris to solve the mystery. She is also joined by two more clones of herself, Alison Hendrix and Cosima Neihaus. As the show goes through various twists and turns, Sarah finds herself being chased by the police, members of Neolution and a clone-assassinating group called Prolethans.
Fleabag
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Fleabag is a modern tragicomedy masterpiece created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Phoebe herself stars in the show as the titular character Fleabag. Fleabag is bathed in dark humor that is filled with lots of heartbreaking and fourth-wall-breaking moments. It all starts with Fleabag’s best friend accidentally killing herself in a traffic accident.
Her father leaves her and her sister to hook up with their godmother, played by Olivia Colman. Her café, her relationships, her mental state everything goes down the drain while the viewers can’t help but laugh at the bleak humor and depressing jokes.
Both the seasons of Fleabag received critical acclaim and stand with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fleabag’s plot is completely different than Killing Eve but its themes and the female lead will surely feel familiar.
Revenge
Just like the name suggests, Revenge is a full-blown revenge saga, created by Mike Kelley. The story of the show revolves around two female characters; Amanda Clarke and Victoria Grayson. Emily VanCamp plays the role of Amanda Clarke whose father was falsely accused, imprisoned, and murdered in the prison. Amanda takes upon a fake name Emily Thorne and settles into a house next to the Graysons, who conspired against her father.
Madeleine Stowe stars as Victoria Grayson, head of the Grayson family. Victoria is the prime target of Emily who she wants to completely destroy. Over the progression of the show, Emily plans and executes various schemes to get back to those who wronged her.
The female vs female dynamic of Revenge is reminiscent of that in Killing Eve.
Conclusion
Suspense and sense of mystery are two tense emotions that can overwhelm the viewer. They suck the viewers into them and keep building tension until a final reveal. This tension can be generated through multiple elements.
Killing Eve is a series that perfected that execution. However, like everything else that exists, Killing Eve will end too. And when that day comes, you can look forward to watching these 15 incredible shows.