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They also must have premiered before June 29, 2018.
Phoebe Waller-BridgesKilling Eveis such a brazenly entertaining series that you dont immediately realize how groundbreaking it is.
This is a magic trick of a high order.
Second, the Ottawa-born Oh is of Korean heritage, a fact thats refreshingly incidental to this part.
Little gestures like that fortify the projects aesthetic integrity, like mortar connecting bricks.
Without Ohs performance, the house collapses.
She makes Eve make sense.
She makesKilling Evemake sense.
The Case for Sandra Oh
1.
Introducing Eve (Episode 1, Nice Face)
This is Eves introduction.
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Oh rolls with it and has a ball.
Turns out she just fell asleep on her arms.
Theres charm aplenty, but zero fuss that classic Thelma Ritter quality I mentioned earlier.
This introduction does three important things, all of which wouldnt register as strongly without Oh playing this role.
Third, it sets up assumptions that will be undermined.
Its direct, forceful acting with no adjectives as indicators.
We might as well be watching a thermometer heat up, the mercury rising until the glass breaks.
Its about her dead friend.
Who has the upper hand here?
But then comes that moment when Eve says, Why are you here.
No verbal question mark Ohs reading of the line is flat as a kitchen countertop.
And shes not to be trifled with.
And Eve speaks to Villanelle as a mother would speak to a child manipulating her right back.
Sure enough, this leads to Villanelle breaking down in tears (I need someone to help me …
I dont want to do this anymore …
I know Im not normal …
I dont feel things…).
Oh cries a single tear, and we think Eve is moved by what she just heard.
But then she says, Bullshit.
Two words, almost, with an infinitesimal pause between them: Bull/shit.
Then she does it again, with a more pronounced separation.
Villanelle laughs, caught in the act.
God, Eve says.
Then she adds a bit of information that Villanelle didnt know she knew: her real name, Oksana.
Again: a promise, not a threat.
And Oh doesnt ham it up.
Everything that happens to Eve is happening organically not purposefully, but with unarticulated intent.
Villanelle warns Eve that it hurts more if she pushes the knife in slowly.
), and that pitiless stare.
Villanelle assumes shes the cat in this cat-and-mouse story, but shes flattering herself.
Alison Bries hilarious and psychologically plausible work inGLOWanswered the question of what would happen ifCheersDiane Chambers became a wrestler.
There are no false moves.
Ohs entire career has been leading to this.
This is the performance of the year so far, in any medium.
Theres beforeKilling Eve, and theres after.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge made that happen, and Sandra Oh made it real.
