What I’m Watching: Hitmen (Season Finale)

Hitmen: Season 1, Episode 6 “Nikhil” (B+)

Now this was a better episode, not quite the same level as the first two but far more focused and effective than the past three. Jamie is definitely the more distractible and seemingly dim-witted of the duo, but Fran also misses plenty of cues and rarely seems willing to put in the effort that Jamie sometimes can. It’s a wonder they’ve been kept around this long, and having a new partner assigned so that Mr. K could evaluate whether he wants them killed or kept on the payroll was probably an inevitability, especially on a very dark comedy series like this one. I hadn’t realized that they had never met Mr. K in person, and he was about as intimidating as I might have expected, not physically threatening but capable of a controlled anger that represents the best way to put fear into underlings. Nikhil was the opposite of Jamie, entirely business-oriented and not even eager to listen to the same music in the car. It’s a good thing that Fran decided to focus on her best friend, and I liked that the two of them were able to communicate in the car by singing different words to the song that Fran was blasting. Finding out that Nikhil was actually British and just putting on an accent to seem like someone else only further emphasized that Fran made the right choice in saving Jamie. It made sense that the eternally duplicitous Liz was working for Mr. K to track down his two wayward ex-employees, but she also doesn’t quite have his ear the way she wants. I’d be up for watching another six episodes of this show whenever season two gets released, though I hope we get good guest stars like Jason Watkins, Nick Mohammed and Sian Clifford along with the entertaining main cast.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Sue Perkins as Fran

What I’m Watching: Hitmen

Hitmen: Season 1, Episode 5 “Rivals” (B)

This episode was an improvement over the last two not due to its target – whose presence was a bit much in the final third of the episode where she tried to drill them all to death while they were dressed for a tea party – but because it brought in two recurring characters we haven’t gotten to know all that much yet. Whenever we saw them in the past, Liz was impatient and rude while Charles was incredibly friendly. It was fun to see them forced to partner after Jamie filled the van with half petrol and half diesel, with Jamie and Charles sitting in the back and bonding over cool features of their van while Liz and Fran bickered over directions and the like in the front seat. The weed brownies that they ate seemed like a somewhat unnecessary plot device, though it did mean that Fran and Jamie were abandoned the next morning while Liz and Charles rushed off to take out the target and get all the credit. It’s fun to see that there might be a romance brewing between Liz and Fran, though it will always be founded on the fact that Liz took Fran’s phone under the guise of putting in her personal number only to steal the location of the target instead. They also stole the van that Fran and Jamie had stolen, so there’s not much hope for honesty going forward. I’m curious if they’ll be back in the finale or if we’ll finally meet the mysterious Mr. K.

What I’m Watching: Hitmen

Hitmen: Season 1, Episode 4 “Dog” (B-)

This episode was another less than entirely satisfactory episode, focused more on silliness than anything else. I think part of why I liked the first two episodes better might have been that I knew the actors playing Fran and Jamie’s targets – Jason Watkins and Sian Clifford – and also that their captives didn’t escape almost right away. It may be that, while the interactions between the two of them can sometimes be sufficient, the way that they speak to their prisoners and the way that they argue back to try to come out alive is what makes this show most worth watching. Fran nearly being hung was a dark turn, and her would-be killer didn’t really get what he deserved after that and falling off the roof to crush the dog that had been terrorizing all three of them for the entire episode. It was strange to see Fran as the more compassionate one, eager to free the dog of the muzzle while Jamie seemed more keenly aware of the risks. When she did end up with a pretty severe bite, those drugs kicked in fast as she hallucinated Fran as the voice of the dog telling her to open the door and everything would be fine. Emerging in her hastily-assembled version of combat gear worked well enough, and her timing couldn’t have been any better to save Fran’s life and turn the tables just as they were about to fail yet another assignment gone horribly awry. Maybe next time they’ll screw up in a different way than letting their target run from them almost as soon as they’ve captured them.

Take Three: Hitmen

Hitmen: Season 1, Episode 3 “Woods” (B-)

This episode was a bit of an aimless misfire, in part because it got just as distracted by the surrounding woods as its main characters. I like the interactions between Fran and Jamie, but this all seemed a bit excessive. Once again we had a target who was intent on talking his way out of his fate, though his case wasn’t particularly compelling since he didn’t even deny what he had done, arguing instead that it shouldn’t have merited a death sentence. Jamie might indeed be a concerning choice as a mother given her tendency to neglect, say, the captives she’s about to kill, and testing out her abilities with an egg didn’t seem like the best or most effective trial. Fran, on the other hand, seemed like she was hallucinating, but instead she encountered a group of girls right out of “Troop Zero” (a very worthwhile comedy movie streaming on Amazon Prime). Somehow, things always seem to work themselves out in the nick of time with an episode-ending execution, and that was once again the case here with Fran about to tell Mr. K that they had lost him only to see him in front of them and have the opportunity to hit them with the van. In less expected news, Peacock has decided to renew this show for a second season, which is great. I’m glad I’ve continued watching and look forward to the back half of this first round, which will hopefully be a bit more like the first two episodes than this one.

Round Two: Hitmen

Hitmen: Season 1, Episode 2 “Money” (B+)

This show features some really great guest stars, and after seeing Jason Watkins and Nick Mohammed in the first episode, it was an absolute pleasure to have Sian Clifford on board for this half-hour. I saw her most recently in “Quiz,” which was a good performance, but less much fun than her Emmy-nominated turn on “Fleabag.” She was full of energy here, running around to try to get away from her captors and then using Jamie’s gullible nature to convince her that she should call Mr. K on her own and that the password she had been so carefully protecting was just the number two. These two do have a habit of bungling their jobs, and nearly killing their mark with soy products before she gave up the information they needed to was not a productive development. It did inspire them to later use it as a method of torture, but that was also something that they weren’t great at, just like this whole hitman thing. I enjoyed another chance to have Liz and Charles come visit to help them out, with Liz being as icy as possible and Charles being extremely friendly until she started yelling at him to be less social. I like the concept of this show and I hope it turns out to be a success since there’s no news of a renewal from Sky just yet and we’re a full third into what’s been produced so far. With four episodes to go, here’s hoping for some other great guest stars whose characters are fated for death!

Pilot Review: Hitmen

Check out my one-minute take on every new pilot, which is embedded below and you can also watch by subscribing to movieswithabe on YouTube.