Series like Netflix’s “The Gentlemen,” “Black Doves,” and even Paramount+’s “MobLand” show that black comedies are having a moment on the small screen. Now, with “Kill Jackie,” starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, AMC+ is looking to get in on the action. Based on Nick Harkaway’s 2018 novel, “The Price You Pay,” and adapted to television by Conor Keane, Tom Butterworth, Peter Lawson and Damon Thomas, “Kill Jackie” follows Jackie Prince (Zeta-Jones), a former drug queenpin turned luxury art dealer, whose comfortable life is upended when she realizes a group of hitmen has been hired to assassinate her.
As she tries to uncover the culprit behind the hit, Jackie and her comrades embark on a zany, bloody quest containing far more style and flash than plot or narrative direction.“Kill Jackie” begins in Bilbao, Spain, where Jackie, dressed to the nines, and her assistant/protégée Charlie (Hattie Hook) navigate a secret $60 million art buy. Though it’s an immense amount of money, Jackie almost seems bored by her line of work. She’s so blasé that she doesn’t double-check whether Charlie has disposed of their burner phones until they are back in London.
Almost as soon as Jackie enters her flat there, she is accosted by gunmen, narrowly escaping before learning the diabolical and psychopathic mercenaries, The Seven Demons, have been tasked with ending her life. Though she isn’t exactly thrilled to learn there is a price on her head, nor is she pleased about the state of her bullet-riddled apartment, Jackie does pep up for the adventure as she whisks Charlie and her reluctant and cowardly tax attorney Sam (Daniel Ings) away from the U.K. to a safehouse so she can begin plotting to defeat The Seven Demons.“Kill Jackie” starts promisingly. Audiences quickly learn about Jackie’s drug-smuggling past and what she had to do to escape it for a quieter existence.
However, by Episode 3 of the eight-episode first season, the narrative becomes so convoluted and confusing — with countless characters, unserious assassins and flashy locations — that viewers likely won’t know if they are coming or going. Jackie certainly doesn’t. Even heartfelt moments where Jackie’s deepest secrets are revealed, connecting her sordid past to her chaotic future, fail to elicit a true emotional tug.It’s fun to see Zeta-Jones shed her Morticia Addams wardrobe for Jackie’s glittering gowns and closet full of weaponry.
Yet, the show is neither witty enough to be funny nor serious enough to become engrossing. The Seven Demons themselves aren’t captivating either. Though bullets fly and knives are thrown, two of the assassins, brothers and ex-special forces members, are like Twiddledee and Twiddledum; another enjoys dancing in bowling shoes to James Brown classics and even the most fearsome of them all, The Doc (Christine Adams), feels slightly cartoonish.
In fact, Zigor (Óscar Jaenada), a former Seven Demons member who has a tenuous friendship with Jackie, is more terrifying than all of them combined.From a bank/concierge service called The Poltergeist that does Jackie’s bidding at a moment’s notice to Karenina (Sidse Babett Knudsen), one of the masterminds who helps the Seven Demons execute their contracts, the show’s narrative is exhausting, and drags on far longer than necessary. This isn’t to say Zeta-Jones delivers a poor performance; her character simply lacks depth and texture. Moreover, audiences have already been to this rodeo in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” and recently, Apple TV’s “Lucky.” Both are far more inspired and sharper than the bulkiness of “Kill Jackie.”Super-stylish and led by a magnetic leading lady, “Kill Jackie” has all the right components to be a dazzling assassin thriller.
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