‘The Assassin’ series review: Keeley Hawes, Freddie Highmore stumble through a sporadically funny spy thriller

The absolute best thing about Harry and Jack Williams’ The Assassin is Greece. The blue-green sea, the brilliant sunshine, the towering cliffs and the marvellous, hardy houses make you want to book the next flight (a cruise would be better) to Crete or Rhodes, and if you are feeling glamorous enough, the blue-and-white skyline of Mykanos.

Since, however, one is watching a show for review, one has to firmly put away idyllic Grecian sojourns on sleek yachts belonging to crude millionaires and stare open-mouthed at the screen, wondering if there were flip phones in 1994.

The Assassin cannot make up its mind if it is a spoof or should play it straight, so it hedges its bets with wit and bloody violence. At the end of six episodes, we are still not sure of the tone. The distracting plot holes include carrying a dead man’s thumb around to open his phone, even though one can change the password in settings after the first time. To be fair, a character does suggest that course of action after taking out the thumb a million times to unlock the phone. Sigh.

After the hit in Bulgaria in 1994 in the first episode, which took place in a time when there were flip phones in an alternate universe, the assassin Julie (Keeley Hawes) lives quietly on the prettiest Greek island ever. She is preparing for her journalist son, Edward’s (Freddie Highmore) visit. Since the last time she saw him, Edward has turned vegan (there goes the wagyu beef into the bin).

Edward has questions about his father, especially since he got a big chunk of money when he turned 30. Julie gets a call from whom she first thinks is her handler, Damien (Richard Dormer), but later figures out he is not, based on the fact that he does not make tasteless comments. There is a shooting at a wedding, and suddenly, Julie, Edward and the local butcher, Luka (Gerald Kyd), swim to a swanky yacht, conveniently moored offshore.

A mining baron, Aaron Cross (Alan Dale), owns the yacht and his children, Kayla (Shalom Brune-Franklin) and Ezra (Devon Terrell), are on the yacht when Julie, Luka and Edward crash in. Edward tells his mum he and Kayla are engaged, while Julie reveals that Kayla has the one she was ordered to kill by not-Damien. Kayla takes care of the charitable end of the family business while Ezra, the good times guy, is trying desperately to prove to his father that he is a worthy heir.

A still from ‘The Assassin’
| Photo Credit:
BBC Player

There are all sorts of plots and sub-plots including brutally killing a former colleague, Sean (Jack Davenport); the permanently trenchcoat wearing Marie (Gina Gershon), who might be Edward’s aunt or real mum; Jasper (David Dencik), a fingerless computer nerd trapped in a Libyan prison who might have the dirt on Cross; and a mysterious word, Chantaine, that could either be a fruit spread, a beloved poodle’s name or a code word.

The action flits from Tirana to London, France to Libya, Athens to Tripoli and Spain, which is all jolly good. While The Assassin is nothing like The Day of the Jackal, it is sporadic fun but mostly a patchy ride — massacring an entire village during a wedding is nothing to laugh at no?

The Assassin is currently streaming on BBC Player