“The trouble with magic tricks,” Catherine Zeta-Jones says as Jackie Price in the eight-episode AMC+ crime thriller Kill Jackie, “is that they stop being magic.”
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they → say → thriller
And so it is that the crew of assassins trying to snuff her out kill her boredom instead, and become the hunted themselves.
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crew → try → boredom
Jackie Price (Zeta-Jones), with a bandage around her head, dumps out a bowl of Bomb Pops in an elevator.
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Price → dump → elevator
She addresses herself in the mirror.
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She → address → mirror
In voiceover, Jackie says she’s only in the international art market for the money.
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she → say → money
It’s lucrative, dealing paintings to the rich.
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It → ’ → rich
Once, Jackie sold cocaine.
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Jackie → sell → cocaine
“What I used to do for a living was pretty scuzzy,” she tells her faithful assistant Charlie (Hattie Hook).
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she → use → living
Until, as Kill Jackie reveals in vague flashbacks, that shit got dangerous.
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shit → reveal → flashbacks
And so, when Jackie returns home to London from her base of operations in Bilbao, Spain, only to thwart a violent attempt on her life, she figures it must be an unpaid past debt.
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it → return → life
This could offer the excitement she craves.
uncertain
she → offer → excitement
Kill Jackie is a gender-switched rendition of The Price You Pay, a pseudonymous 2018 novel by Nick Harkaway.
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You → switch → Harkaway
And it’s built around CZJ, her charming Welsh lilt, and her rendering of Jackie as someone amused by the destruction all around her.
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it → build → her
As assassins pursue her, she will run, alongside Charlie and fish-out-of-water lawyer Sam (Daniel Ings), and try to determine one thing.
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she → pursue → thing
Not how to survive — the gleam in Jackie’s eye says she’s got that sorted.
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that → survive → eye
No, the thing to determine is how exactly — how excitingly — she’ll do in the bunch sent to do her.
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she → determine → her
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
CZJ returns to TV with Kill Jackie, but she’s been here before, most recently as Morticia in Wednesday.
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she → return → Wednesday
Our Take: We’ll take Kill Jackie like a comic book.
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We → take → book
Let this series reveal gatling guns in apartment walls, and its assumption that everyone in Jackie’s life is on the take.
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everyone → let → take
Let it exist in a world that’s ostensibly real, but with no recognizable functions.
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that → let → functions
Let its violence be outlandish, with zero accountability.
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violence → let → accountability
And let it introduce another round of assassins who take themselves too seriously.
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who → let → themselves
Who we think will be no match for Jackie’s wits and savvy.
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we → think → wits
In other words, like a comic book, we’ll probably keep “reading” til the double-spread page where the tables are turned.
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tables → keep → page
To consider Kill Jackie with any more seriousness would be a mistake.
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consider → consider → seriousness
Decider redundancy department: Daniel Ings wins again.
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Ings → win → ?
Every time he’s in something, Ings totally steals it; with Kill Jackie, his manic, I-don’t-know-what-is-happening energy is the infusion this series needs.
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series → ’ → Jackie
Too much havoc happening.
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havoc → happen → ?
Jackie’s ruminations over her jet setter’s life being a bore are silenced when she is targeted for violence.
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she → silence → violence
She grins at this destruction.
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She → grin → destruction
“I get to do me again…”
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I → get → me
Our Call: Kill Jackie gets a conditional STREAM IT.
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Call → kill → IT
A shallow cartoon comic of a series, it nevertheless features an engaging Catherine Zeta-Jones and some supporting cast hijinks.
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it → feature → Jones
How long we stay with it is another matter.
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stay → stay → it
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer.
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Loftus → base → ?
A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
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work → appear → Weekly
The Aporia
