“Are you really not going to tell me why you appear to be some kind of perimenopausal James Bond?”, gasps an agog Edward Green (Freddie Highmore) in episode one of Amazon’s enjoyably pulpy The Assassin.
Having just discovered his estranged mother Julie (Keeley Hawes) is a former hitwoman when she goes full Nina Williams from Tekken on a threat to their lives, his shocked reaction is understandable, and he’s forced to untangle a childhood of secrets.
This globe-trotting high-octane six-parter from powerhouse siblings Harry and Jack Williams (The Tourist/The Missing) hits the ground running in Bulgaria in 1994, with a younger Julie ruthlessly despatching multiple targets in a brutally effective action sequence, before looking at a positive pregnancy test. Presumably Mumsnet doesn’t host a helpful “How do I balance my career as a dead-eyed killing machine while raising kids?” advice thread to consult, so this isn’t ideal. And, fast-forward 31 years, we see a sweary, whisky-soused Julie secluded in Greece and awkwardly trying to reconnect with her visiting son. When she’s offered one final job, it leads to a chain of events that causes her and Edward to end up on the run, like the world’s worst Bring Your Child To Work Day.
The always-captivating Hawes – back in the ‘Steeley Keely’ mode viewers may recall from her early roles in Spooks and Line of Duty – is evidently having a riot playing a haunted and hunted anti-hero for whom ‘007’ refers to the number of fucks she gives. While twisty female-led espionage-style dramas are hot at the moment, The Assassin distinguishes itself by jugging multiple tones, from a taut The Day of the Jackal-with-HRT tablets thriller to a mismatched farcical family road trip, as Edward grows closer to his mum by uncovering more about her hidden life as “Uber Eats with a Glock”. Fingers are hacked off hands, and he finds out she can do things involving a cheese fork that you wouldn’t find in Nigella Lawson’s How to Be A Domestic Goddess.
Ultimately, The Assassin rattles along, additively, like an extended summer blockbuster (even the score seemingly pays homage to John Barry’s immortal Bond themes), with breakneck chases, double-crossing, and everybody is somehow related to each other like a homicidal Who Do You Think You Are? Along the way, Gina Gershon sails into scenes with queenly Hollywood galleon as an enigmatic, Nintendo Switch-playing, anime-loving villain, while Alan Dale moustache-twirls as a family kingpin, somehow connected to a mysterious ‘Chantaine’ conspiracy.
It all adds up to a rollickingly inventive ride. Concerns have mounted over Amazon’s ability to pull off a classic Bond movie. If the results are anything as fun as The Assassin, however, we’re set to be in safe – albeit fingerless – hands.
‘The Assassin’ is available on Amazon Prime Video now