The Assassin

I rarely bother writing reviews, but having read some of the reviews here, felt I had to say a few things, as it seems people are taking this series far too seriously and not getting the daft and dry British humour of the show.

Before watching, I guessed this would be a ludicrous plot and would be a parody of the whole "retired assassin" genre. I mean, Keeley Hawes as a menopausal super assassin and her son played by the eternally child-like Freddie Highmore? Yeah, this is no John Wick lol.

Of course it's not a masterpiece, but it's great fun throughout, never gets boring and is well written and acted - and ridiculously violent and gory for good measure. It's a massive pisstake, as we say in the UK, of the entire "badass comes back from retirement" movie/TV trope. You almost expect Keeley Hawes character to get out a tissue and wipe the blood off her son's cheek throughout.

It's completely unbelievable, but then that's the point. It's also incredibly funny and enjoyable, and "knows" it is ridiculous, so it knowingly takes us viewers along for the ride. Just sit back and enjoy that ride and you'll not be disappointed.

This is a brilliant spoof assassin/spy comedy. The actors all play it totally straight and the result is hilarious. The plot is spectacularly convoluted and the characters all hide who they really are. There are twists and turns in abundance. A truly joyous spy romp. Grab some snacks and sit back for a great romp.

Watched this as I was told it was good by a friend. May need to reconsider my friends.

The opening few minutes combine very poor acting, bad fight choreography, very questionable directing decisions and childish staging to make what is supposed to be an exciting opener into an amateur mess.

The plot gets no better with scripting and storylines that are forced and obvious. The acting is generally poor (sorry guys) but I don't blame them entirely as the whole thing is really difficult to get into. Wooden characters, bad writing etc.

I'd avoid. There are much better assassin/spy programmes. Don't waste your time.

The Assassin is slick, fast-paced fun, perfect for killing time until Slow Horses or Reacher return. Shalom Brune-Franklin carries the show, while Keeley Hawes' underexplored, terrible mother role and her annoyingly whiny son add frustration. Some of the constant bickering drags on and gets annoying, but overall it's an easy enjoyable watch.

Additionally her son is the most stupid person ever committed to film, one of those people that you wish would disappear.

We watched the first episode three nights ago. Just baffled by the whole thing but decided it could only get better. MIstake..

A word of advice for those who are tempted to persist with this. Do what I did: use an AI to lookup something like "Summary of events in Episode 2 of The Assassin". Read it, and then repeat for episodes 3, 4, 5, and 6. By doing so, you can save yourself the misery of being hooked in by episode 1 and then feeling you have to binge watch the remaining episodes in order to find out what happens. I'm glad I did after we watched episode 2 (which was no better than episode 1 by the way) as I managed to get the remaining plot details without having to endure a further 4 hours of pain watching the remaining 4 episodes. Based on the summaries, we didn't miss much by giving up on this series.

Worth pointing out that even the AI I used implied strongly that it was confused about what the program was about!

Is it supposed to be a comedy or is it supposed to be a serious action drama? We couldn't tell.

I hadn't read reviews here on IMDB before watching and have only just read through the first 16 that are currently posted and was relieved to see that there are as many confused about it as we were.

Some seem to genuinely think it's supposed to be a comedy and that those not used to British humour just aren't getting it. We've watched loads of British tongue-in-cheek type series and The Assassin is't like anything we've seen out of the UK before. I'm not convinced.

Others think it is so bad that it is just coming across as being intended as a comedy. Again, not too sure.

We just think it's just not working.

If it's supposed to be a comedy, then the comedy is missing even as a "black comedy". If it's supposed to be a serious action type drama, then it's hilarious beause it misses the mark entirely.

What struck me after watching is that it SHOULD have been done as an obvious comedy but wasn't and it is so bizarre that it is coming across as a failed comedy.

I love Keeley Hawes and I have to say this isn't her fault. Maybe she didn't know how to play it. Did anybody tell her it was a comedy if that was the intention? I think ot.

It occurred to me that it needed someone with a Bruce Willis type sense of wry humour to play the role (keeping it as a female obviously). Maybe a John McClane type of character who finds himself in a serious situation but is wisecracking his (or her in this case) way through it. That might have worked. But not Keeley playing it absolutely straight and us wondering what it is supposed to be.

Can I add, too, that the scene with the sniper in episode 1 was just so ridiculous that it came across as almost funny. Funny without being funny or intended to be funny. A sniper tries to take out Keeley Hawes character. They can't of course, because otherwise there wouldn't be a series. Shot after shot misses the mark and I think with all the reloading we are talking maybe 30 bullets in all but just guessing. But the thing is this: bullets that miss Keeley don't just bounce off the ground or other obstacles vaguely in her vicinity. This professional snipers manages to hit bystanders square in the heart and killing all of them even if they are nowhere near where Keeley is hiding. His assignment was to take out Keeley; why is hitting everybody except Keeley? How can you not laugh at this sort of nonsense? How can writers expect audience to believe this is serious when this is the way something is written and so ludicrouse.

Confused? Well we certainly were. So we gave up after episode 2 proved to be no better.