Killing Eve and the History of Quality Television

About the lecture

In this module, we look at the the British TV show Killing Eve and the history of so called “quality” television. In particular, we look at: (i) how we can perform textual analysis on "Killing Eve"; (ii) the background and summary of Killing Eve, including tropes and stereotypes in the spy genre and the role of the female leads; (iii) Phoebe Waller Bridge's influence on the show; (iv) how the idea of feminist quality TV came about as a response to the "quality TV era", including a discussion of HBO's impact on television culture; (v) the masculine attributes of "quality TV" and the idea of cinematic TV discussion and its implications; and (vi) how we can link feminist quality TV and "Killing Eve" as a counter-programming example.

About the lecturer

Dr Julia Havas is lecturer in Film and Television at the University of York. She specialises in the issues of representation on TV in relation to genre, narrational conventions, cultural value, and production contexts. With this in mind, she has published widely, including Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television (Wayne State University Press, 2022).