Critic Reviews

It’s so much fun. Hawes is so good, so funny, Highmore so nimble and perfectly pitched and everyone else.

They may not be revolutionary, and may give you some déjà vu to past Williams joints, but if you're looking for entertaining action, some fun twists and a compelling central character/relationship study, then you will certainly find all of that here.

Middle-aged women everywhere will quickly buy into the idea of Hawes capably dispatching victims in between taking her HRT tablets and getting exasperated with her lily-livered son. .... Don’t think too hard about it. Just enjoy the ride.

You've never met an assassin like Keeley Hawes’ Julie, and for that matter you've never watched a thriller like this either. Come for the cutthroat action and stay for the cutting dynamic at its core.

The Assassin is also spoiled by being overly derivative, to the point of being distracting. .... None of that is criminal, and doesn’t stop The Assassin from being intriguing and very, very nearly working – but it renders it frustrating.

Although character decisions would have strengthened the story, the overarching narrative was interesting enough to keep me engaged throughout.

A series with a first-rate cast that suffers a few too many self-inflicted wounds.

The Assassin is light, makes very little sense and will satisfy fans of Highmore and Hawes more than casual genre devotees.

If this is Hawes’s audition to become the next 007, then she’s completely let down by thin characterisation and a shoddy, juvenile script.