Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Killing Kind’ on Hulu, An Addictive Mystery About A Woman Whose Stalker Is Trying To Help Her Solve The Mysterious Death Of Her Friend

The gripping thriller The Killing Kind first premiered in England last year, and is now available in the U.S. on Hulu. The six-episode series is a mystery about a defense lawyer who had an affair with a former client. After the affair soured, he stalked her and she spent a year trying to rebuild her life, but one day, he resurfaces, offering to help her solve the mystery of her friend’s death. Told in the present and through flashbacks, the story reveals layer after layer of new information, with twists and surprises throughout.

THE KILLING KIND: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman approaches a man standing in the middle of London. She looks him in the eye and asks, “I have to ask you a question. The fire. Was it you?” She adds, “I rejected you and you wanted to punish me. Did you try to kill me?”

The Gist: Ingrid Lewis (The Witcher‘s Emma Appleton) is a defense lawyer, and the man she was talking to was John Lewis (Colin Morgan), a former client of hers who eventually stalked her. After that scene, we flash forward a year – Ingrid has been trying to move on with her life, but she receives a call from John telling her that she’s in danger. Which is rich, because this is a man that she believes set fire to her house a year earlier.

She hangs up on John, and later, while out at a bar with her friend and mentor Belinda (Sara Powell), she confides that she’s worried about what John wants with her. As Belinda leaves, Ingrid offers to lend Belinda her red umbrella to walk home with, and that night, Belinda is struck and killed by a car. Ingrid, already a little paranoid about John’s warning that she’s in danger, thinks that this was no accident and that she might have been the intended target of the hit-and-run.

We then learn through even more flashbacks from the previous two years that John and Ingrid’s relationship was more complicated than we thought… While it’s suspicious and stalker-y that he always seems to be at the same place as Ingrid at just the right time, he’s also incredibly charming and sexy, and she seems to enjoy his company. Which is a problem, because at that point, Ingrid was engaged to fellow lawyer Marc (Elliot Barnes-Worrell), though their relationship seemed strained thanks to both of their work schedules.

The show makes it clear though that Ingrid and Mark are no longer together in the present day, and Mark moved to Canada for a while to get away (from her, we assume), though he’s back in England now. Ingrid acts cold toward him, though we don’t know exactly what caused this tension. She’s even more bitter toward John, who continues to reach out to her even after Belinda’s death to warn Ingrid that someone is out there following her. (How does he know this? Because he’s been following her, too.) But despite the fact that John’s eventual stalking upended Ingrid’s life, he tells her that he, too, doesn’t believe Belinda’s death was an accident, and he’s conveniently shown up in her life to help Ingrid solve it.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Killing Kind blends the time-jumping storytelling of a victim grappling with her past as in I May Destroy You with the business/pleasure/danger aspects of Netflix’s Bodyguard.

Our Take: As Ingrid, Emma Appleton is transfixing to watch – she’s a serious lawyer who dresses conservatively and looks uptight at first glance, but when she literally lets her hair down, she becomes this cool, sexy woman about town. Though these are purely physical distinctions, the point is that she makes a completely believable transformation from hard-nosed barrister who’s willing to annihilate a witness on the stand or defend a guilty client, into a weak-kneed flirt who ultimately gives in to her indiscretions and screws her former client. Her face conveys the guilt and hesitation she feels as she gives in, but she’s human and can’t help but succumb to John’s charm.

But while Ingrid’s motive is to seek justice for her friend, John’s motive remains unclear at the start. Does he simply want to protect the woman he might still love (even though he’s a stalker)? Or does he mean her harm? It feels creepy to focus in on the fact that these two have good chemistry, because ultimately, he was also her tormentor, and it makes you wonder if we’re all being manipulated by this charming man. It’s just one of the well-laid-out mysteries that this show wants us to unravel, and it does so with skill and an an effective time-jump construct.

Sex and Skin: In flashbacks, we see Ingrid and John’s relationship turning from attorney-client into something more romantic. Despite the fact that they attempt to resist one another, the chemistry between them is pretty ridiculous, and there are a few scenes where they simply touch hands, or John whispers what he’d like to do to Ingrid, that are supercharged with sexual tension.

Parting Shot: John offers Ingrid his help in trying to find out what happened to Belinda. As much as Ingrid wants to avoid ever dealing with him again, a brief memory of the two of them takes hold of her. The look on her face as she sits next to John is that of someone who’s about to say yes to something she should really be saying no to.

Performance Worth Watching: Appleton is a compelling protagonist for all the reasons laid out above: she can come across as cold and stuffy one minute, and sexy and uninhibited the next and she’s believable and nuanced no matter which version of herself she is.

Memorable Dialogue: “I know you’re wary of me,” John tells Ingrid, “but I’m the only other person who believes Belinda’s death wasn’t an accident.” As her stalker, it’s hard to know what to believe, but with these words, John manages to convince Ingrid he’s not a threat to her… for now.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Every episode of The Killing Kind reveals new clues and details that only complicate our relationship to the main characters, but create a truly compelling mystery.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.