Eve: Review: Series 2 Episode 1: Do Not Build Them

New dangers await Eve and her friends, with a group wanting to outlaw artificial intelligence starting to gain ground…

The new season of Eve starts properly with this episode (after the fun Christmas Carol riff), with Jane Asher’s Mary showing that she’s lost none of her ability to plot villainously (and just who is she talking to, hidden behind the frosted glass?) and then what seems to be a low-rent take on The Terminator promising a time-travel element to the show… But all is not quite what it appears to be, and the low-rent take is meant to look cheap! It’s one of the many little twists that co-creator Emma Reeves throws into the script, as fresh problems are set up for the group of friends to overcome.

Michael Wildman’s anti-AI lord gets quite an over the top introduction, which contrasts nicely with the more restrained way in which the Calimov plotline plays out. It’s good to see the manipulative side of Rhona Croker’s character emphasised, and there’s a surprise return as well that I hope is setting up a subplot for the series.

But as ever the show revolves around Poppy Lee Friar’s Eve, and she’s showing an increased strength to the character – as Eve points out, she wants to be free… and you have to wonder exactly how much she wants to be free of, and whether her friends are going to get hurt along the way.

Verdict: Plenty of threads are established to ensure that this new series of Eve is going to take the show into fresh areas. 8/10

Paul Simpson