Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as Jackie Price in Kill Jackie, an AMC+ crime thriller where assassins hunt the woman who hunts them. The show is based on The Price You Pay, a 2018 novel by Nick Harkaway written under a pseudonym. Jackie sells paintings to the rich for a living, but the real thrill comes from surviving the people who want her dead.
The premise is simple. Jackie returns to London from her base in Bilbao, Spain, and narrowly avoids an assassination attempt. She assumes it is an old debt catching up, a payment overdue after 20 years. Instead, she finds herself the target of a group of assassins, and decides to play along. She wants excitement, and she gets it.
Jackie’s Opening Move
The show opens with Jackie in an elevator, dumping a bowl of Bomb Pops onto the floor. She addresses herself in the mirror. “You again.”
Her voiceover explains that she is only in the international art market for the money. Dealing paintings to the rich is lucrative, but it is not thrilling. She once sold cocaine, and she admits it to her assistant Charlie, played by Hattie Hook. That work was exciting, until it became dangerous.
Jackie is amused by the destruction around her. As assassins chase her, she runs alongside Charlie and a fish-out-of-water lawyer named Sam, played by Daniel Ings. The question is not survival — Jackie’s gleam suggests she has that sorted. The question is how exactly, how excitingly, she will do it.
The Seven Demons
Kill Jackie borrows heavily from its source material, a novel by Nick Harkaway. The show is built around Zeta-Jones, her Welsh lilt, and her rendering of Jackie as someone amused by the chaos all around her. The assassins pursuing her are not the High Table. They are the Seven Demons, and they take themselves far too seriously.
Decider’s review describes the series as a comic book, and that comparison holds. Gatling guns appear in apartment walls. Everyone in Jackie’s life is assumed to be on the take. The world is ostensibly real, but it has no recognizable functions. Violence is outlandish, with zero accountability. Another round of assassins arrives, and the review expects them to be no match for Jackie’s wits and savvy.
The review’s final image is a double-spread page where the tables are turned. That moment, the review promises, is where the story ends. Considering Kill Jackie with any more seriousness would be a mistake.
The Supporting Cast
Daniel Ings plays Sam, the lawyer who joins Jackie and Charlie on the run. The review calls his performance worth watching, noting that Ings steals every scene he enters. His manic, I-don’t-know-what-is-happening energy is the injection this series needs.
Charlie, played by Hattie Hook, is Jackie’s faithful assistant. The review does not describe her role beyond that title, but she is part of the trio chasing the assassins.
The Review’s Own Take
The review frames Kill Jackie as a shallow cartoon comic of a series. It is a gender-switched version of Harkaway’s novel, and it plays that switch straight. Jackie is a woman amused by her own destruction, and the show leans into that.
The review’s tone is playful throughout. It treats the show as a guilty pleasure, a shallow cartoon comic worth watching anyway. The performance worth watching is Ings, whose manic energy is the injection this series needs.
What It Reminds Us Of
CZJ returns to TV with Kill Jackie, but she has been here before. Most recently, she played Morticia in Wednesday.
The review compares Kill Jackie to a comic book, and it argues that the show should be treated that way. Let the series reveal gatling guns in apartment walls, assume everyone in Jackie’s life is on the take, and let the violence be outlandish with zero accountability.
The Parting Shot
Jackie’s ruminations about her jet-setter life being a bore are silenced when she is targeted for violence. She grins at the destruction. “I get to do me again…”
The review ends with a conditional recommendation. Kill Jackie gets a conditional STREAM IT. The show is a shallow cartoon comic, but it features an engaging Catherine Zeta-Jones and some supporting cast hijinks. How long we stay with it is another matter.
The review is written by Johnny Loftus, a Chicago-based writer with a history in the alternative weekly trenches. His work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
Why We Recommend It
The review’s recommendation is conditional, but the reasoning is clear. Kill Jackie is a cartoon comic, and it revels in its absurdity. The show asks to be judged on those terms.
The review’s final image is a double-spread page where the tables are turned. That moment, the review promises, is where the story ends. Considering Kill Jackie with any more seriousness would be a mistake.
The review’s own assessment is that the show is a shallow cartoon comic. It is a gender-switched rendition of The Price You Pay, built around Zeta-Jones and her rendering of Jackie as someone amused by the destruction all around her. The assassins pursue her, and she becomes the hunted.
The review recommends Kill Jackie, but with a caveat. The show is a shallow cartoon comic, but it features an engaging Catherine Zeta-Jones and some supporting cast hijinks. How long we stay with it is another matter.
That is the full picture. The review is a recommendation, but it is a qualified one. The show is a cartoon comic, and it should be treated as one.
Key Facts
- Title: Kill Jackie
- Platform: AMC+
- Episodes: Eight
- Lead: Catherine Zeta-Jones as Jackie Price
- Supporting cast: Daniel Ings as Sam, Hattie Hook as Charlie
- Source material: The Price You Pay, a 2018 novel by Nick Harkaway
- Assassin group: The Seven Demons, not the High Table
Comparison of Kill Jackie to Its Source
| Element | Kill Jackie | The Price You Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Lead character | Jackie Price | Original male lead |
| Lead actress | Catherine Zeta-Jones | Not specified |
| Assassin group | The Seven Demons | The High Table |
| Setting | London / Bilbao, Spain | Not specified |
| Genre tone | Shallow cartoon comic | Novel by Nick Harkaway |
| Central conflict | Assassins hunting Jackie | Unspecified |
The review’s recommendation is conditional, but the reasoning is clear. Kill Jackie is a cartoon comic, and it revels in its absurdity. The show asks to be judged on those terms. The review’s final image is a double-spread page where the tables are turned. That moment, the review promises, is where the story ends. Considering Kill Jackie with any more seriousness would be a mistake.
Source material: “Stream It or Skip It: ‘Kill Jackie’ on AMC+, Where a Charming Catherine Zeta-Jones Hunts The Assassins Hunting Her,” Decider.
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