A party at wealthy outcast pupil Shabnam’s parents’ house gets predictably out of hand as Marcus continues to agonise over his first kill and gets increasingly annoyed listening to Willy brag about it. Chico proves a point to Maria.

If episode 1 felt a bit frantic as it breathlessly tried to get all the main characters introduced, the core premise established and throw in the odd twist, episode 2 feels almost leisurely and more than a little indulgent once it has got its set piece action bit out of the way early on. The only thing that starts to feel more inevitable than another edgy remark from one of these killer kids is the impending discovery by Master Lin of Willy’s secret – that he wasn’t the one who made the kill he’s claiming.

That’s part of the issue with this premise – at base level there is very little new ground to cover with the genre, and so it leans in heavily to the cliché where it has to and tries to be as shocking as possible. The pacing as a result here feels sluggish, and the show itself tonally all over the place as Marcus occasionally grumpily monologues to the audience in-between arguing with his fellow pupils in the inevitable carnage of a house party at the rich kids’ house while the parents are away. Lex gurns and struts about the place like a discount Johnny Rotten, Billy awkwardly tries to talk to the girl he likes, Viktor gets naked and barrels around the place like a bull in a china shop and the whole place gets trashed. After a while, you start to wonder exactly what the point of it all is, as it feels like altogether too much setup for the eventual payoff of a heart to heart between Marcus and Willy where the latter tells Marcus and the audience his true story and the reason why he can’t pull a trigger. There’s echoes of Kill Bill in the way in which these flashbacks are being told, though whether that’s a good or bad (or intentional) thing is difficult to tell at this stage.

There’s also some nice stuff between Master Lin and Marcus, if you can really call any interaction between a master assassin and the brutalised young man he’s taken it upon himself to take in hand and turn into a killer nice. However, as much as Benedict Wong sells it hard with his performance, even his screen presence and undoubted charisma can’t quite push the leaden dialogue threaded with the sort of cod philosophy you might expect from a fortune cookie written by a particularly depressed goth teen to write.

As for Chico – yeah, he’s still an asshole. The script tries for a second to throw you off a little, making him almost seem like maybe he’s a misunderstood guy under all that swagger and macho nonsense and then in a moment that’s banished and we are back to ‘Why is Maria with this guy again, being as how she is also a pupil at the school where they train you to kill those who deserve it?’

So, it’s a weird one. There are some decent scenes, quite a lot of filler, and a general feeling that most of this could have been achieved a lot more quickly, with a lot less flab. The end sting at least promises a bit of progress in the narrative, but I could have happily skipped most of this instalment.

Verdict: Weirdly all over the place after a confident opening episode. Hopefully not a sign of things to come. 6/10

Greg D. Smith