What would you do if your entirely fabulous but normal colleague was actually an assassin?
Debbie Claybourne (Octavia Spencer) is a sweet, if not overworked, wife of a British politician on his way to becoming Prime Minister. She runs the house, she runs his life and she essentially does his job for him. But her life falls apart when he asks for a divorce on the way to another charity gala. If she thought her day was going badly, it gets worse when she finds out David has business dealings with people you really don’t want to owe money to.
And then you have Judith Burton (Hannah Waddingham), who we meet on a ski trip mission to assassinate another unsavory character. Known in the field as Whiptail (named after a venomous lizard that can reproduce without males), she is an experienced and savvy killer. But, to Debbie, her friend of almost two decades, is a forensic accountant who loves wine, book clubs and antiques shopping.
She might look impressive, but Judith’s professional life is in peril as her handler threatens to put her in retirement. About to turn 50- well, her fake documents cite her as that age but she denies it, she has been declared WOACA (Woman Of A Certain Age). Not even assassins are safe from age discrimination in the workplace. Judith, of course, refuses to be put out to pasture, but her stubbornness may upset the dangerous higher-ups within her mysterious organisation.
When a hit goes wrong, and Debbie accidentally enters Judith’s life as an international assassin, she now must complete the job and protect her best friend. A chain of events soon leads to Debbie having to go undercover and the two-road trip across Europe. Now, a former MP’s wife and antiques enthusiast is against law enforcement, highly trained assassins, and some very dangerous criminals.
Ride or Die is funny, but it’s not a joke
Ride or Die might have you fooled into thinking it’s a silly throwaway TV show. And while it is a comedy, it treats its leads and women with the respect they deserve. The show makes fun of a lot of things, but it uses its middle-aged leads as a power, never the butt of the joke.
In fact, Ride or Die is a better action-spy TV show than many of its more serious alternatives. The tone is reminiscent of the Kingsman franchise, it’s light-hearted and plays up to certain jokes, but at its heart it’s an enjoyable spy adventure. This isn’t another throwaway streaming original that focuses more on one-liners and repetitive exposition than crafting a funny, smart adventure. This is a well-written spy thriller with relatable characters, thrilling action sequences and a plot that just happens to have two older female leads and some big laughs.
Ride or Die also does world-building better than most. In just a few episodes, you get a real understanding of who both of the lead women are and the worlds they inhabit. Creating this groundwork early means the audience can really care about what happens to Judith and Debbie.
In the first episode, we are introduced to this underground world of assassins in London. We have a meek out-of-his-depth handler, Sam (Calam Lynch), weapons and fake paperwork suppliers Queenie (Savannah Steyn) and Mrs Williams (Cathy Tyson) and mysterious The Director (Bill Nighy). There are also numerous underground operatives at work here, including the charming likely lad, Billy (Ed Skrein). You’re thrown into a world that already feels fleshed out and fully realized.
Through smartly placed flashbacks, we get Judith and Debbie’s story fleshed out. We see how they met, how Judith became a spy, how American Debbie ended up in the UK. They are peppered throughout the episode, rather than in long prequel episodes that halt the flow of the show. These snippets are just long enough to help you understand the characters without dragging down momentum.
A Spy Story Of Female Empowerment
If this were another male-led spy show, it perhaps wouldn’t have the same charm. Ride or Die’s charm is in the fact that it has two of your not-the-standard action protagonists. These are women you’d find at book clubs and spa weekends battling the Albanian mafia, but never judge a book by its cover. We might not be spies, but we are women who have been discarded at work because of our gender and age, have been frustrated with doing everything for ungrateful spouses and have been overlooked purely for being women.
It’s not just Debbie and Judith who are brilliant women. The entire show celebrates girlhood in its weird, complicated glory. In one episode, Judith and Debbie find themselves trying to hunt down the bad guy without any of her agency’s help. Stuck in a youth hostel, their roommates, all of whom are teenage girls, instantly use social media and influencers to hunt down the man. It’s brilliant and a terrifyingly accurate representation of how nothing can be hidden when women come together and use their detective skills.
Written by comedian Tessa Coates, Ride or Die is the rare type of show that gets women. It understands how they work, how they age, how they form friendships with other women. This is a fantastic representation of female friendship and their stubbornness when told no.
As soon as you see the way these powerful, brilliant women are overlooked, you’ll immediately root for them. Coates has managed to sneak a lot of women’s issues into a really fun show about spies.
Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer Are Here To Charm
Ride or Die seems a pretty contrived and cringe-worthy concept, but this show is far better than it has any right to be. This is largely because of the lead performances from Waddingham and Spencer. Sure, they are great actresses in both drama and comedy, but they bring a natural charm to proceedings that drama schools just can’t teach.
Waddingham is tasked with some pretty impressive physical set pieces, and here, she handles them like a pro. Not only is she charming, funny and a fantastic flirt, she is a believable killer. Frankly, Waddingham is effortlessly cool as the contract killer who loves nothing more than an antique cabinet.
It’s not just separately you’ll believe their performances, together there is a natural chemistry that makes it appear like they have been best friends for 20 years. You’ll fall in love with these women and desperately want to be their friend.
But, it’s not just Waddingham and Spencer who make this show. The whole cast are totally committed to the bit. There may be laughs galore, and it may play with your expectations of the genre, but this is much smarter and heartfelt than meets the eye.
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