Created by Paul Abbott (Shameless), Sky Atlantic’s first original drama series Hit & Miss stars Chloë Sevigny as Mia – a contract killer with a big secret: she’s a transgender woman.
Train. Kill. Receive payment. Repeat. This has been the routine for Mia ever since she was taken under the wing of Eddie, a long-standing resident of the criminal underworld, and transformed into a sharp-shooting assassin. Fate, however, ensures things don’t stay the same for long, and the arrival of a bombshell-laden letter from her ex, Wendy, changes Mia’s life forever.
Episode 1
Tuesday 22nd May 2012, 10pm
The series premiere sees Mia’s world transformed. The professional ‘cleaner’ is left reeling, not only from the tragic news that her former has cancer but that they have a child together, an 11-year-old son named Ryan (Jorden Bennie). Travelling to a tiny village in West Yorkshire to meet the youngster, she then stumbles upon the rest of the brood – Riley (Karla Crome), 16, Levi (Reece Noi), 15, and little Leonie (Roma Christensen), 6 – and discovers that Wendy has died, entrusting her as the children’s legal guardian.
The family aren’t the most welcoming and immediately use their prejudices as a weapon to belittle Mia and, believing that they can survive on their own, they hide her hormone tablets as a way to maintain control. Mocking her femininity, they assert that she can never be a real dad to Ryan, and Mia’s struggle to be a parent is only heightened when she gets on the wrong side of her landlord, John (Vincent Regan).
She is stunned by her changing attitude as she questions the morality of her first job since becoming a parent but finds that her profession provides an unexpected way for her to connect with Ryan. A brutal display towards John of her physical strength, though, shows that once Mia has a target, she never misses.
Episode 2
Tuesday 29th May 2012, 10pm
The professional killer has just been handed her biggest job yet: parenthood. The death of her former lover has left four children in her care, but ridicule and abuse greeted her as she entered the unfamiliar environment. And things don’t look set to improve in this second instalment.
With the house up for sale and the loss of their mother still painfully raw for Riley, Levi, Ryan and Leonie, Mia is the recipient of their frustration and rage. At breaking point, she sinks into a state of despair and momentarily seeks out her former solitary lifestyle.
But never one to be beaten by a challenge, Mia returns to the family and endeavours to embrace domesticity. And when the children begin to show a degree of tolerance towards her, the prospects of this household look relatively bright. However, with a shifty, unnerving adversary watching them from afar and something evidently wrong with Riley, happy families look unlikely to be on the cards.
Episode 3
Tuesday 5th June 2012, 10pm
With the house still on the market and the security of a roof over her brood’s head hanging in the balance, Mia resorts to deadly persuasive measures to ‘convince’ John to sell it to her. Riley also confronts the ignorant brute of a landlord, but with a dilemma of her own.
Meanwhile, Mia’s love-life takes a promising step forward. But when a hit goes disastrously awry and her clandestine career is at risk of being exposed, it seems she is heading towards ruination. Trained to defend herself and escape suspicion, can she uphold her game when at her weakest?
Plus, Eddie encroaches further into life at Small Holdings and creates a mixed impression, and the stranger lingering in the fields ventures closer to its unaware inhabitants.
Episode 4
Tuesday 12th June 2012, 10pm
The trials of parenthood become increasingly testing for Mia as she struggles to prevent her career encroaching on her private life. With Eddie’s watchful eye scrutinising her every move and a gun found in the house, can she prevent Small Holdings from becoming a breeding ground for disaster?
Returning to the field, Mia is on top of her game. Unaware of their destination, the children are taken out on a job, but when they return home to a terrifying situation, she is confronted with the increasing conflict between her two roles. Matters are further complicated when Riley unburdens the secret of her pregnancy to Mia, but refrains from revealing that John is the father.
Confident they can raise the baby together, Mia endeavours to support the teenager. But with John having different intentions and aware that Mia knows, both become the objects of his volatile temper and coercive intimidation. Meanwhile, obstacles in Mia and Ben’s relationship test their commitment, and the sinister figure who has been watching from afar is revealed to be not such an outsider after all.
Episode 5
Tuesday 19th June 2012, 10pm
Mia is no stranger to bloodshed, but returning home to see Riley wielding a gun, and a dead body on her bedroom floor, was a sight she was unprepared for. Her professional instincts kick in, triggering a routine-like response and she deals with the situation swiftly. But the necessity of keeping the tormented teen quiet and composed is not a skill Mia is trained in.
Assisted by Eddie, she disposes of the body, but as he becomes closer to Levi, she is unsure whether to regard him as a friend or foe. Her opinion undetermined, she is nevertheless indebted to him and agrees to execute a hit that will test her
abilities to the fullest.
Meanwhile, Ben struggles with his conflicting feelings for Mia. Stunned that she is Ryan’s biological father but unable to keep his distance, will his confusion lead him away from or closer to Small Holdings? And as the family embrace Uncle Liam and the news of Riley’s baby, there may be a glimmer of hope for the brood. Although with John’s eerie presence lingering over them, the landlord still has the potential to wreak havoc.
Episode 6
Tuesday 26th June 2012, 10pm
A trip to the funfair is an emotional roller coaster. Having grown up in the area, Mia is reacquainted with some familiar faces, but the reunions aren’t happy ones when people realise who she used to be. Disappearing that night without a trace, the family at Small Holdings assume the worst.
Searching for her, they go to Eddie. His patience exhausted and anxiety palpable, the concern for his business prevails over personal sentiments. He’s set Mia a job that his life depends on and she must complete it, wherever she might be. Meanwhile, Riley teeters on the edge, unable to hold herself together after John’s death. An unlikely knight in shining armour is watching her back, but when the police arrive to question her, it seems nothing can save her.
Desperate for his father’s return, the relationship that has blossomed between Ryan and Mia is shown in full bloom, but theirs is not the only love story with the potential to flourish. Having looked every test and trial dead in the eyes, the events of this series finale will throw Mia into the one situation she has done everything to prevent.
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