justjasper:

(this article isn’t new, but I just saw the trailer for this show)

Sky Atlantic HD today announces further casting on the channel’s first original drama commission, HIT AND MISS, created by Paul Abbott.

This follows the announcement that Academy Award® nominee and Golden Globe® winner Chloë Sevigny will play the lead role of Mia, a contract killer with a big secret: she’s a transgender woman. 

Eddie, Mia’s handler and a well-known name in the criminal underworld, will be played by Peter Wight who has appeared in films including Another Year, Babel, Hot Fuzz and Mike Leigh’s Naked. Eddie took Mia under his wing and trained her into a first class assassin using his Chinese restaurant as a legit front for his illegal affairs. 

Mia’s life is sent into a tailspin when she receives a letter from her ex, Wendy, who reveals that she’s dying from cancer and that Mia had fathered a son, 11-year-old Ryan, who will be played by newcomer Jorden Bennie. Travelling to a tiny village in West Yorkshire to see the boy, Mia then discovers the rest of Wendy’s brood: 16-year-old Riley, played by Karla Crome (Doctors, Casualty), 15 year old Levi, played by Reece Noi (Silk, Waterloo Road) and 6-year-old Leonie, played by newcomer Roma Christensen. 

Jonas Armstrong (Robin Hood, The Street) has been cast as landscape gardener Ben, who lives in the village and falls for Mia, unaware of her transgendered status. 

Vincent Regan (300, Clash of The Titans) will play John, a farmer who owns the smallholding where the Mia and the family live. He considers himself a hard man and is disliked in the village. He lives with his wife Penny (Erin Shanagher, Coronation Street) and son Aaron (Jordan Hill, Shameless) but constantly cheats on his spouse.

HIT AND MISS will also star Ethan Griffin (Marchlands) as Andy, Steve Money (EastEnders) as Wayne and Ben Crompton (Going Postal) as Liam.

HIT AND MISS is about family, sexual identity and the highs and lows of being a parent. It follows Mia’s attempts to mix her killer instincts with her new maternal ones and her search for identity. Having a lethal killer at the heart of a troubled family will dramatically change all of their lives forever. 

Creator Paul Abbott is a multi-award winning writer and producer responsible for some of the most diverse and genre-defining dramas to appear on British television, from Shameless to conspiracy thriller State of Play. HIT AND MISS is written by film writer Sean Conway (Brilliant Love, Kings Of London), who combines a dark and compelling narrative with moments of joy, humour and beauty.

I’m probably going to watch this when it starts (if I can find it since I don’t get the channel), I hope it doesn’t fuck up the portrayal of a trans woman. I don’t think they’re off to a great start conflating sexual identity and gender identity.