it & Miss is a 2012 TV drama that aired on Sky Atlantic in the UK and DirecTV's Audience Network in the USA. The story opens with a dark hooded figure sitting in a car at the top of a parking structure. A man walks up a ramp then head to his car. The hooded person exits the car and begins pursuit. The man sees him and starts to run; dark figure draws a gun equipped with a silencer and shoots him, walks over to the man on the ground, pumps a few more bullets into him then returns to his own car, pulls down the hood and reveals the face of a beautiful woman, her name is Mia, (Chloe Sevigny). She’s a contract killer for the Manchester mob.
When Mia arrives home to clean up after the hit. She removes her clothes to take a shower. She turns and in a full-frontal nude scene we see that Mia has a penis; she is in fact a transsexual. Later she meets up with Eddie (Peter Wight), her boss, who debriefs her on the hit. At the end of the meeting Eddie hands Mia a letter that came for her. She opens it and receives some shocking news. When she was a man she fathered a son, Ryan (Jorden Bennie), with her ex-girlfriend, Wendy (Rosina Carbone), who is dying from cancer. Mia is named by the mother as guardian of the boy and his siblings who live in a farmhouse in rural Yorkshire.
Mia is shocked; she panics; she says there is no way she’s going to go; she wants nothing to do with them; then her heart softens. In the next scene Mia is driving on a rural road; she’s going to see Wendy and the kids. When she arrives, Wendy has already passed. She meets the kids who are struggling without their mother. The oldest girl, Riley (Karla Crome), has taken on responsibility of running the family but she’s a 16-year-old girl and still a child herself. She’s very hostile toward Mia even before she learns of Mia’s gender history. All she wants is for Mia sign papers granting her legal custody but Mia is not so inclined. She decides to stick around awhile to see how they’re getting along which is not very well.
Mia has lived a very solitary existence. She lives in a loft where she has her own private gym. She spends much of her time working out, reading and watching TV. She goes to bars but she’s very guarded. She straight but fears getting intimate with a man lest her secret is revealed.
This is a very brave television series. The nudity, several times we see Mia naked, penis and all. For me the first time was a shock. Those first scenes defined who Mia was at the beginning of the film; the remainder is about who she becomes. How can one be an assassin and the mom to 5 children?
I loved this series. Mia is a very conflicted character trying to balance two very different lives. She fell in love with the children and life in the country. She even found a boyfriend. Unfortunately, being a mob assassin isn’t a career you can just walk away from. If you leave, it will be in a box. The conflicting lives began their clash on her very next hit. She goes to Eddie’s office for her next assignment. He describes her next mark and suggests at home would be the best place to kill him.
“Are their children involved?” she asks.
“That’s never bothered you before; is this going to be a problem for you?”
Everything isn’t going well in Yorkshire either. She’s overcome Riley’s hostility (she hid her hormone pills from her once) only to have trouble with their lecherous and violent landlord. These two worlds are destined to collide and when the do she sees how her presence has effected the children. Eddie is drawn into the country world while the kids are drawn into his and hers. How will this play out?
The series does away with the trope of the crazy transsexual murderer. Mia is nothing like the Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs or Bobbi in 1980’s Dressed to Kill or Frank Rodrigues/Tomboy in Re(assignment). She’s not crazy murder or forced into a sex change. Killing is what she does for a living; it’s her job. At the beginning of the story she’s an isolated and cold blooded killer while her marks aren’t exactly boy scouts either. During the series, we see Mia change into a strong mother who will do This is a British production so you can be sure the actors are very good, including the smaller children. The lone American in the production is anything to protect her kids.
The production is very good; Manchester is gritty while the Yorkshire countryside is lovely. The cinematography is excellent as are the sets. The interiors are lighted and the farm location are consistent with what you would expect of a struggling farm.
This is a British production and the actors are of the best quality, including the small children. All the characters are believable as is the premise of the story. Chloe Sevigny, the lone American in the cast, once again is excellent as Mia. In an interview, she said the first time she put on the prosthetic penis she wept thinking about how difficult it must be for trans people to have their bodies out of sync with their identities.
I spent the day binge watching the series, then a second time at a more leisurely pace Watch this series; I was profoundly moved by the story and I hope you will be too.
Some in the trans community may object to Sevigny cast in the transgender role. The role of Mia was difficult and called for a supremely talented actor; one of Chloe Sevigny caliber.
