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[The Killing] on AMC. The owls are not what they seem.
SammyF
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The Killing is a weekly serialized police procedural which runs Sunday nights on AMC. Based on an original Danish television program, Forbrydelsen ("The Crime"), the American remake is set in Seattle and focuses on the events surrounding the homicide of Rosie Larson, an 18 year old high school senior from a working class family, as well as the larger effect that the crime has had on her family, on the detectives investigating her case, and her community at large. Over the course of the first season, we met some of Rosie's extraordinarily questionable high school friends, explored questions of racial identity in the Pacific Northwest, saw one of the most anticipated land deals in the state of Washington unexpectedly sour, observed the complete emotional decompensation of the victim's parents, learned that an authority figure in the young woman's life may have encouraged her to make some questionable decisions in a casino just outside of local and state jurisdiction, and we still never learned who the fuck killed this girl. Basically, The Killing is this decade's Twin Peaks.
Except, you know, they're a little bit more discerning about what they consider a legitimate investigative technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9kejvxRokgSome fans, who apparently never watched Twin Peaks, were outraged at the end of the show's first season when they discovered that the show didn't conclusively end Rosie Larson's homicide case. Part of me understand where they are coming from, but I also think it's still a pretty awesome show that we should totally be talking about. Unlike some of the better known, widely syndicated procedurals like Law and Order, this series focuses entirely on a single case. Because they don't have to wrap up a single case from beginning to end in the space of 42 minutes, the show can afford to spend a little bit more time exploring both the police work and the characters. I could honestly take or leave the dysfunctional detectives Holden and Linden at times, but every time the show spins back to a vignette about Rosie's parents struggling to cope with the grief of having a child violently taken from them, my heart breaks a little. Most of the time, a homicide victim on a police drama is little more than a self-contained source for forensic evidence and an abstract procedural motive generator. The Killing takes the time to make Rosie Larson so much more through her family members. I really like that. I also like that the show feels comfortable having a female protagonist who isn't meant to be a sex symbol but who also isn't meant to be boring.
Best of all, because the case is almost guaranteed to still be open after the end of any given episode, you can always look forward to coming back to this thread and positing your own theories of the crime as an amateur sleuth. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, CSI!
Season two of The Killing premiered last Sunday on AMC. The entirety of Season 1 is watchable instantly on Netflix.
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Does it have supernatural themes comparable to Twin Peaks?
How about humor?
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
No, it's almost depressing to watch.
I personally felt that it suffered from trying to do too much and lost a lot of time to events and conversations which didn't advance the plot or the characters.
The whole mayor subplot was especially grating and underused.
And of course, the fact that so many fans flew into a tizzy when they realized that they weren't going to have their curiosity satisfied by a neat little conclusion at the end of the first season. That bit was more or less identical.
One thing I've noticed watching the show is that if you want to make a wild guess at who the next prime suspect is going to be with 100% accuracy, always pick the character who has had the most dialogue or face time over the last two episodes for no apparently good reason. The events of the season premier lead me to believe that this pattern will continue to be born out, and the mayor or someone close to him is about to get a solid couple of days at the top of Sarah Linden's shit list.
That makes sense. Sounds like a good premise for a show.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
The season finale didn't bother me as much as others. It just seemed to be yet another red herring reveal.
I'm giving it another chance this season, because of those things I like about it, and the premiere seems like they are building to something bigger.
I think that's generally fair, and if the characters were boring or the setting wasn't interesting, there were a few episodes where I would have been willing to pull the plug. However: there's also frequently a piece of legitimate evidence which turns up during each of the red herring hunts. Linden and Holder conveniently forget about these facts because the show wants us to forget about it, as well, until the point where they're ready to clue us into who did it. But it's still there if you're paying attention.
For instance, in the case of one of our earlier red herrings:
When Ahmed was later cleared as a suspect, the large bottles of ammonium hydroxide in his apartment were no longer consequential to the investigation -- but we still learned something important about both the crime and the killer.
I could be totally wrong, of course. Perhaps these facts will never come up again because they haven't put nearly as much thought into the show as they've let on. But if there's enough interest in the thread, I'd enjoy it if some of us wanted to collaboratively put the objective elements of the crime together and then attempt to solve it before the show solves it for us.
In terms of the first 4 episodes I saw of both, Forbrydelsen is far superior to the remake. Interestingly, in the Danish one the murder is solved, which series 2 involving a separate murder altogether.
- Laura is revealed to have had connections to One-Eyed Jack's, a casino outside US jurisdiction in Canada. Rosie is revealed to have had connections to Wapi Eagle Casino, a casino outside US jurisdiction on Native American land.
- Both investigations have characters named after presidents. (Sheriff Harry S Truman, Lyndon Johnson Rosales)
I totally get why people don't like the show, and I totally understand that the red herring stuff is really implausible, but I still enjoy watching it (and I think it has the best theme sequence I've seen in a long time).
Finally, calling it now, eat-my-wang, etc: Gwen is the killer. My friend that I watch the show with gave me a huge argument about why it has to be her, and I've drank the Kool-Aid.
My initial theory of the crime was the mayor, which is finally coming around, but it's coming around so early in the season that it's undoubtedly wrong and also impossible to square with the same bit of evidence.
I would put that difference up to US television execs wanting their shows to go on forever and ever no matter how much the creators envision an end to their story. See zombie Simpsons.
- The pilot of Twin Peaks ends with a close-up on a photograph of Laura. The pilot of The Killing ends with a close-up on a photograph of Rosie.
- Laura's best friend Donna spends most of her life being overshadowed by Laura, and later ends up with Laura's bad boy boyfriend James. Rosie's best friend Sterling spends most of her life being overshadowed by Rosie, and later ends up with Rosie's bad boy boyfriend Jasper.
- A tape of Laura is an important piece of evidence, and a clue is found in a reflection in Laura's eye. A tape of Rosie is an important piece of evidence, and a clue is found in a reflection on Rosie's bicycle mirror.
- Both girls are strangely childlike for high schoolers, and have strangely childlike rooms.
- Laura's boyfriend Bobby is obnoxious and cheated on her. Rosie's boyfriend Jasper is obnoxious and cheated on her. (My Twin Peaks/The Killing-watching partner said that they were both rich as well, but I don't recall Bobby being rich.)
- Community pillar Benjamin Horne is revealed to have connections to prostitution. Community pillar Darren Richmond is revealed to have connections to prostitution.
- Important clues are found when someone thinks to investigate the after-school meals on wheels program Laura was involved in. Important clues are found when someone thinks to investigate the after-school anti-gang program Rosie was involved in.
- Dale Cooper's deceased wife is revealed to be more important to the plot than thought as time goes on. Darren Richmond's deceased wife is revealed to be more important to the plot than thought as time goes on.
Edit: Speaking of other shows, has anyone else noticed all the BSG alumni showing up? Leoben is Linden's fiance, Rosie's mom is Admiral Cain, Helo is Linden's ex-husband.
Supposedly the 3rd season is going to hit Netflix very soon after it ends as part of their renewal deal, so if you liked the show at all and want to see by far its best work, check it out.
I fear too many people gave up on the show based on AMC's crappy marketing "FIND OUT WHO KILLED ROSIE LARSEN!" every commercial break. It never bothered me, and The Killing has been a must watch every Sunday. The 3rd Season stands on its own, and is everything that is right about good TV. It is a show that is really running on all cylinders in terms of acting, writing, camera work, and pacing. It's just my jam.
The previous weeks' episode "Reckoning" hit me like a ton of bricks and was probably the best hour of TV I've seen in a good while.
On a whim, I checked out the first episode of the new season and I've been hooked.
They still have a final episode to fuck things up, but so far it's been one of my favorite recent shows.
They learned from their mistakes for sure, because s3 is amazing. They hit gold with Bullet as a character, Holder is killing it, and Seward has been a great guest as well.
This is how I felt. I got to the second to last episode of season 1 and one of my friends told me the arc continued to the end of season 2 and I just lost all heart and gave up on the show. It was pretty damn good up until I learned that.