A Man. And His Blog.

While watching AMC’s THE KILLING, I decided to watch FORBRYDELSEN parallel to the remake for two reasons. First: It is always good to get into some international, non-english television shows, and this one seems perfect, because of my love for THE KILLING. Second: I’m watching it parallel to not lose any thrill of both shows. Even though I expect they will depart somewhat in the middle of the season, I don’t want THE KILLING to steal any thrill from FORBRYDELSEN, and I don’t really want to see in FORBRYDELSEN, what THE KILLING might have in petto. And if you should wonder what I’m writing about now (after all, if I watch two very similar shows parallel, one show ultimately loses the thrill thanks to the other show/episode I just watched before), believe me, it works for me.

I didn’t have much difficulties not to compare this pilot with the AMC remake. I was lucky to see that this pilot had more to offer (it is 8 minutes longer than the AMC pilot) and even went further into its character work than I would have expected. It prepared more than THE KILLING, and it went quite a different way on a subconscious level – and unfortunately didn’t ride the emotional level as much as THE KILLING did. Which is why, compared to THE KILLING, I found this pilot a bit weaker, but at the end more promising, because of one thing.

Which would be the events surrounding to-be mayor Troels Hartmann (Lars Mikkelsen). What THE KILLING failed to do in its first two episodes, FORBRYDELSEN made clear in 53 minutes, where they want to go with this character. They didn’t just include a competing storyline with the current mayor Poul Bremer (Bent Mejding), the episode built more on his secrets involving his two women. I could almost believe that FORBRYDELSEN is including another side plot to the side plot, therefore having the opportunity to fill the 20-episode strong season. Because I believe it is much easier to tell a crime show in 13 episodes, like THE KILLING, as in 20 episodes, like FORBRYDELSEN, without including or cutting off any kind of storylines. So, I’m already kinda happy that this series is attempting to include all stories the writers want to tell here.

The only problem I’ve had with it: It didn’t work for me on an emotional level, and I’m certain to say it is not because I saw THE KILLING hours ago. During the first half of the episode I noticed I was liking the score, but during the second half I noticed it was mostly missing. The episode didn’t take any chances to make the ending dramatic as it should be – instead the last minutes felt too linear, too straight forward, as if the drama had to be cut out to make it not feel like such a downer. The scene where Sarah (Sofie Gråbøl) and Jan (Søren Malling) were opening the trunk for example: We didn’t even get to see the actual body, instead just the legs and some more flashes of Nanna during the last seconds. And when Theis (Bjarne Henriksen) was arriving at the police scene, he was believing too fast for me that his daughter was the reason why the police was there.

At the end I liked this pilot, but found THE KILLING to be better on some levels. Even more, I have some difficulties to remember the names, since they are Danish, and I have difficulties to get the show in its completion, when I don’t know the character’s names – there is always something, which looks like as if the writers don’t really care about dialogue scenes between the characters (like the little talk between Sarah and Jan, when they first meet in her/his old/new office), and instead go full into the crime mystery. There is the reason, why I remember the talk in the office and not other dialogue scenes, which were probably character developing. 7.5/10

A goodbye present for Sarah, sponsored by her colleagues

It's the beginning of an end for every person involved