A Man. And His Blog.

Barely one show can hold its promise after a great pilot. In the case of THE KILLING, the second episode was a bit weaker, which was to be expected, but now I can be sure that THE KILLING will be my new favorite series over the next months. Despite the cutback of some of the atmosphere (though the rain is still helping to keep it alive), I absolutely dig the emotional level of the series, and the acting couldn’t be more stellar in the first two episodes – though I still have some problems with Stephen (Joel Kinnaman).

While the pilot was basically fast-paced in its story, though it told it in a slow way, the second episode was like a usual MAD MEN or RUBICON episode: slow, not telling much about the story. But this is a series about characters and their emotional state of mind, which is why it can decide to bring the crime plot behind the character plots, and focus more on how Sarah (Mireille Enos) is putting her mind deeper into the case, and how Rosie’s parents are trying to get over the murder of their daughter, and live up to the parents of their two little sons. I loved the scene on the beach, when Stan (Brent Sexton) was explaining his sons that Rosie is in heaven, while one of the kids was already realizing all of it beforehand. And even though I was a bit annoyed by the kids in the pilot, even compared to them with Kendra’s life-sucking kids in GLEE (Kendra is Terri’s sister, the kids were seen in “Showmance”), I really hope that THE KILLING will deliver some nice and promising stories for the kids. It would really serve the series well, when even the little ones can show their drama skills. Or otherwise it would be really boring to see them all the time and not seeing what they fell.

The investigation part was alright. The writers didn’t give much information, except Rosie still being alive, when the car sunk in the lake, and the titular cage, but I don’t know what the new evidence at the end has to do with the case. For me, it just looked like a place of partying, and the hand prints looked like done with red color. No blood, not really a crime scene in my eyes. But I liked the scene, where Stephen was getting the information about the cage from the two girls. First I thought it would be the awkward scene to show that Stephen is more than just Sarah’s partner in the case (remembering his tattoo scene), but it didn’t take long, until the scene was predictable and Stephen was just out for information. But it showed how far he could go to get answers, and I’m intrigued, if he would go even farther.

Richmond’s (Bill Campbell) storyline is just a bit weak at the moment. It doesn’t feel like it belongs in the series, and I’m kinda bored. Of course he was about to release a press statement against Sarah’s wishes, and of course he seems to be very disturbed, when it comes to using Rosie’s murder in his campaign. Hopefully this story gets a bit more steam in the future. At the moment, it’s the weakest part of the series.

All in all: I love this show. I love it already so much, I have already the first two episodes of the original on my hard drive, ready to be watched. And maybe I should watch both shows simultaneously, or one of the two shows, if not both, lose the thrill of the story at the same time – if the US writers decide to go for a 1:1 remake of the original. 8/10

For the parents, a world just collapsed

Sarah has to make a decision now

Since I don’t really watch international TV shows, I don’t know the original. But I still expected a lot from AMC’s remake of FORBRYDELSEN. A show about the killing of a young girl, told day by day, focusing on not just the investigation, but the melodrama as well? And then on AMC? This could only mean that THE KILLING will rule television for the next 12 weeks. And the pilot showed me the reasons of why I expected much of it: The storytelling was perfect. The melodrama was perfect. How the main story arc was build upon his grabbing cliffhanger was perfect. Almost anything was perfect.

I was expecting it, but at the end I couldn’t believe that the character work was closing to be the best I’ve seen in pilot episode for a while. Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos, perfect casting), despite her sometimes unbelievable experience in her job, has enough depth and seriousness to be believable in what she does. Her partner Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) on the other hand is missing some crucial character moments, as well as reasons why I should believe he is going to be Sarah’s investigating partner for the remainder of the season. But the obvious shot of his neck tattoo seems to be an important one. If it wouldn’t be for preparing more storylines around possible suspects, and therefore the preparation of Stephen being a suspect in the future, then I don’t know what the shot was for. Even Rosie’s parents Mitch (Michelle Forbes) and Stan (Brent Sexton) got a lot of moments, even though they are just supporting characters for now. And despite the rather awkward moment, when Stan was on the island, looking for his daughter and going berserk on Rosie’s probably-boyfriend, he and Mitch completely sucked me into the atmospheric melodrama, when Rosie’s body was discovered at the end of the episode. With Stan breaking down in front of the detectives and Mich breaking down at home on the phone, I was about to shed some tears. It was the perfect ending for the episode, though it would have been even more great, when the pilot ended with the shot on Rosie’s picture in her room, instead of delivering the first real suspect with Richmond (Bill Campbell, does this guy get any older?).

The storytelling was great. I was expecting a slow-paced start, similar to RUBICON last year, but in comparison to the thrilling drama, THE KILLING almost went through its story in the pilot in high-speed. Rosie (Katie Findlay) disappears, characters ask themselves where she is, Sarah realizes that there is more behind the case, and when the episode ended after 45 minutes, it already established four suspects (the father, the boyfriend, the detective (though completely indirectly), the councilman), the death of Rosie, and a lot of potential character drama, starting with Sarah staying in Seattle, as well as Rosie’s family, mostly her father, likely exercising self-justice during the next couple of episodes. And I don’t even see it as a problem in storytelling, just because Rosie’s body was found at the end of the episode, though the title of the series is already telling everybody she’s dead. It gave the episode enough time to establish the characters and their emotions, before their worlds are rocked with the discovery of the body, and it even had some additional time for including some backstories. Though here I don’t know what Sterling (Kacey Rohl) has to do with the case (the mystery part of the series at the moment). Her scene with her “friends” in the backstreets was awkward, and I absolutely don’t know what it had to do with the story. Either it was a waste of time, a scene to introduce Sterling as an important character, or it was a preview of things to come. In this case, the episode didn’t make it clear, therefore the question mark above my head.

Apart from the Sterling matter, I’ve had another problem with Sarah’s “intelligence” in her job. During the first half, there was no case, there was no body. I didn’t understand how Sarah saw a sexual assault in the disappearance of Rosie, or even possible murder. I didn’t understand, why she was biting her teeth in the case, when her plane to California was waiting. On an authentic note, I just couldn’t buy that Sarah saw more in this “nothingness” than anything else. Especially near the end, when the detectives were about to find the car in the lake. These scenes established Sarah as a really intelligent character, who doesn’t let go of the case. So I hope those characteristics will stay for the rest of the season. And I especially hope that the writing cliché of the lead detective’s kid being kidnapped sooner or later (the Kim Bauer syndrome) won’t be coming alive in this series.

The first 45 minutes of THE KILLING worked for me on an emotional base. I could feel with the characters, though their feelings weren’t shown very often. I find the story to be interesting, despite some holes in the development (notably Richmond’s part in the events), but it still doesn’t stop me to give high praises and points for the pilot. From a writer’s point of view, the seemingly slow start proved to be fast storytelling, which was more than surprising, and the ending just surprised me on an emotional level. Top-notch pilot. 9.5/10

Playing a little game with evidence

Mitch is going to be hit with very bad news