A thread for AMC's The Killing, a remake of much-lauded Danish drama "Forbrydelsen"

i dunno if there's any way to communicate this without SPOILERZ or if it matters, but what part of the last 5 minutes is the dramatic change from the original?

SPOILERZZZ

no assassination attempt and the partner isn't setting up the politician.

END SPOILERZZZ

hah the follow-up article is equally as idiotic!

yeah that was an amazingly pathetic ass-covering attempt

NYT's TV coverage continues to be terrible. I guess they're too busy doing real reporting or some b.s.

I just read both NYT pieces. Ginia Bellefante should write for that show -- she has as much a grasp of logic and plotting as the current writers:

"And Richmond seems to have had many female companions in addition to his girlfriend, all of whom look like his ex-wife"

Gwen looks nothing like his dead wife and she was not an ex-wife. They were still married when she was killed.

not to mention that saying belko couldn't have lashed out to attack an innocent man because they'd already done that once... because you know, we haven't established that belko is crazy and does not follow normal person logic at ALL and the show NEVER deploys the same plot points twice!

That Myles McNutt piece linked upthread is a good read on why people are actually angry about The Killing. You can go to pretty much any network and watch a show as bad as The Killing, but AMC has worked so hard on their brand perception that you wouldn't expect to see a show of this quality aired there.

I mean I am one of the maybe five people who watched and enjoyed Rubicon and, for all of its faults, I even liked The Walking Dead and will watch it next season, but I think this may have been too much.

Both this show and Walking Dead are wasting a lot of really good performances on terrible scripts and scenarios, and a lot of nice visuals. It's infuriating.

i dunno about Walking Dead... can't say i thought much of the cast, or that it wasn't dumber than The Killing

I liked the cast a lot! I would almost tune in for Michael Rooker alone.

Walking Dead's aspirations to transcend its genre are much smaller than The Killing's. That and The Killing couldn't even adequately perform its genre requirements.

Funny thing about The Walking Dead is if Darabont had hewed more closely to the comic it could have been better. Bringing in new characters who really serve no purpose (Michael Rooker's character), going in different directions than the source material, but then again it's Darabont so what do you expect?

nothing in The Killing finale pissed me off more than the bad CGI 'splosion end of The Walking Dead

Walking Dead was an A+ pilot followed by several episodes of water-treading, tho mad-scientist episode was pretty ridic. Still, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt for a full season.

but then again it's Darabont so what do you expect?

Shawshank is overrated, but still good & The Mist is also flawed, but the things it gets right it does very, very well.

AMC seems produce better series when they stick to original content imo.

man this show turned into such garbage

The way Linden flipped from "stay away from my son or I will have you arrested" to "sure, hang out with your dad as much as you want" was almost as jarring as anything else was.

I haven't really harped on the political angle in this show because I really went to town on it in the Big Love thread, but if the writers had watched Season 3/4 of The Wire rather than L&O: SVU, they would have taken away a lot more about city politics and elections.

i'm not so sure the show's flaws can be easily chalked to too much network procedural not enough highbrow cable drama

Michelle Forbes' acting did a good job of masking the fact that Mitch Larsen is the worst person who ever lived.

i thought she was terrible!

I mean I am one of the maybe five people who watched and enjoyed Rubicon and, for all of its faults, I even liked The Walking Dead and will watch it next season, but I think this may have been too much.

i liked rubicon a lot, although i thought it was terribly slow. this is not nearly as good as rubicon, but i'll still take it over things like harry's law and outsourced that show up on network tv.

xpost Not necessarily one type of drama over the other, but just to have an understanding of the day to day in politics and be able to write about it. For example, one of the truest scenes I seen wrt to politics is when Carcetti is dialing for dollars. Fundraisers really make candidates sit in windowless rooms and eyeball the phone to make sure the candidate is on the line. A true scene is not, "Oh we're two weeks away from the election, better start working on that newspaper endorsement."

I know that's asking a lot for this show.

Sud Speaks

"I'm flattered," says Sud, "and I guess surprised a little bit. But certainly it's a good feeling to know people are watching and talking about the show. I mean, the last time I felt this personally myself, and saw this type of reaction, was when The Sopranos ended its run [with a shockingly abrupt, ambiguous, mostly despised 2007 finale]. If the show can be in that company, it's a deep compliment."
"The fact that people love us or hate us is a beautiful thing. I don't want to be kinda liked. The fact that someone loves my show or hates my show is great." Sud isn't a big Internet reader, but heard that one thread suggests The Killing is gaining more fans than it's losing from the Season 1 finale.

Sud suggests that those who object to the show's red herrings (like the finale's last-minute revelations that a crucial bit of evidence may be fake, a good guy a bad guy and the bad guy actually innocent) may be looking for an old-fashioned procedural, which The Killing emphatically and radically isn't. "They're complaining that there are too many red herrings?" Sud says. "Well, there's two ways to look at it. Either it's a left brain journey where you're just connecting the dots of who the suspects are or it's more of a holistic journey where a young girl is murdered these are the potential suspects and this is why."

Starts in the UK on thursday (21:00 ch4 115min)

Watching the second episode of this remake and, while it's pretty good, I can't imagine anyone who heard me raving about the excellence of the original series sitting down to this and thinking "Oh wow" or even "I'd like to see the Danish version", which is a real shame.

Avoiding most of this thread for fear of spoilers. I have a cold this weekend and started watching this last night. Just finished episode 4, holy crap at this show's long game. Gonna try to watch the rest of the season today (I get to do that-- I have a cold!)

I haven't lived in Seattle since 1996... what part of town is 'the end of the line' where Linden's partner finds the hoops office?

Little Vancouver iirc

this is up on netflix, should i bother watching it or is it shitty?

it's ok but it's annoying at times.

it's awful imo. I quit halfway through.

lols and spoilers to be had in this NYT article

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/magazine/veena-sud-the-killing-comeback.html?pagewanted=all

“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.”

“This will be the last review I write of ‘The Killing,’ because this will be the last time I watch ‘The Killing.’ ”

“I no longer counsel patience with ‘The Killing’! You may unlock the toolshed and get the pitchforks!”

And those are the professionals. The amateurs were somewhat less kind.

feel like the second season is more taut and more driven than the first season was; at least the opener had about 100 times more things happen in it than last year.

did you guys know that mireille enos is married to alan ruck? this is my new favorite celebrity couple.

i'm not crazy about this show but my wife is really into it and i have to admit i want to see what happens next

Best line last episode:

Linden (viewing email on computer monitor): "I can't download the attachment."
Police Tech on phone: "Click on the 'download attachment' button."
Screen pans to monitor showing email with a big 'Download Attachment' button.

did you guys know that mireille enos is married to alan ruck? this is my new favorite celebrity couple.

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, April 10, 2012 5:17 PM (Yesterday) Bookmar

i know right! like just knowing that makes me smile. i wish them well, including better TV shows than they've been in so far.

what drives me crazy about this show is that all the characters on it are belligerent jerks to everyone around them, nearly all of the time. even when there's no reason to be & no motivation for it, they're just rude.

is Linden this unsympathetic in the Danish version? I don't know how she still has that kid.

Something about the flat affectless look her face takes on when she's angry just really irritates me.

Don't worry, I wasn't thinking about it all week.

So that happened.

I thought the second season of this was much, much tighter than the second-half of the first season where it really felt like it was floundering. a very strong finish also.

the only lingering thing is: isn't Stan going to, like, go to prison for beating the teacher half to death?

When things actually pulled together with a single conspiracy and some genuine stakes, yeah. It was decent. I thought the ending was a bit overmuch manipulative though...

no doubt this would have been more successful and more taut as a longer single series. a lot of the filler red-herring misdirections from season 1 just seem pointless in the end.

the ending: her film? it was but it was also kind of touching. I liked that we finally got to see this girl in the final episode.

not just the film, but the last twist. "i didn't know it was her." felt gratuitous, like something you can get away with at the end of an L&O episode, but not a whole two seasons of a show.

i liked it but i like cheap shit like that.

when richmond had jackson and ames over I thought for sure they were going to arrest them as accessories or for obstructing justice but no, he was fulfiling the slimy deal jamie set up. I liked that too.

RIP

No third season then?

I liked season 1 of this more than most ppl and was into season 2 til I got tired of trying to find valid DL links with episode 4. Hopefully it'll go up on netflix like s1 did.

i don't see how they could have done a third season really.

but it still doesn't mean rubicon is ever coming back :-(

So I had no idea this was coming back until the other day. Decent first hour (didn't watch the second yet); hopeful they can restart this and don't slip down the useless pathways that mucked up the last season (although I was fine with the end of season 2).

Wasn't expecting this a