THE KILLING - Season Two [2012]

"Linden, we caught the bad guys."

"Really?  Who's that?"

AMC's under-the-radar crime drama The Killing comes back for a second season of moody lighting, rain, grey area characters, rain, slow-burning suspense, rain, gloomy realistic performances and did I mention rain?

After enraging viewers at the end of the first season by not revealing Rosie Larsen's murderer, showrunner Veena Sud promised that the end of this season would wrap everything up.  Being loosely based upon the Danish series Forbrydelsen and it's three separate narratives, Sud & co. used it only as a inspiration and trailed off into her own direction, making the killer unknown to fans of the original series.  

Just like the first year, season two takes its time unfolding the story and revealing character arcs at a hypnotizing pace that probably won't appeal to folks looking for their "wrapped up in 44 minutes" CSI fix.  The slow-burning reveals are worth it if you're a fan of patient methodical storytelling, as it comes to a powerful conclusion that will rip your heart out, stomp all over it and give it back with the hopes of the wounds making it only more calloused.  There's a few questionable plot threads that threaten to trail off but they all manage to meet up at the end, with the exception of a few character bits that are better left unanswered.  

As much of a critical darling The Killing is, it was never met with much in the way of viewers and was cancelled after this season with the the threat of never releasing it on DVD.   Fortunately loyal fans backlashed and the idiots at AMC opted to renew it for a third season with the promise of the case being wrapped up at the end of the year.  Still, the inevitable DVD release was given a shoddy "manufacture on demand" release exclusive to Amazon.com and that was only after the announcement of a third season.  

It's dark, tragic, honest and beautiful and sometimes that's the comforting place to be.

13 episodes.  44 minutes each.

Buyer's Guide:
Available in DVD box sets only as "manufacture on demand" sets exclusive to Amazon.com.  

4 monarch butterflies out of 5

THE KILLING - Season 1 [2011]

After the tremendous success of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead it was quite apparent that the AMC network was on a winning streak.  Unfortunately with the triumphs of those three shows, a little murder mystery series snuck in through the backdoor and somehow got lost in all the hoopla.

The Killing, inspired by the Danish series Forbrydelsen, is a compelling crime drama that absorbs the viewer's interest into it ever so slowly with it’s moody atmosphere and subdued character arc reveals. 

Developed by former Cold Case writer Verea Sud, The Killing aims to stand apart from the legions and legions of other crime dramas littering the airwaves these days and it does so by leaning closer to a similar storytelling style as Twin Peaks.  Instead of wrapping up the mystery in one episode only to stumble into a whole new one the next week, The Killling follows a single case over the entire season. 

Following the murder of a Seattle high school girl Rosie Larsen, it shows how the case heavily affects three different plot lines and reveals how each character has a secret to hide.  It's absolutely heartbreaking, awkward and disturbing how well it's portrayed by the ensemble cast.

Beautifully shot, with Vancouver, Canada standing in for Seattle, The Killing makes the most of the rain, the clouds and of course: the dark.  With the screen engulfed in shadows and nary a color to brighten things up, with the exception of the dead girl’s clothes and room, it sometimes feels just a little too heavy for the average viewer.

It's slow pacing and story stretched out over the full season requires patience from the viewer and that ultimately killed it's ratings.  Which is a shame, because it's such a brilliantly structured series that never gets overly complicated or silly to ruin the mood.

13 episodes.  55 minutes each.

Episodes to see:

Watch them all.  They’re all part of a complete story that stays solid from start to finish.

Buyer’s Guide:
Available on iTunes & Amazon in Standard & High Defintion editions.
Available on DVD & Blu-ray on March 13, 2012.

4 cigarettes out of 5