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

Should I watch the original or should I wait for the premiere of AMC's version on April 3rd?

I'm on the point of ordering the original on dvd (out April 4) - confirmation I'm doing the right thing greatly appreciated please

Trusted friends tell me it is absolutely amazing and I'm absolutely crazy for not watching it yet. Still, I feel like the nature of the show requires not knowing anything about it (I only know the very basic premise) and so it feels like a one-or-the-other situation.

the premise looks totally uninteresting to me, but AMC has a good enough track record with their shows so far that I'll check it out

I've seen the first few episodes, and will go back to it at some point, but couldn't really commit to watching it over the course of eleven weeks. Would be perfect for DVD though. It's less about plot than atmosphere and performances, from what i have gathered so far, so i'd recommend giving the original a go. It has a slow, subtle sensibility that might not translate well in a remake.

wouldn't order the orig on DVD just yet, isn't it listed at ridic prices everywhere?

Forty quid or thereby on amazon, play etc. Seems reasonable for 20-odd hours if it's as good as the hype says.

i just started the oridge yesterday. by the magic of the internet.

working my way through the original. someone somewhere said they had heard it was a lot like Twin Peaks, which aside from the fact that it's about solving the death of a girl, I didn't get at all.

then i saw this image for the remake:

http://theflickcast.com/wp-content/uploads//amc-the-killing-poster.jpg

Up to episode 6 of forbrydelsen and it's excellent in every way.

Got to episode 14 last night and it just hasn't given up being brilliant. This remake has a very high standard to meet.

What it really reminds me of in a lot of ways is failed ITV soap-drama "Night & Day", but without the shit bits.

NYTimes article

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/arts/television/amc-brings-the-killing-hit-crime-show-in-britain-to-us.html?_r=1

Something of a departure from the original, apparently, with a different ending.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/interview-the-killing-producer-veena-sud

we have a thread on the real thing

only about half an hour into this, and it's pretty close to the original so far so i'm reserving judgment. just had to chime in and say 'UGH THAT MUSIC IS BACK'

I'm on the 5th episode of the original, and I find it boring. It's so slow! For example (rot13): Vg jnf boivbhf sebz yvxr gur 2aq be 3eq rcvfbqr gung gur cbyvgvpvna thl'f nffvfgnag/ybire jnf gur bar yrnxvat vasb naq gelvat gb shpx hc uvf pnzcnvta. Ubj zhpu ybatre orsber gur fubj trgf nebhaq gb npghnyyl fnlvat fb, engure guna pbagvahvat gb syhss hc gur qenzn?

okay, that's awesome and we need to start a rot13 thread like now.

Think the US version might be better than the original tbh. Only 2 eps in though so that's probably premature.

Sofie Gråbøl > Mireille Enos

Dan I –– vfa'g vg zber pbzcyvpngrq guna gung? Rvgure jnl fur jnfa'g gelvat gb shpx hc uvf pnzcnvta.

Trusted friends tell me it is absolutely amazing and I'm absolutely crazy for not watching it yet.

Yes! Definitely. Absolutely amazing show. I will watch the remake too.

A thread for The Killing, aka much-lauded Danish drama "Forbrydelsen" (with spoilers)

Vg jnf boivbhf sebz yvxr gur 2aq be 3eq rcvfbqr gung gur cbyvgvpvna thl'f nffvfgnag/ybire jnf gur bar yrnxvat vasb naq gelvat gb shpx hc uvf pnzcnvta. Ubj zhpu ybatre orsber gur fubj trgf nebhaq gb npghnyyl fnlvat fb, engure guna pbagvahvat gb syhss hc gur qenzn?

SPOILER: he ebat

just had to chime in and say 'UGH THAT MUSIC IS BACK'

― Gukbe, Monday, April 4, 2011 1:51 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

never seen the original but god theyre laying drama on thick

not sure this show is for me

my gf was really, really into the first two episodes from sunday, but man to me this just mostly seems like a histrionic 12 hour long episode of SVU or something so i'll probably get out after a couple more episodes unless it finds a way to hook me.

watch the original

i saw a few scenes of the remake and it just felt pointless

ok moving over here so as not to get mixed up with the original

so are we talking about US Killing on this thread? cause it's awesome.

― Mordy, Monday, April 18, 2011 2:09 PM

yeah it's really good
something is up with the aunt imo - the one who's always at the larsen's house
also the other detective, he's a former gang member isn't he? is he moonlighting as a private investigator on the side?

― daria g, Monday, April 18, 2011 2:12 PM

i haven't seen the most recent episode, but i wanted to say that the video game scenes are pretty chilling. i don't know what game he's playing (or if it's a real game -- it looks like something like Modern Warfare 2 or Black Ops or whatever) but it's very violent in a very restrained, chilling way. the kid isn't playing video games like i play them and i wonder if this kind of digital representation of violence is one of the things the series is planning on examining. (i assume by how subtle everything else has been, they aren't gonna be like: video games make killers.) maybe more about how inured you can become to violence.

well, i noticed that the kid himself was violent - sterling was afraid of him, in the 1st or 2nd episode, and that was before his father smacked him.
also the union guys are mobbed up, at least some of them? and larsen is a made man of sorts, or was.
and the little guy who's the professional political operative must have noticed that the councilwoman endorsed richmond, and thus knows that she likely took him up on what seemed to me to be a basically highly unethical/illegal quid pro quo (hiring certain plumbing companies for the new development)
and the fiance of the lead detective.. guy is a jerk, she won't marry him will she? i don't get it - it's like the moment she tells him she's under a lot of pressure and such, he's all like ME ME ME. ugh.

SPOILERS about RED RIDING TRILOGY are included below

i really want to like the killing, but it is so relentlessly dreary, and not in the 'charged atmosphere' way it seems to want. it is just ugly: the people are ugly, the story is ugly, the sets are ugly, the costumes and music are ugly, the connivances are ugly. and for goodness sake, why can't they shoot /something/ on a sunny day? every damn thing about this show is sad-making. i mean i get that it's a tragedy and the girl is dead, but there's nothing enlightening about watching 3 minute scene in which a father tells a little kid his sister was murdered. that's not entertainment, it's like penance by televisual means. it /does/ seem like a long episode of SVU, and the 'bad' stuff the kids do (play video games? smoke cigarettes? skateboard? have sex?) are straight out of '90s PSAs. If this ends up being about an underground sex ring or whatever like it was in red riding trilogy i am gonna be like 'fuck you, lame tv' and post about it here. but i will give it one more episode because ooh ooh ooh the only black character being a paedo actually pissed me off, and i want to see if it's just a red herring or if the producers have some cryptic racially offensive agenda.

COMING UP ON TEENAGERS ARE BAD: bunch of adolescents spray-paint something, break a piece of glass with a brick, and swear at each other. for an encore, they will use some recreational drugs and listen to loud music with references to death. parents will be offended, but reminded of their own misspent youths.

I'm 90% sure this show is red herring central, so I'm guessing a lot of the Teenagers are Bad stuff + the teacher are throwaway plot devices. Agreed that much of the 11 O'Clock News style "Are your tweens sexting???" fear mongering is laid on pretty thick.

i like a lot of stuff abt this show but its spending too much time w/ the campaign imo sorta deflates the whole story

t is just ugly: the people are ugly, the story is ugly, the sets are ugly, the costumes and music are ugly, the connivances are ugly.

http://www.nonpopulist.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Mireille-Enos-The-Killing-AMC-1-268x400.jpg

no.

Gotta admit, tho - My thoughts on this show have basically traveled along the following line: watched pilot double ep and was like "here is a nice murder mystery to wrap your head around" > realized that said mystery would take three months to unfold & until the final third would be likely filled w/ cheap red herrings, regardless of the quality of production, writing, acting etc. > discovered I could download the Danish original w/ english subs, which was supposed to be some great thing anyway, according to the britishers > watched Forbrydelsen, loved it > kinda finding it hard to get psyched about this at all anymore.

First 4 episodes of this have been pretty awes imo

realized that said mystery would take three months to unfold & until the final third would be likely filled w/ cheap red herrings, regardless of the quality of production, writing, acting etc.

I should clarify that this is an observation based on what I perceived to be the general nature of the show at the outset, and not anything inferred from subsequent watching of the original series

problem is not so much that the show lacks in any fundamental way, just that the original is one of the high benchmarks of TV drama - all time, like.

best comparison I can think of is the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

i mean thats cool & all but its not even in english so...

Really don't get the love for the Danish original. Sarah Lund was amazing, but aside from that...

really like this so far -- thought based on the premise it would feel "slow" but so far it feels like lots of stuff is happening in every episode and i'm never bored or not having to pay attention to keep up.

the whole 'a remake is necessary b/c lol fat stupid american's can't be asked to watch the foreign language version like i already did' is kinda an easy line. transplanting and retelling a story is ... as old as stories, and can bring a lot of life and new audience to a good tale. unsure if i believe this is a good tale yet.

and for goodness sake, why can't they shoot /something/ on a sunny day?

doesn't this take place in seattle?

yeah. which, i assume, they chose because it allows them to wallow in gloominess.

I noticed that they always crank up the sound of the rain falling when they cut to the politician's office.

I'm enjoying this but the rain thing bugs me. I'm pretty sure it does not rain that hard all the time in Seattle. It rains a lot but not the downpours that you see on the show. It seems like every episode has one or two scenes that take place in the middle of a downpour.

I feel you, but at the same time I don't begrudge The Wire or Homicide for choosing not to shoot much in the parts of Baltimore that have a lot of trees and greenery. It's OK to play up the location's inherent atmosphere.

but the timeline of the events in the show is a matter of days, so it's probably just one weather pattern so far w/r/t the constant rain?

i like this a lot. it didn't seem like there was any particular attempt to make the teenagers' behavior seem shocking or all that unusual.

weirdly the thing i thought did PNW weather really well was twilight.

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

at all.

Didn't read anything about a stay of execution.

i watched seasons 1 and 2 over the winter. not great, some real low points, but not the worst most vile show ever like the internet would have u believe... the season 2 finale directed by patty jenkins had some great moments

It is the type of series I will watch even though I know it ain't much cop. The discerning fucker that I am.

the guy who plays holder is really compelling, amazing that a swedish guy could master the white rapper accent so well

His father is american, so he had a bit of a head start. But yeah he is pretty good.

i think the same people who hated the divergent low points in seasons 1 and 2 are the same sorts of people who couldn't stand that laura palmer's killer wasn't revealed at the end of season 1

watched the second hour. great set up so far, hope it follows through. last scene was fucking haunting.

i actually just finished the second series of the danish show, which was great. is the us show worth catching up with as well, or is it basically the same plot-wise?

I'm not sure. I think it's worth watching but people felt like it took too long and had too many red herrings. the plot resolution was really good though, just not sure if it was the same one

and I don't think season 3 is based at all on the danish series other seasons, or at least it doesn't sound like it

Is there any point whatsoever to someone who really enjoyed the original watching the US version?

so i binged on the first season of this the past week and really enjoyed it. then i watched the first episode of the second season *MINOR SPOILER I GUESS* and was pretty put off by the conspiracy direction it seems to be taking. am i in for an entire season of confusing political intrigue?

RIP The Killing, someone pls export Joel Kinnaman's character to a better show immediately.

man i hate this chick's face

also i don't understand the sound production, it seems like everyone is super close miked or like they voiceovered it after shooting or something. for added presence and INTENSITY

"Six Minutes" is better than this show deserved. Season 3 is solid so far though.

binge-watched all of season 1 and half of season 2 while I was sick last week...though tbf I had to have a break a few times and watch some gilmore girls or veronica mars or lame tv just to wash all the gloom off, watching all those eps in a row the rain reaaaaally started to get to me

I really hate Mitch Larsen's character, but Commander Kane's was v good to make her such a punchable character. Love Brendan Sexton III, though he did p good as Belko (no-one ever explained what his actual name is did they? for half the show I thought his name was Balko like the cartoon dog)

Love Kinnaman. The way he's so chill and the way he talks reminds me so much of a friend of mine. "In the bloodsport of life, I am your sensei" <3 <3

I think that quote from the producer upthread about the red herrings is pretty key. It's really not meant to play out like a normal join the dots procedural. I liked that it was a lot more human in the way some things just seem important but it turns out they're not, mistakes happen idk I dug that. and the family stuff was p good too, I thought.

oh and I dug the Twin Peaksian vibe of it. cold and weird and slightly surreal.

Liked the way it resolved s2. Now I need to wait for S3 to be free on Amazon so I can binge that.

The Larsen family, as individuals, various subsets, and the whole chain, kept me watching Seasons 1 and 2, bravo. I didn't feel motivated to follow Season 3 so closely, though the street kids were good, whenever they did get some screen time. The ending was written so it could well be considered *the* end, but still with some room for further speculation, and fan fiction, of course---also, if somehow the show got uncancelled yet again--well, the writers set themselves up for quite a challenge. And now
http://lostremote.com/back-from-the-dead-netflix-begins-instagram-promotion-for-season-4-of-the-killing_b42027

Yeah, Belko was good too, that miserable little bastard.

I cruised through season 2 mostly on inertia and fondness for these actors tbh, but Season 3 is actually factually excellent.

season 3 episode 9 (dir. Jonathan Demme) just made me cry, amazing and could be watched independently of the rest of the show w/o too much confusion.

is season 3 a new mystery?

i need to see s3, totally forgot about it!

Yeah, S3 is a new mystery. Thought it was significantly better than the first two seasons but it still had issues. Final season trailer just popped up.

Wow, Demme.

Basically all that carries over from 1 and 2 is the accrued characterizations and personal histories of the cops.

also s3 is largely about homeless teens, a milieu for which I am a total sucker

just started s3

this show made me realize how much i love inscrutability in characters

it should be a keyword search in netflix

also all this rain & bad weather is good for helping me forget that it's hot as balls here in sactown

Sometimes I like to imagine how bad Holder's hoodie stinks.

How to you take it Linden???

http://plannedbanter.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/mireille-enos-on-the-killing.jpg

The new season, which I would assume is definitely the last, is decent enough. It's up on Netflix now.

Totally off-topic but I couldn't find a general new series related thread. There is an Italian 12 episode spin-off series of the movie Gomorrah out there, so far I could only find a version with Finnish subs. Looks very promising.

Season 3 was so good, I'm p psyched for the new concluding batch

ust finished this final season. Pretty predictable/safe.

Finished last night. Carl and I were discussing the ending, and she thinks that the implication was that Holder and Linden were going to become romantically involved. I guess, maybe? But I took it just to mean that they were going to become best friends again and hang out more. If I recall, neither of them had any romantic feelings for each other through the course of the series, so for it to pop up right at the end would be weird.

Overall, I loved this. It's not the greatest series ever, but the tone and mood of it were very appealing to me.

Series 4 not on series 3's level but really good. I took the ending as relationship romantic but it's cool that it's interpretable the other way.

I'm gonna miss seeing mirielle enos' face making crazy expressions of consternation and suppressed anger.

I remember thinking the final episode was particularly well-directed, then realized its director was Jonathan Demme!

Fashionably late as always, we just blasted through this whole thing in a couple weeks and finished last night. The further I get from it, the more I feel like this was a lot of good acting and directing in the service of total garbage. The killer reveal at the end of season two was frustratingly stupid and out of left field in the same way as that goddamn first season of Broadchurch (well, we've evoked and ruled out plausible suspect after plausible suspect until just about every credited actor has been exonerated soooo...I guess the guilty party is whoever's left? even if it makes no real sense?). And then the reveal at the end of the third season....hoo boy. I actually called the penultimate suspect very early on as a total goof because there was no reason to suspect him until there was. But the person who actually did it? The first thing that popped into my mind was Merv Griffin being revealed as the serial killer at the end of The Man With Two Brains. 'I've always just loved to kill. I really enjoyed it.' That was roughly the level of depth and rationale that we got.

In all, though, I thought those first three seasons were v. good with the character development even if the whodunnit shtick was completely cockeyed. So leave it to the fourth season to completely spoil the aspect that actually worked. I was not a fan of that final moment of season three (although I'm sure it felt very thematically satisfying for whichever writer came up with the idea), but Linden and Holder's response to that event over the course of the final season was completely ludicrous. I was just like, do you seriously actually want me to come to hate these characters in their final hours? What is that? The very very ending was fine but felt kinda unearned.

Wasn't this thing feted when it was new? Maybe there's a reason I haven't heard a peep about it in the intervening years. At any rate, still thought pretty much all of the central performers were great and I want to see them in other, better things.