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Arts & Entertainment, Film & TV

So Far, AMC’s The Killing Only Slays Good TV

3 Comments

AMC’s new drama, The Killing, based on Danish series Forbrydelsen (The Crime) about a murdered teen and the ensuing criminal investigation, premiered with a two-hour episode last night, and so far, I am Not Impressed. Because of the network’s track record, I will give every original series on AMC a fair shake, but not every show is Mad Men (this means you, Rubicon). In fact, because of the high bar set by the rest of their shows, you go into a new AMC series with certain expectations of quality. But so far, The Killing is decidedly meh. Let’s take a look at some of the new show’s issues:

  • Stilted exposition up the wazoo, even for a first episode. “Oh, hello, [Character Name]. How is it going with your [obstacle]? Now please hint at your SECRET.” As it is, everything is way too obvious. Example: you know the rat-faced creepazoid detective is going to turn out to be a decent guy and a valuable asset after all.
  • Also obvious: character “quirks,” like the lady cop is always chewing gum!
  • Too many characters already (and, as mentioned above, every character has his/her secret). How’s about just introducing a few characters and then introducing more, as the investigation expands and more suspects are considered? That would be a little more organic.
  • And it’s easy to make the Twin Peaks comparison, so there’s no need for the show’s marketing to do so as well. Tagline “Who Killed Rosie Larsen?” is just plain lazy.
  • What was up with the Montauk monster in the very first scene? Wrong coast. I’m guessing it’s an overloaded allegory, which makes it even worse.
  • Now here’s something they got right: Aggressively unattractive people dressed sloppily is so very Seattle. Also if you’re going to transplant a show from Scandinavia, the next best thing is Ballard. Good gloomy atmospherics for a murder, plus it’s nice and Nordy!

So far, the best part of the show is Shots of Seattle, the game in which you try to determine where exactly a scene was filmed. (And then, umm, take a shot if you’re right? Or would that be take a shot if you’re wrong? I’m making this up as I go.) Though the majority of the production took place in Vancouver (of course), just under a week of The Killing was filmed locally, and I actually thought the editing did a good job of blending the local shots with the Canadian ones. Last night’s episode featured Gas Works Park, Discovery Park, the Larsen family living somewhere under the Ballard Bridge, just a hint of Pioneer Square, and way too many aerial views of the Space Needle.

I’ll give it one more chance with next week’s episode, but if you’re looking for can’t-miss-caliber drama, the new season of Breaking Bad starts in July, so AMC is rerunning the entire series thus far beginning this Wednesday. And if you missed last night’s premiere of The Killing, it’s available for streaming on AMC’s website.

3 thoughts on “So Far, AMC’s The Killing Only Slays Good TV”

  1. I was less disappointed in it than you (but my expectations were lower), though part of my enjoyment was just amusement at how hard they’d worked to make the Seattleites look as plain, pale, and unfashionable as possible. I’m sure that some of these actors are much more attractive in real life (via sunlight); so the degree to which they’ve been transformed is admirable. It was as if they really want us to believe that they’ve directly imported a foreign drama.

    The contrast between the Poors and the rich broody Mercer Island kid was also pretty hilarious. They are really doing their finest to make Rosie’s family look like a parody of “working class”, complete with non-standard regional dialect, living under a bridge, and explaining the death of a sister like its sending a family pet to go spend the rest of its days romping around a mythical farm (except this time, it’s flying kits in heaven with grandma!).

  2. I live in Seattle and have never seen anyone dressed that horribly, so there’s another thing you can chalk up to the show just being plain bad. You try standing in the rain every other day and see how pretty your outfit looks. Even then, we don’t look as badly styled as this actress. Another thing that annoys me about this show is the grammar. I haven’t even heard the homeless people here speak like that.

    Her gum chewing was the final straw on this show for me.

  3. Danish forebearers? No wonder it’s so unrelentingly glum. The look-and-feel of the show is identical to those god-awful Wallender dramatizations by BBC. Yuck.

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