TV REVIEW: 'THE KILLING'

Recreating a Worthwhile Crime Drama with Talented Actors on AMC

By: M.C. Wood

August 18, 2011

(AMC) The excellent AMC show, The Killing, has pretty much everything I love in a story: a sustained mystery (more than an entire season’s worth), patiently layered and textured character development that largely dovetails with pivotal plot points, excellent performances, an angst-driven atmosphere permeated with melancholy and punctuated by relentlessly dreary weather, and a persistent sense that things just are not going to end well.  What’s not to love?

Well, it’s true that The Killing is not perfect.  There are some irksome story glitches here and there — annoying mainly because the rest of the show is so well-done that the malfunctions (couple of missteps in plotting sometimes make supposedly competent characters appear inept) are glaringly obvious.  (I won’t mention the details, lest you are one of those who hasn’t watched the show and needs to make up your own mind about things.)  Nevertheless, if you enjoy a really well-acted and richly textured mystery, you need to see this show.  The payoffs are worth the investment.

If you are not conversant with the series, don’t worry.  You can get all caught up on season one in time for the premiere episode of season two.  (I couldn’t find out when the second season begins, but I expect it’s not until sometime in September or October of this year.)  Here’s the basic premise: on the day Seattle homicide detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is set to move with her young son to Sonoma, California to start a new life with her fiancé, Rick Felder (Callum Keith Rennie), she is asked to check out a possible missing person case.  Rosie Larsen hasn’t come home, and soon enough we learn she never will.  In short order, Detective Linden becomes caught between an emerging obsession over the Larsen case and her purported commitment to her fiancé.  Added to the mix is the new detective who’s set to take over the case.  Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) has just been promoted from undercover narcotics work to homicide, but his time in narco may have affected him more than his temporary partner would like.  Let’s just say that he doesn’t present himself particularly well, and the open animosity Linden displays toward him sets up some terrific character dynamics.

As the first season moves forward, the number of suspects increases.  Even after someone is effectively eliminated as a suspect, new doubts emerge as we learn more about the characters’ intersecting lives, including our fair murder victim and quite a few of those suspects.  At the end of each episode, you’re caught between the frustration of being left to dangle at the edge of a really good cliffhanger and relief that the mystery isn’t over just yet.

The show owes much of its success to a combination of elements.  There is the show’s creator and head writer, Veena Sud (based on the successful Danish series, Forbrydelsen), who has focused just as much on plotting a mystery as on weaving characters’ personalities, beliefs, skills, and so forth into the developing storyline.  In addition, there’s the structure of the show.  Instead of stand-alone stories in which a mystery is solved, each episode and the personalities of the characters are largely ancillary to the plots. The Killing invites the viewer into a sustained investigation of a single crime.  Structuring the show this way allows for all sorts of inquiries that stop at a dead end or yield clues that deepen the mystery.  Moreover, it allows for the complexity of the characters to emerge rather naturally in connection with the story’s development.  This is particularly intriguing to those of us who are interested in the sorts of moral and epistemological (having to do with the nature and extent of knowledge) issues raised by a show that takes the time to let the plot unfold and characters reveal themselves.  The sound and cinematography are also exceptionally good at contributing to the overall quality of the atmosphere and are even sometimes inextricable from the story itself.

Hats off, of course, go to the ensemble cast, headed by Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman.  Individually, these two actors are extraordinary.  As a duo, they create one of the most intriguing relationships on television.  Enos’ Sarah Linden is, from all outward appearances, cold, hard, and reserved.  She is a male noir character trapped in an ethereal beauty.  Little by little, we learn about what has made her the way she is, and Enos never gives away more than we need to know at a given time, either in her physical or verbal portrayal of this deeply conflicted woman.  It’s like developing a relationship in real life.  Most of us, like Linden, do not bare our innermost selves in the first few minutes of conversation, so why would a character with her personality be any different?

Then there is Joel Kinnaman’s Stephen Holder.  Kinnaman is brilliant.  Seriously.  This is not hyperbole.  Everything about what Kinnaman does as Stephen Holder — from the greasy hair and patchy facial hair to the shuffling gait and slouchy posture, to the mumbling speech patterns and almost teenager-like inflections in all of his dialogue — leaves us utterly baffled yet inexorably intrigued.  He alternately generates the sort of heartbreaking charm that makes you want to adopt him and help him start over, and the sort of roiling malevolence that lurks just beneath the surface of a seemingly innocuous stare.  It is truly a consistently remarkable performance.

When the two get together, we find ourselves in something of a bind.  There are reasons to root for the star, Linden.  She’s the anchor of the series.  Because of her complex character, however, we are not always so fond of what she says or does.  This, combined with Holder’s often boyish sweetness, makes us wish she’d give poor Stephen a chance.  The moment she does, of course, we the audience are punished for our emotional largesse.  Enos and Kinnaman navigate these subtly sophisticated waters with masterful technical skill and raw talent.  They’re a joy to watch together.

Season 2 of 'The Killing' will be airing on AMC in the fall.