The Killing on AMC HD - Page 11

She really does not have that much to be proud about, other than maybe good audience shares. 90% of the series is copied from the original, 8% is a reshuffling of whatever they did not copy verbatim and 2% is new. They went as far as picking up an idea from the second season of Forbrydelsen (this may go in a different direction, I'll grant them that), but still, too much copy and paste on a different place. I knew they had a lot to cover in one episode in order to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, but still expected an ending. The cliffhanger was just dumb.

From the above post, they are also suggesting that they will solve this case on the next season and leave the next case hanging. Brilliant!!

I am not against cross-season cliffhangers per se. When done well, they leave the audience impatient for the next installment rather than frustrated.True Blood and the BBC Being Human are good examples of this. In both cases, cliffhangers are mostly suspenseful introductions of a new story line, with most past issues addressed.

So I won't spoil Forbrydelsen 1 nor 2 for those who would like to give them a try. (Looking forward to series 3, now being aired in Denmark). Shows like this are worth the expense of a cheap second hand Oppo SD player.

No, this is all BS. NOTHING indicated that Holder had any reason to do it other than the usual trite case of needing money. This was a cheap, ugly plot twist at the end when most everyone was expecting some sort of payoff to this season. And we didn't get it.

AMC, if you're reading this - we're not the average audience, you know that. We are willing to think about the shows we watch, and we expect you to provide shows worthy of that thought. I was willing to overlook the endless rain, the meandering storylines, and the Linden boyfriend waste of time because the wife and I enjoyed the increasingly good interplay between Linden and Holder. But then, in the end, you lost that respect for us and insulted your audience.

I'm willing to give you a pass here, AMC, but don't do this again. Ever.

The meetings in the town car were with his AA/NA sponsor.

I didn't think Season 3 was going to air until 2012, are you sure it's showing in Denmark now? I read that it is in production, but that it wouldn't be aired until late 2012(I assume September or later)

So much for the Agatha Christie wannabe multi-protagonist 1st season .. it ends with a thud, IMO ..

A clean ending and a new case next season would have been so much more satisfying .. set up for next season I suppose is ..

Mireille Enos (Sarah Linden) .. steps off the plane with her young son, in the pouring rain with a look of grim determination on her face ..

Don't get me wrong, I like the show .. and there is some Emmy talk ..

I don't think Joel Kinnaman was "ruined" .. he's still a sensitive creep ..

You are right. I keep mixing up 2011 with 2012!

Looks like my favorite moment from Forbrydelsen 1 will happen in The Killing 2. It has to do with Sarah's travel arrangement...

No the conclusion that they sponsored a poll for on the website.

I'm not falling in so quickly with the fact that Holder is in on anything dirty yet. There's a lot of ways to follow up on what that final scene of him showed. Everything leading up to that point suggests that he was playing the case straight. Maybe he ends up being duped, congressman gets shot, he has to live with the consequences.

I don't get it. If the US version is remake of the Danish one, wouldn't the identity of the killer be a given, whether it was revealed or not? Yet Sud claims they decided to see where the storyline took them, in effect making it up as they go along. Wouldn't the ending already be set? Or is she referring to how they get there?

I feel sure they are listening ..

I think Sud was talking about how the Danish show was done. By choosing to continue the story next year, the producers of the American version have given themselves all the time in the world to finish copying what they have not copied so far. In fact, there were hints of this in the last episode. There is already one significant difference in who is (or is not) being shot and whether this character will survive if he was hurt at all. But they can still choose to reproduce the yet untold story that -in the original- justified why Nanna (Rosie) went where she went, with the terrible consequence (the telling of these events has also been foreshadowed). This would introduce new characters, but if they are taking the story to a new season, they could possibly wind up matching the original's 20-episode sequence.

I still think that someone at AMC is saying: "Anyone connected with this show who dares to think one original thought will be fired on the spot!"

It appears that they are using the Danish series as "inspiration" rather than simply remaking it. I don't think they're slavishly following the original scripts - but they may be inheriting stuff that isn't relevant to the US remake?

The Danish series was 20 episodes - of around 55 minute duration I think. The US series has been 13 episodes (and presumably shorter in duration as they're a US commercial hour - which is around 43 minutes?) - so they've had less time to get through the storyline. Sounds like they're maybe spreading the first Danish series across a series and a bit of the US version?

No. from what have read about the AMC version is that it's not an identical re-make, the killer in the AMC version is not the same as the original. I think that's causing the writing staff some problems as the branching from the original has produced some rather odd plotlines and it simply isn't jelling together as a whole. After the first several episodes aired I figured they were moving it along quickly as they had less than half the time as the original to tell the story, which was fine. But then they started to go off on tangents, with some rather strange moves with some of the characters, and then that final episode. Trying to alter parts of the original story to produce a different outcome has not worked out so well in my opinion.

Regarding those hints, I see what you're saying, but as you note, it would mean introducing even more characters, and probably even more bizarre plot contrivances to link everything together.

To me, it all goes to the construction of the story as a whole, they simply have not done a good job of it here.

OK, thanks guys. At any rate, I'm going to start watching the original today. If the killer is different, so much the better. But at this point I don't really care.

BTW, a somewhat kinder, gentler take by the LA Times critic here.

The Danish version revealed the killer in Episode 20. The U.S. version on AMC only had 13 episodes so far. Perhaps the killer will be revealed by Episode 20 in the U.S. version as well. In addition, once you consider episode lengths, the Danish Season 1 was 1100 minutes long versus a paltry 585 minutes for the U.S. series. About half.

Such negativity of course with more time they might have been able to flesh out the story more and have an ending that worked for more people.

You mean like having Brent Sexton's character stand/sit around moping like pretending he has the brains to think.

We could also have Michelle Forbes mope/bitch at everyone some more.

Had the characters aside from the two detectives been interesting, I wouldn't have disliked the show, but they weren't interesting. Not even a little. My guess is 500 more minutes of those characters and it wouldn't have seen a 2nd season.

I understand the complaints, but I enjoyed this show, and will watch season 2 (unless it starts to be lame). No, I don't think it has been very lame. Yes, I acknowledge it has had some major problems (the "I'm leaving tonight" nonsense that repeated the first several eps...)

500 more minutes and we would not have needed a 2nd season ..

I have a region free player (cost less then $80.00), but I won't go the online price of a hundred bucks for the original 6 disc set with English sub titles. Is the original available for rental?

I saw Amazon UK had the set for about $70 US .. don't know what the shipping would be ..

Some plot problems this guy has with AMC The Killing

http://www.avclub.com/articles/orphe...cending,57743/

I'd say this season probably could have been dropped to about 120 minutes and worked as a three-part mini-series and we'd still have the same amount of character development as we did from all 13 episodes.

That looks familiar Randy.

For me, it's not that it didn't come to a conclusion I hoped for, it's that it didn't come to a conclusion at all. In fact, it can be said that having a "shocking" cliffhanger is completely "by the book" and having an actual conclusion would be less so. I feel sad for anyone who is going to waste another 13 hours next year with a show full of red herrings, unlikely/illogical/artificial misdirections, bad writing and horrid pacing with a chance that they still won't know who killed Rosie at the end.

This show started really strong for me. I was intrigued right from the start and was totally enjoying the strong performances by the cast. At around the 3rd episode or so the recording started out with an AMC self promotion of their hit shows that included a quote from someone that said something like "With The Killing, AMC has shown that it is now officially the network that can do no wrong." I remember thinking "Uh oh, way to jinx it."

After the first few episodes the show went into a constant down hill slide for me. I enjoyed it less and less with each investigative thread that led nowhere. I was considering throwing in the towel somewhere past the midpoint into the season when it seemed guaranteed that every lead they followed would end up being a complete dud and they'd be right back at square one, but I stuck with it thinking that at least by the conclusion I would find out who dunnit. The final episode was insulting to me in many ways that I won't bother to go into as they've all been stated by many people already.

AMC has definitely shown that it's anything but infallible.

I won't be back for next season.

Yep - Amazon.co.uk and Play.com both have it for around £39. When I've bought stuff from Amazon.com the cost of standard US to UK shipping hasn't been too bad - though neither has it been that speedy.

If you buy it - make sure to ration yourself. It was a slow-burn, word-of-mouth success in the UK - and lots of people I know decided to watch it on DVD rather than joining it mid-series (or catching up on iPlayer).

If you're not careful you'll end up watching in marathon viewing sessions - hearing yourself say "just one more episode before I call it a day" lots of times...

(I was lucky to catch it from the beginning. I'm a huge fan of Scandinavian TV - and have lots of other Swedish, Danish and Norwegian drama on DVD or Blu-ray - and speak Swedish - so I was sure I'd want to give it a chance.)

For those of you who will be watching next year, please be sure to name the killer so I can come back then to find out.

Like many here I was left feeling let down by The Killing, and at this point I'm really up in the air about watching season two. I have a feeling though that when season two comes around I'll have to check out the first episode just to see what happens with Holder and Richmond. If they reveal the killer I'll be sure to let you know!