The Killing on AMC HD - Page 13

Yeah, I think it was either 8 or 12 total, but I saw both seasons. They are available on Netflix IW.

I still would like to know where, when, and by whom this "implicit promise" was made.

Interview with Joel Kinnman. He said he knew who the the killer was (talking about the finale) but wasn't going to say.

Oh, OK, I just saw them as two movies. After the second I was bummed that von Trier wasn't able to complete the trilogy, would have loved to see a third installment. The movies were not only intriguing but, in spots, hilarious.

Well, it was my inference from the "Who Killed Rosie Larsen?" tag line, which was thrown around liberally by AMC, presumably to get people to watch the show.

Thanks for the heads up on the Varg Veum series. Watched the first one - Bitre Blomster(bitter flowers) - last night and thought it was pretty good. A bit more mainstream style than the more dark and brooding stuff from Scandinavia I've seen in the past, but still quite good.

Mebbe from a critic's preview in the first post in the thread?

Like “Damages,’’ Glenn Close’s legal drama, “The Killing’’ will spend the full 13-episode season exploring a single case

Or maybe this one on tvguide.com - It will take 13 episodes for viewers to learn who killed young Rosie Larsen in AMC's new, slow-burning murder mystery The Killing:

http://www.tvguide.com/News/AMC-The-...e-1031297.aspx

There were multiple critic's previews that said the same (or implied) thing, that the murder would be wrapped up in a season.

Interview posted with Veena Sud on the AMC blog. As posted before, IMO she really doesn't care what anyone thought about the finale, just gives the usual platitudes about fan passion and all that.

http://blogs.amctv.com/the-killing/2...-interview.php

Ditto. I watched this as well yesterday. Not terribly intricate, plot-wise, but definitely enough to keep me involved. Lean, straight-forward storytelling, which I like.

I have "The Writing on the Wall" and "Black Sheep" up next. Still hunting for the others.

BTW, on a side note, "Max Manus" (Norway) is another great Scandinavian export, if you like WW II stuff.

Yep - totally agree. Perfectly enjoyable to watch, straightforward story telling. Nothing revolutionary, but well executed, and nice to see other locations and scenery. Some of the stories are more predictable than others.

There are some jawdropping moments in some of the films though, don't want to spoil them. You'll know them when you see them!

Really makes me want to visit Bergen. With an umbrella!

A cast member says he knows who the killer is somehow means that AMC promised to reveal the killer in Season 1? Ya lost me on this one...

There's no question that it was strongly suggested that it would be one case per season.

So by their ads asking "Who killed Rosie Larsen?", they are somehow promising to tell us by the end of Season 1? Riiiight....

Not somehow, implying in a straightforward manner. That's my opinion and I think if you did a poll you'd find most people who watched felt the same way.

Frankly, it's not all that important to me, but if it is to you, be my guest analyzing the s**t out of AMC's ad campaign.

Which it did. Even that quote didn't promise the killer would be revealed by the end of the season.


Has tvguide.com apologized for giving out such a misleading missive?


I'm still waiting for one. AMC's press release:

February 2011 - "AMC's newest original drama, "The Killing," will debut with a two-hour premiere on Sunday, April 3 beginning at 9pm ET/PT. Subsequent episodes will be one-hour long presentations on Sundays at 10pm ET/PT. From writer, executive producer and series' showrunner Veena Sud ("Cold Case"), "The Killing" tells the story of the murder of a teenage girl in Seattle and the subsequent police investigation. Leading into the two-hour premiere will be the Oscar-nominated film, Seven (1995), starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey, beginning at 6pm ET/PT. Based on the successful Danish television series "Forbrydelsen," "The Killing" weaves together three distinct stories around a single murder, including the detectives assigned to the case and their suspects, the victim's grieving family, and the local politicians connected to the case. As "The Killing" unfolds, it becomes clear that there are no accidents; everyone has a secret, and while the characters think they have moved on, their past still lingers.

Methinks y'all need to read things more carefully. And know tvguide.com is more into style than substance.

Strongly suggested by whom? [And this season had how many cases?]

Having ads asking "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" is implying the killer will be revealed in Season 1? You need to listen a little closer.

A voracious reader, I never read the books. Watched the Swedish English subtitled moves and enjoyed them. Noomi is a fine actress.

Yes, I have "Max Manus" in my Netflix queue already, I've read that it's very good.

Those 2 Varg Veum's you listed, I don't see those titles anywhere, you wouldn't happen to know the Danish name would you? The Wikipedia entry shows Tornerose (Sleeping Beauty) and Din Til Døden (Yours Until Death) as the next two in the series.

I found them, the two you mention are numbers 7 and 8 below.

List of Films

1 Bitre Blomster (September 2007)
2 Tornerose (January 2008)
3 Din Til Døden (March 2008)
4 Falne Engler (April 2008)
5 Kvinnen i Kjøleskapet (September 2008)
6 Begravde Hunder (October 2008)
7 Skriften på Veggen (November 2010)
8 Svarte Får (Januar 2011)
9 Dødens drabanter (April 2011)

TV Notes
AMC's president responds to 'The Killing' finale criticism
By James Hibberd, EW.com's 'Inside TV' Blog - June 24th, 2011

EXCLUSIVE: AMC president and general manager Charlie Collier broke his silence on last week's finale of The Killing, saying the network didn't anticipate such a strong backlash among some viewers and critics.

We underestimated the passion of viewers have for closure within this season, Collier says. It was never our intention to misguide the viewer. The audience has an important voice, we heard them and don't take them for granted.

The critically acclaimed first season of The Killing teased viewers with the tagline for its central mystery Who Killed Rosie Larsen? then declined to solve the case in the finale, instead rolling the story into next season in a last-minute twist. The show plans to introduce a new mystery at the start of season 2 and then solve the Larsen case.

Collier spearheaded the network's rise to become a top outlet for quality drama series, ordering shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead. He says if the network could have done anything differently, it would have been to do more to prevent viewers from expecting the murder to be solved in the season closer. I stand by [showrunner] Veena Sud, and risk-taking is what we do; cliffhangers are a staple of TV and a huge part of mysteries, Collier says. If I could do anything differently, it would be to manage expectations.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/06/24/th...nale-response/

I highly recommend you read the books, there is so much more going on in the novels than what you saw in the films. The films basically only scraped the surface on the characters and their motivations.

Jesse Stone, while drinking Johnny Walker, chewing gum, gulping coffee, straightening the picture and asking Reggie, "What are you looking at?", would have shot Rosie's killer at the end of the second hour, assuming he didn't cave in to the temptation to drive down to LA.

So are these made-for-TV films? Are they part of the TV series mentioned or something different? I'm a little confused. With five produced in 2008 alone, I'm guessing they were designed for TV (like the Noomi Rapace series)?

Translation: "We're sorry ... but not really."

I guess some went direct to DVD and some were released theatrically, I don't believe they were a TV show/series in the normal sense. The Wikipedia entry is not entirely clear on how many have actually been made.


I think the thing that annoys me the most is Sud's aloof, arrogant attitude towards the viewers, as if being a showrunner on AMC has suddenly made her the next David Chase. TV critic Tim Goodman's comments touch on that very thing.


The sentence should be corrected to read, "cliffhangers are a staple of American TV".

Just imagine if AMC didn't renew the show for season 2. That's a hell of a way to end the season if you're not sure you're coming back.

"He says if the network could have done anything differently, it would have been to do more to prevent viewers from expecting the murder to be solved in the season closer."

Yes - the movies are very abridged versions of the books, with entire characters sometimes excised.

I haven't watched them yet, but it will be interesting to see how the 3 hour SVT TV edits compare with the shorter cinema releases.

In Scandinavia the TV Series vs TV Movie vs Cinema release situation is a bit different to the US and the UK.

In Sweden, and I think Norway, it is common for episodic drama to be commissioned as a partial cinema, partial direct-to-DVD, partial TV release, with co-production funding from film and TV partners in multiple Nordic countries (and Germany, and in some cases Hungary I think) and the order of the release structure might be different in different countries. It is common for a block of films/episodes to be shot, and then the releases be staggered across a year or longer.

So you might have the first episode of a production block released first in a cinemas in Sweden, then onto DVD/Blu-ray. Subsequent episodes may then be released straight to DVD/Blu-ray in Sweden, and then at a later date shown on TV there, by the TV channel that put up some of the co-production funding. The DVD/Blu-ray releases could be staggered approximately monthly, or maybe 6 weekly. (However in Germany it could be that the co-producing TV partner - usually ARD Degeto - will show them first, and they will be released on DVD after this airing. The Swedish Wallander Series 2 had it's first episode as a theatrical release in Sweden, and the series actually aired weekly on UK TV before it had fully aired on Swedish TV)

My understanding is that Varg Veum, Wallander (TV 4 series) and possibly the Beck franchise (TV4) have followed this model (not always having a theatical release, but with DVD/Blu-ray releases before TV broadcast not after) All of these shows are self-contained stories within each episode, like Inspector Morse or Lewis. So you could go to the cinema, watch one film, and have seen a beginning, middle and end.

When I went to Sweden a year or two ago there were posters everywhere advertising that the first Wallander from series 2 was on at the cinema. It was a pretty big deal. Totally different to the UK and the US!

It's kind of the opposite situation to the UK and US, where shows are first shown on TV, then released on DVD/Blu-ray afterwards. And the US and UK don't have the tradition of cinematic releases for series that in the UK and US would be seen as a TV show.

It's a bit like the season opener of CSI being released in the cinema, then on DVD/Blu-ray, and then broadcast on TV, with subsequent episodes possibly getting cinema releases, but going direct-to-DVD/Blu-ray before airing on TV.

I believe the Varg Veum series have been a mix of theatrical releases and direct-to-DVD releases, and then TV broadcast, though I may be wrong. I think more of the second 'series' have been cinema releases.

I have all the currently released Varg Veum episodes/films (it's difficult to know how to describe them as they're kind of both!) and they are as listed above with Trond Espen Seim playing the lead.

When it comes to the Millennium series (aka "The Girl with/who...") that was originally planned to be a cinema release for the first book adaptation, with the subsequent two books being DVD/Blu-ray and extended TV releases only (each book was broadcast as 2 x 90min eps on TV).

Of course the global success of the first movie release meant that the following two adaptations were also released in the cinema first. However I think some of the slightly negative reviews of the 2nd and 3rd films are probably a result of it being planned as a "straight to DVD/Blu-ray and TV" release.

Of course not all TV shows follow this model. Forbrydelsen (aka The Killing) was definitely a made for TV series, and AFAIK was broadcast on TV first (it was made in-house by DR - the Danish equivalent of the BBC)

Do you mean Danish, or Norwegian? Varg Veum is Norwegian and shot in Bergen (one of the main cities in Norway).

Though Danish and one of the Norwegian languages (there are kind of two) are pretty similar, as Denmark controlled Norway for a long time.

(Written Norwegian, Danish and Swedish are all quite similar - by learning Swedish I discovered I can read Danish and Norwegian a bit. However spoken Norwegian is much easier for a Swedish ear to understand, whilst Danish is trickier. If you're starting from scratch, Norwegian is probably the best language to learn, as you'll understand written and spoken Swedish, and probably do better with Danish than a Swede would!)


I have 1-8 on DVD or Blu-ray. Don't think 9 is out on DVD/Blu-ray until the end of this month.

1-6 were effectively the first series, or production block. 8-> are effectively series 2.