The Killing: "Pilot"/"The Cage"

Once I write what will most assuredly be my longest review post ever, I’ll be able to offer up a review of the two hour premiere, after the jump…

Part of the problem with having to review of a show’s two-hour premiere, especially when one of the hours in the pilot and the other was made after the show’s pickup, is that it can be hard to give both an honest evaluation of both the show’s style (which is often covered in the pilot) and the story (which often really kicks in after the pilot episode). So in order to give all aspects of the show sufficient evaluation, I am breaking up this review into two parts: the review of the pilot will cover tone, style, setup, etc., while my review of “The Cage” will focus on the episode itself, and will work more like a regular review of the ongoing series. So if you just want to know what I think of the series, read the first half; if you are in this for the long haul, read the whole thing.

“Pilot”

Before we dive into the pilot, I must first make a few general observations about the show. First, despite AMC’s commitment to “Telling The Most Original Stories,” it should be noted that The Killing is in fact not technically “original,” as it is the American version of Forbrydelsen (trans.: “The Killing”), a Danish series that aired back in 2007. However, developer Veena Sud (a veteran of the CBS procedural Cold Case) has made sure to change multiple plot points for this version to make sure one can use Google to spoil the whole thing.

Second, as most of the internet has already made abundantly clear, there exist obvious parallels between the premise of this show and that of Twin Peaks. Yet this show, unlike TP, already knows who the killer is, and will reveal it at season’s ends. How much TK will attempt to “explore the town residents” or whatever, has yet to be determined, and time will tell what possible future seasons may deal with.

But regardless of all this, the most important thing to know about TK is that it is best to think of it as one episode of a standard procedural stretched out into thirteen. Yet unlike the traditional procedural, this show will be attempting to actively explore those that surround the case, to create real characters out of the victim, her friends and family, the cops that explore the case, and possibly even the killer him/herself.

With a setup like this, a lot of busywork is left to the pilot, leaving it an hour that is more perfunctory than entertaining. A lot of the hour served as a giant info-dump, as perhaps too much of it at that. There were some things I didn’t catch until the second hour, either because it was delivered among a bunch of other information, or because it wasn’t explicit enough.

The victim was one Rosie Larson, who….

·         …is daughter of Stan & Mitch, niece of Terry, sister to Tommy and Danny. Stan owns a shipping company, and one of his underlings is named Belko.

·         …is the best friend of Sterling, who may or may not be a coke-head, and ex(?)-girlfriend of Jasper Ames, a little-shit rich kid who uses (and possibly deals) drugs. There is also a kid named Chris who seems to run in the same underground circle. (Though his appearance here was minimal, it’s being collected for the sake of making a completer roster of potential killers.)

·         …was found dead in the trunk of a car registered to the mayoral campaign of Darren Richmond, a widower who still feels connection with his ex-wife. Richmond is running against incumbent Lesley Adams, his campaign adviser/secret girlfriend is Gwen, his top aid is douche named Jamie, and is currently seeking support from councilwoman Ruth Cantaneaz. There also seems to be a mole of sorts in his campaign that is leaking information to the press (and possibly others)

·         …was the student of unnamed, possibly pedophilic teacher.

Her murder is being investigated by Sarah Linden, a detective who is primed to move to California with her son Jack (played by Liam James, who has apparently landed on his feet after being kicked to the curb by Psych), and her fiancée, Rick. She has an unseen friend name Reggie. Her replacement/current partner is Stephen Holder, who used to work as an undercover cop.

As far as pilots go, this was a fairly serviceable hour, though it was brought down by the info-dumping, as well as a few other stylistic choices. First, I hope the show drops its over-reliance on phone calls to move the plot forward; they’re not exactly visual dynamic. Secondly, all of the fake-outs got old fast. If the show is incapable of filling out 13 episodes with worthwhile revelations, then the episode order should have been shortened.

From a storytelling standpoint, I worry about some of the plot points that were introduced tonight, the most worrisome of which is Richmond and his campaign. The show is obviously setting him up as the fake-out prime suspect, which means that he can’t be the real killer. And if he’s not the real killer, than what importance is his campaign going to have in the season’s long run? Obviously a lot of this ongoing narrative is going to rely on the buildup and clues that come out of the individual storylines (or at least I hope so), yet if the direct connection between these storylines and the murder isn’t apparent, then viewer response will wane fast. (The same thing happened on TP.)

Yet the look and feel of the show is quite engaging, and that seems to go a long way to covering some of the show’s shortcomings. By setting the story in Seattle, the show will maintain the dreary atmosphere benefitting a murder mystery. And the characters, as promised, were fully-realized, and the show never lost its focus on them. It was surprising to me, both in this hour and the next, how often I felt for these people – mostly Rosie’s family – as they attempted to deal with her death. While such details won’t completely make up for it if the show goes off the rails, it will at least keep it more interesting.

“The Cage”

It was a good thing that AMC aired these two episodes together, both for the sake of the pilot and this episode. This show is obviously taking baby steps out of the gate (which is kind of the MO of AMC shows, so it’s not like a big surprise or anything), and I can only assume that it will rev up the tension as we grow closer to the finale. And if the pilot was the info-dump hour, and thus wasn’t very engaging, then this hour, with so little to go on, was still kind of shaking on the effects of the pilot.

And here it is that I feel I must develop a formula of sorts for my reviews going forward. In the short-term, week-to-week arena, I can obviously talk about things like story development and characterization. Yet the a lot of this show’s success will be based on how the long term narrative holds up, so I will obviously have to include a paragraph or two concerning any new clues and revelations that we discover in the hours to come, as well as any thoughts I may have on them. Tonight, for example, we learned that:

·         The campaign car Rosie was found in was reported stolen the Saturday morning

·         Rosie was raped in the basement (the titular “Cage”), most likely during or immediately after the school dance.

(There’s not much too much to say about these, because, again, we’re not that far along, but in the future weeks I’ll probably be able to bring more analysis concerning these developments.

Elsewhere, the show developed the dynamic that exists between Holder and Linden. This is going to be a cornerstone of the show, and so it’s good that the show solidifies this. Though the two popped even in the pilot (the two actors have great chemistry), we now know how these two work, their individual investigative styles, which will most likely drive some of their stories forward. Linden is a straight arrow, always one to think before she speaks, while Holder is far more blunt yet manipulative, telling people what they want to hear in order to further the investigation. In addition to possibly being dirty, he might be a pedophile as well.

We also learned some more about those in Rosie’s former life. Mitch is feeling guilt over leaving Rosie at home, a feeling not helped by the accusations lobbed at her by her sister. The Larson marriage seems doomed to fall apart, and as long as the show stays tuned into their emotional wavelength, this should pay off in some handsome dramatic dividends.

We also learned that Jasper faces what appears to be physical abuse at the hands of his father. Veronica Mars parallels aside, I can’t say I am all that excited about this development. Though Jasper looks to be a central character/suspect moving forward, I’m not sure what will be achieved if the show attempts to create some sympathy around him.

The second hour seems slight in comparison to the pilot, no doubt due to the fact that it spent most of its time just allowing the character to react to the revelations of the previous hour. While I can appreciate why the show would do this – it keeps with its aim to focus on the characters – it also meant that not much technically happened in the second half, and I can see how this might turn some people off.

The Killing is shaping up to be like Rubicon before it, with a slow run-up/development leading to some great moments/hours in the weeks ahead. Considering that Rubicon became one of my Top Ten shows of last year, I am personally okay with this. I generally have the patience to let shows grow, especially when I sense that it will lead to some great moments. Yet Rubicon also floundered in the ratings last year, and failed to pick up a renewal. The Killing is too good of a show – or at least, it has too much potential – for it to not feel like an injustice if this show suffers the same fate.

What did everybody else think?

Additional Thoughts:

Though I will not abide spoilers on this site, I will be opening up the comments sections to any sort of educated guess you may have as to who the killer is. My current guess in Jamie, but that’s really only based on how much of an insensitive jerk he is.

Also every week, I’ll be on the lookout for any other similarities between this show and Twin Peaks.

I didn’t catch it in the credits, but how much do you want to bet the DP is Michael Slovis?

The only evidence Holder needs: “The kid’s a douche.”

The show continues nest week at its regular time, 10/9c.