Apparently deaf to the to the increasing negative reviews from critics - and all of the audience members who have declared that they were dropping the show once we figure out who killed Rosie Larsen - AMC has decided to renew The Killing for a second season. Now, given that the show had the second highest premiere beyond the Walking Dead, and has maintained a viewership of around 2 million - higher than Breaking Bad's numbers ever were, and better than Mad Men's first three seasons - it makes sense from a entirely fiscal sense why AMC would choose to renew this show. But looking at this from a artistic decision, it makes far less sense.
Let's put aside the fact that the show just isn't that good. The Walking Dead isn't good, but there is at least some hope that the show could get better, and given that WD was hampered by it's rushed production schedule and back-scenes writers squabbles. What bothers me about this is that this decision - along with the network's decision to go into reality shows - is that the network seems to be decidedly moving away from the artistic banner that it has it has so long heralded in favor of pure financial gain. And if that becomes the case - if the network goes after these superficially artistic, but internally middling series - how many other truly good series will be sacrificed for the sake of money? How many more Rubicons will we lose in order to renew another Walking Dead?
The other thing that the network seems to have forgotten is the drop-off of praise that has happened. As stated above, critics and audiences have turned on the show, with many of those still watching (at least based on the Internet presence) claiming they will wait out this season and then drop the show. And with showrunner Veena Sud in charge, there's very little reason to believe that next season will be better. For this season, Sud admitted that she decided who the killer was while writing the season, which is most likely why so many of the episode feel so completely useless. It will take a good deal of retooling - and a predetermined season arc - in order for this show to keep around so many of its current audience members.
[From The AV Club and HitFix]
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