Who Killed Rosie Larsen? That is the question that AMC wants you to ponder this spring as they unveil their newest drama The Killing. Taken at face value this looks like another attempt to recreate the Who Killed Laura Palmer? juggernaut that dominated everything back in 1991. ABC tried something similar this time last year with Happy Town, which started out strong but quickly devolved into an incoherent mess of fail. From the looks of it AMC’s take on the “dead girl in the woods” story promises to be miles better than Happy Town ever thought about being. But it isn’t quite perfect…yet.
The Killing follows the investigation into the murder of a young girl in Seattle. The homicide detectives, Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder are not the typical Criminal Intent: CSIPD Blue detectives. In fact they are the most interesting thing about the pilot. The problem here is that too many clichés were hurled around to give me much hope for what The Killing will look like after six or seven episodes. Holden, played by Big Love alum Mirelle Enos is enjoying her last day as a homicide cop before heading to Sanoma Valley to live the high life with her fiancé and son. The kid is a surly thing, annoyed that he has to be nice to a man who isn’t his father and annoyed that he has to leave his cool friends behind. It’s something we’ve seen on a dozen other cop shows but Enos’s subtle performance keeps it interesting.
Her replacement, Stephen Holder, played by Joel Kinnaman appears to be your typical snarky cop. He’s an abrasive ex-narcotics detective who hopes homicide will be more interesting and sometimes has unique style of getting witnesses to reveal things. Linden starts out showing him the ropes but when Rosie’s body turns up they end up acting as partners. They get along well enough but you can tell she is counting down the hours.
The characters circling the nucleus of this tale are right out of the crime drama playbook. We have Jasper the rich asshole ex-boyfriend who Rosie was secretly still seeing; her moody and pale best friend Sterling who is not so good at keeping secrets; and Darren Richmond, a well-dressed and well-groomed candidate for mayor with a dead-wife (Billy Campbell) who at first doesn’t seem to have any connection at all to what is going on. The fact that he is given screen time means he does of course and they reel him in little by little. It is just a matter of when his true colors will be revealed.
Cliché’s aside, the key to this show is what they do with it. Linden and Holder are an interesting pair and a nice change from the flashy detectives that populate almost every other procedural crime drama. The tone is darker than normal thanks to the wonders of cable and it has a lot of promise, if they can steer clear of getting too bogged down in weirdness and contrived plot twists. If done right, this could be an interesting and rewarding 13 episodes. Fans of Twin Peaks will feel that tingle of familiarity during some scenes, including one that is an obvious homage, or a not so subtle copy…I haven’t decided which yet. The Killing is a little grittier though, and devoid of any dancing midgets. There is a necklace though, a missing fingernail and I wouldn’t be shocked to see a diary turn up.
The Killing is based on a popular Danish show called Forbrydelsen so we’ll have to see if it has the chops to grab an American audience. The two-hour premiere airs this coming Sunday April 3rd at 9pm on AMC.
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Enos’s character is named Sarah Linden, not Holden.
Doh! Correction made. Thanks.