The return of Mad Men may be months away — boo! — but with the spellbinding The Killing, AMC reconfirms its reputation as a place where serious and emotionally compelling drama thrives. This moody season-long murder mystery, adapted from a Danish TV hit, wastes no time going for the jugular. In an era of wall-to-wall by-the-books crime procedurals, The Killing reminds us that in the real world (here, a constantly raining Seattle), violent death is devastating, anything but routine.
In one of the midseason's plum roles, Mireille Enos (Big Love) gives the series its quiet, broodingly empathetic center as inscrutable veteran detective Sarah Linden, confronted with the tragic case of a murdered teenage girl from a working-class family. As she surveys and processes the grim crime scene and the sordid revelations that follow, Sarah often looks as if her very soul is bruised. She doesn't know whether to be amused or irritated by the irreverent new partner she's been saddled with: Joel Kinnaman as ex-narc Stephen Holder, a shaggy, shambling iconoclast with reckless instincts and methods that could complicate an already sensitive case.
There are intriguing political undertones involving the mayoral campaign of a tragedy-haunted city councilman (Billy Campbell, walking a fine tightrope between pathos and quiet arrogance), but The Killing earns its most visceral impact from the latest powerhouse performance by Michelle Forbes (True Blood) as the victim's grieving mother, dazed with pain and anguished confusion. Her scenes with Brent Sexton as her blue-collar husband, trying to hold his family together while she falls apart, are incredibly wrenching. The Killing is deliberately paced, but creepily engrossing in a way that may take the audience by surprise. The glut of formulaic TV crime drama tends to desensitize us, stressing order over disorientation. The Killing takes us to a place where nothing is certain, everyone is suspicious and each twist is like a sucker punch to the gut.
The only strained note in the first episodes is a subplot asking us to believe Sarah is always one foot out the door, about to leave soggy Seattle to follow her guy (Battlestar Galactica's Callum Keith Rennie) to sunny California. We know that won't happen. She can't turn away from this darkly compelling horror. And neither can we.
Apr 1, 2011 12:32 PM ET
by Matt Roush
