Killing great TV in the US

POSSIBLY the most talked about detective series since The Wire and equally as gripping, The Killing (Danish title Forbrydelsen, meaning The Crime) has attained cult status in Europe and on the internet, which spread to our fair isles since its airing earlier this year on BBC 4.
Currently in its third season in its native Denmark, the BAFTA award- winning series, produced by Danmarks Radio to critical acclaim, has often been referred to as ‘the best thing on television’. Female detective Sarah’s Faroese jumper has even been the subject of many an article as well as becoming a sought after item to buy for, dare I say, ‘fashionistas’.
For those not willing to take the subtitles version on board however, never fear, the Americans have done their usual schtick of taking a perfectly brilliant series and making their own hashed version of it. With the exception of the US Office, rarely has US remakes had the same impact as the British/European originals (Shameless, Life on Mars and Skins, I’m looking at you). We’re very accepting of US shows this side of the pond, why they can’t show us the same courtesy is beyond me. Anyway, back to The Killing remake, which began last week on Channel 4.
The first series of Forbrydelsen follows the police investigation of one specific case, day by day, with a one-hour episode covering 24 hours of the investigation. While the Danish version spanned 20 hours, however, the remake has only 13 episodes, therefore elements have been sacrificed for brevity.
Episode one and two aired on Thursday in a double bill and the shorter series was evident in that plenty of plot and character development was largely spelt out, rather than being allowed to develop more subtly as in Forbrydelsen.
Set this time in Seattle, Washington, the series centres around the investigation into the murder of local teenager Rosie Larsen, the attempts of her family to deal with their grief and the electoral fortunes of a political hopeful who becomes embroiled in the case.
The main protagonist is Sarah Linden, who is supposed to be getting married in three weeks and should already be in California with her future husband. However, on her last day on the job, the murder case pops up which stalls her departure. Linden’s replacement on the Force, Stephen Holder, is a rather different kettle of fish and has so far managed to upset just about everyone connected to the case.
The look of the show is great with muted colours but the US version seems to lose some of Sarah’s dishevelled charm and Holder is even more annoying with none of the humour. Inexplicably, Sarah has kept to her woolly jumper wearing ways which seem out of place in the American landscape, a minor quibble but one worth noting for its oddity. Also there seems to be something of a change in the scenery – Seattle has the rain and greyness to match the original, but the eery bleakness of the Danish countryside seems to be lost. For anyone who has seen that Danish version, the remake will seem clunky in comparison. However, for those who haven’t, it’s worth tuning in to and with some differences in plot, I’m going to stick with it and hopefully it will grow on me. Catch up with the first episodes online at Channel 4 on Demand or see it real-time on Thursday, Channel 4 at 9pm.
TV viewing comes in genre waves, mainly following what’s big at the box office – for the last two years all things vampire with Twilight’s success has resulted in True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and so on. Science-fiction has taken a new turn this year after some dismal fails in the remake of V and The Event. With the eagerly awaited Super 8 released last month in the US, it timed nicely with Steven Spielberg’s other sci-fi offering, Falling Skies, which premiered last week on FX.
Starring the likes of Noah Wyle (he of ER fame) and Will Patton (he of that other doomsday film Armageddon), it is set six months after Earth has succumbed to an alien invasion and our two heroes, so to speak, are at the head of a band of survivors in Boston attempting to get out of the city and fight aliens at the same time. Visually it’s stunning stuff but having only got through two episodes so far, character development is still in a state of flux, the kids are so far exceptionally annoying and the plotline has been slow to get off the ground. However, that said, there’s bucket-loads of potential and if it can get away from the overly emotional kid-searching aspect, it’s looking like a promising venture. News this week that TNT has commissioned a second series in the US is adding extra seasoning for the palette. See it Tuesdays on FX at 9pm.
Keeping with the sci-fi theme, Torchwood returns this Thursday after what seems like an epic hiatus. What started out as a camped up Doctor Who spin-off for the more grown up among us on BBC 3, each season has seen it move up the channel food chain and doing a little growing up of itself along the way. Moving to BBC 2 for the second series and airing on BBC 1 last time out with the five-parter Children of the Earth, Torchwood became almost unrecognisable as sci-fi pap and concentrated more on the relationships between the characters instead. Torchwood – Miracle Day takes this a step further with little in the way of aliens and more a ‘what if’ storyline – as in, what if people suddenly miraculously stopped dying. With most of the cast dead at the end of the last series and the Cardiff hub blown to bits, the reincarnation sees the series move to Los Angeles, so it’s less Torchwood and more a show that happens to feature Captain Jack and Gwen from Torchwood. Could be interesting.