Wednesday, May 18, 2011

What I’m Watching: The Killing

The Killing: Season 1, Episode 8 “Stonewalled” (B-)

We’re at a point now where things are beginning to fall apart for nearly all of our characters. Ironically, Holder may be the only one actually holding it together, as it’s revealed that he is a recovering addict rather than a still-active degenerate. That certainly changes the dynamic between Sarah and Holder, especially now that she knows about his vice and will be looking at him with a kinder and more forgiving eye. What really proved to be a surprise was the fact that Jack was the one who leaked the pictures, not respecting the boundaries of his mother’s personal (or, in this case, professional) property and seriously and understandably upsetting Rosie’s parents. Even more surprising, but less relevant to this particular series, is the fact that Jack is played by Liam James, the same actor who played the best Young Shawn on “Psych” for most of the past five years. I’m convinced that Bennett’s episode-ending phone call where he’s whispering about passports and the police not knowing about them is a red herring and has to do with something noble like helping out a person’s family in need. It’s certainly interesting, and disturbing, to see how aggressively the FBI is building a case against those at the mosque, so deeply committed to the idea of them being terrorists. Darren’s descent into dirty politics is likely going to come back to haunt him, but he has no chance of winning the election any other way, with his own people threatening to turn on him if he doesn’t make a move soon.

3 comments:

Greg Boyd said...

You seem to be liking this show a bit more than before, while I'm starting to like it less. It continues to be amazingly atmospheric and beautiful to look at, but unlike the equally slow-paced "Mad Men" there doesn't appear to be too much substance underneath the breathtaking visuals. At this point, I'm really not sure I'll be back for season 2 (which is virtually a certainty given that AMC has decided to pass on all 6 of its in-development projects). Of course, it's entirely possible that these final episodes could be stunning. I kind of doubt it, though.

Movies with Abe said...

There's something about sticking with a show for a while that makes it somewhat more endearing as it goes on, especially if you didn't like it at first. That said, "Game of Thrones" just got really good, and shows like "Mad Men" and "Boardwalk Empire" both got seriously good midway through their first seasons. This show just isn't there yet. Given that I'm down to something sad like eight shows next week, I'm not giving up on it now since I want to have something left to watch each week!

Greg Boyd said...

Hey, you don't need to tell me about slow starts. I sat through season 1 of "Buffy" (still the worst season of television I've ever witnessed) as well as the first half of season 2. Then the show suddenly got great. The thing about "The Killing" is that I'm not sure it has the pieces to get much better, unless something changes dramatically. I will definitely be watching, though: I've invested too much time not to find out how this all ends.

Regarding your sudden lack of shows: why not do classic reviews like the AV Club does? There's lots of good stuff I know you haven't seen yet, like "FNL", "Buffy", and "The Wire".

P.S. Another show that's starting pretty slow is "Justified". I loved the pilot, but the two episodes that followed it weren't all that great. Way too much random case-of-the-week stuff, although it's still very entertaining.