Has anyone else watched the Netflix show The Killing? I really hadn't heard anything about it before I began watching it, and it's been fantastic so far around 8 episodes in.
S1 was excellent TV. S2 deserved to get that POS cancelled. S3 was good. S4 was average, and only for closure.
It's disappointing that the quality falls through the floor in the second season, but I'm definitely enjoying season 1. I don't think I know any of these actors, but they've all been pretty awesome. They have been doing a damn good job at ending episodes in a way that makes you want to immediately watch the next one. I've lost some sleep lately staying up too late as a result. Unlike most murder mystery/ crime dramas, they've avoided outlandish deus ex machinas or cliched, ridiculously flamboyant or eccentric nemeses. It has pretty grounded and believable for this genre, which I think is a major part of the draw for me.
Hard to explain without spoilers... but quality isn't the issue. The quality is pretty steady the whole way. Poor choice in story line killed S2 for me, I just couldn't stay as interested as S1. Maybe you'll be more receptive but I doubt it. People jumped ship big and the show was cancelled. It was brought back for S3 because Netflix co-funded it. Season 3 is actually pretty good on it's own, but AMC cancelled it again. Netflix paid for an 8 episode S4 exclusive finale, which was as good as it could be. The shortness hurt the pacing though, since it's trademark is the build up of suspension and tension over 22 episodes. All in all, you could do a lot worse in TV shows.
That's the main reason I take a pass on most of the "continuing" story TV shows these days. They can never maintain the writing for an extended period of time, so there's little incentive to spend years and years watching for a payoff. 30 minute self-contained episodes are really the gold standard for TV. It eliminates all the lazy writing and self-indulgent repetition.
Breaking Bad never dipped in quality, actually got better as it went, and the ending was epic. We need more shows like Breaking Bad.
The first season of The Killing has done an excellent job of doing this so far. There are certainly writers capable of doing this. I suspect much of this problem in general relates to studio executives screwing with things rather than lack of writing talent.
One season? Sure. Two seasons? Maybe. Beyond that? Not that many can pull off anything that worthwhile in a story arc that long. For one thing, the general concepts that most TV shows are based on just aren't interesting enough to be drawn out that long. It's like the second Star Wars trilogy: the origin story of Darth Vader is interesting, just not three movies worth of interesting. Likewise, many of the overall story arcs for continuing TV shows could easily be told in a max of two seasons, and that includes Breaking Bad.
I would recommend you check out Broadchurch/Gracepoint. I started watching a free Broadchurch pilot on Amazon late one night, ended up buying the rest of the season and finishing it around 7am. The season long murder mystery is just that good. Broadchurch was the UK original and just hit Netflix recently. Gracepoint is a shot-by-shot US remake and available on Hulu/Fox. I would recommend both, with a few months gap. GP gets trashed by angry Europeans, but is quite good and has a different killer. It really comes down to setting, actors, accents on which to watch.
So I started watching The Killing because of this thread. All of the sudden, I'm only 3 eps left till the end of season 1. The show is very well done.
Ep 1 gave off that kind of vibe but it's definitely not that type of show. It's more of a murder mystery with a ton of character development among 3 plot branches. I like what they did with Holder's character (her partner). Big ol see saw ride with him.
Finished season 2. It wasn't as bad as supersonic said imo. It just sort of lost its way compared to season 1. Season 1 pulled no punches with the characters and kept it solid throughout the season. Some parts of season 2 went over the top, but it gave you good closure to the Rosie Larson case.
Season 2 wasn't badly done. I just couldn't stay interested with the level of intensity that I had for S1. I was hooked on S3 all over because they had a new interesting case. I think 13 episodes per case was the perfect format for this show.
I ended up watching the entire series. I think the main characters were great, but the intensity was indeed the best in the first season. It tended to wander a bit more in later seasons, particularly chasing around Linden's kid, but I thought the series was well worth watching. In addition to the main characters, I really liked the Stan Larson character in particular. The entire Larson murder storyline definitely held my interest. I think something that the series did extremely well was allow the characters to have clear flaws and make major mistakes. There were no all-knowing, invincible, or otherwise perfect characters, which is something that commonly breaks the immersion into the story for me in other shows.
yea it directly continues into season 2. actually ends up seeming more like a mid season break when you go into season 2.