“Every piece of this place hurts me.”
Look on the season finale of The Killing, ye Mighty, and despair!
I've put off writing this review because even thinking about this episodes just made me so angry I couldn't type. I can't remember the last time a TV series pissed me off as much as this. I'm actually surprised that I managed to hold back on the excessive swearing and ranting. But there's been enough excessive swearing and ranting about this finale already (not that there won't be some swearing).
So I'm going to keep this review short and to the point. This episode was bad. Really bad. Maybe the worst season finale I've ever seen. After enduring thirteen weeks of endless rain, numerous red herrings, perpetual misery and Darren Richmond we got absolutely zero return on our investment. Instead all we got was a great big slap in the face. Let me try and explain its awfulness in completely made up television mathematics. Basically, you take everything Heroes did after season one + Lorelai marrying Christopher in Paris x THIS ÷ ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! = 'Orpheus Descending'.
To date we still don't know who killed Rosie Larsen. That's been saved for season two. It wasn't enough that the writers made us wait this long, now they expect us to wait a whole year to find out who killed bloody Rosie Larsen. Well, to paraphrase Howard Beale, the eminent philosopher and poet, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to watch The Killing anymore.
I'm done. Finished. No more for me, thank you very much.
The final deal breaker for me wasn't the show's refusal to finally reveal whodunit. My spider-sense had been tingling for a while on that one. No, the deal breaker was that 'shocking' final twist; Stephen Holder is working with a mysterious someone to actively frame Richmond for Rosie's murder.
I think I speak for everyone when I say, “What the fuck, Veena Sud?”
When I first started watching I feared I'd get something like this. That the writers would end with season with a massive twist that was more shocking than it was logical. But I never in a million years thought they'd do something this absurd. Holder was the only reason I was ever considering reviewing season two. Now we're being told he's a traitor. And a really stupid traitor at that. His plan to frame Richmond is so deeply flawed its almost moronic. Did he not think that someone might notify the police about the cameras being broken that weekend? He's the one who gave them Linden's number for Christ's sake!
Other Crimes and Misdemeanours
--Yesterday Linden was threatening Helo with child abduction. Today it was all “I hope you guys are having fun.” Again, What the fuck, Veena Sud?
--Gwen, of course Richmond would've been soaking wet when he got back to the hotel. Because in Seattle is never, ever stops raining.
--Mitch decided that her family didn't need her and left to walk the earth like Kane from Kung Fu or something. Stan didn't object or try to explain that he'd spent their savings on a house. So after losing their sister, Denny and Tommy have now been abandoned by their mother and will likely see their father go to jail for a very long time. I see a lot of therapy in their respective futures.
--Oh, and just so they could end things on a cliff-hanger, Belko, upset by the collapse of the Larsen family and all out of rocks to punch, watched Taxi Driver one too many times and decided to Jack Ruby Darren Richmond.
And so ends my time reviewing The Killing. It's been an up and down experience to be sure. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me on this seemingly endless Odyssey of disappointment and rage. If any of you want to continue, then I wish you the best of luck and offer you my deepest sympathies.
Look on the season finale of The Killing, ye Mighty, and despair!
I've put off writing this review because even thinking about this episodes just made me so angry I couldn't type. I can't remember the last time a TV series pissed me off as much as this. I'm actually surprised that I managed to hold back on the excessive swearing and ranting. But there's been enough excessive swearing and ranting about this finale already (not that there won't be some swearing).
So I'm going to keep this review short and to the point. This episode was bad. Really bad. Maybe the worst season finale I've ever seen. After enduring thirteen weeks of endless rain, numerous red herrings, perpetual misery and Darren Richmond we got absolutely zero return on our investment. Instead all we got was a great big slap in the face. Let me try and explain its awfulness in completely made up television mathematics. Basically, you take everything Heroes did after season one + Lorelai marrying Christopher in Paris x THIS ÷ ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!! = 'Orpheus Descending'.
To date we still don't know who killed Rosie Larsen. That's been saved for season two. It wasn't enough that the writers made us wait this long, now they expect us to wait a whole year to find out who killed bloody Rosie Larsen. Well, to paraphrase Howard Beale, the eminent philosopher and poet, I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to watch The Killing anymore.
I'm done. Finished. No more for me, thank you very much.
The final deal breaker for me wasn't the show's refusal to finally reveal whodunit. My spider-sense had been tingling for a while on that one. No, the deal breaker was that 'shocking' final twist; Stephen Holder is working with a mysterious someone to actively frame Richmond for Rosie's murder.
I think I speak for everyone when I say, “What the fuck, Veena Sud?”
When I first started watching I feared I'd get something like this. That the writers would end with season with a massive twist that was more shocking than it was logical. But I never in a million years thought they'd do something this absurd. Holder was the only reason I was ever considering reviewing season two. Now we're being told he's a traitor. And a really stupid traitor at that. His plan to frame Richmond is so deeply flawed its almost moronic. Did he not think that someone might notify the police about the cameras being broken that weekend? He's the one who gave them Linden's number for Christ's sake!
Other Crimes and Misdemeanours
--Yesterday Linden was threatening Helo with child abduction. Today it was all “I hope you guys are having fun.” Again, What the fuck, Veena Sud?
--Gwen, of course Richmond would've been soaking wet when he got back to the hotel. Because in Seattle is never, ever stops raining.
--Mitch decided that her family didn't need her and left to walk the earth like Kane from Kung Fu or something. Stan didn't object or try to explain that he'd spent their savings on a house. So after losing their sister, Denny and Tommy have now been abandoned by their mother and will likely see their father go to jail for a very long time. I see a lot of therapy in their respective futures.
--Oh, and just so they could end things on a cliff-hanger, Belko, upset by the collapse of the Larsen family and all out of rocks to punch, watched Taxi Driver one too many times and decided to Jack Ruby Darren Richmond.
And so ends my time reviewing The Killing. It's been an up and down experience to be sure. Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me on this seemingly endless Odyssey of disappointment and rage. If any of you want to continue, then I wish you the best of luck and offer you my deepest sympathies.
7 comments:
I'm all for the idea of a more personal type of murder mystery, with the emphasis on a single murder and its effect on a family and community. (Like Twin Peaks.) But I feel like the writers and producers of The Killing don't understand how to write an effective twist. As you said, Mark, Holden was the best character; he was the reason I kept watching. And they just ruined him as a character. There can be no excuse whatsoever for what he did. So any interest I had in continuing watching the series is now gone.
Actually, the opening scenes where Linden and Holden were going, hey, we could check the mileage of the murder car and there could be credit card receipts just infuriated me. I don't follow procedural cop shows and even I know that it's the first thing a cop will do.
Thanks for hanging in there with the first season, Mark. It really did have promise at first. I'm surprised at AMC for allowing this to happen when they're known for such quality shows.
I had finally convinced my husband to watch one of "my" shows. It indeed started sooooo promising. But as we sat through the never ending rain (which I'm sure the Seattle tourism board LOVED) each week, I was truly getting more and more depressed. As we sat down to watch the final two episodes on the DVR, my husband was still in so I was happy too. NOT ANYMORE!!! We were both appalled as Holder got in that car and drove off. I'm afraid I'm back to watching "my" shows alone during my 2:00 am insomniac moments after that absolute fiasco.
I don't think it's possible to take an existing crime drama, follow 80 percent of the original storyline, and then deviate at the last minute. The stories and threads just peter out into nothing, the weeks of build up are for naught, and the characters start acting out of character. Which is exactly what happened.
The show didn't take enough chances and deviated from the source material at critical moments. The things which made Forbrydelsen such compelling watching were excised completely. All that was left was a story with its heart cut out, some shit jumpers, and an entirely unsatisfactory conclusion. Thirteen weeks and we still know sweet Fanny Adams? Are you serious? I want my money back!
My favorite part of this finale? The ads for the new season of Breaking Bad.
Mark, I've been eagerly waiting all week for you to rip this to shreds, so that we could all vent together. You (unlike The Killing) did not disappoint! Much thanks.
I had pretty much the same reaction you did. As soon as it was over, I made a disgusted noise and said to my husband (in the adjacent room), "That's it. I'm out." And, as you said, it wasn't really the lack of resolution on the murder front that did it. (At this point I don't honestly care who killed Rosie Larsen.) What really finished it for me was the twist with Holder. Do NOT take the ONE character I have invested in and turn him into a villain (or make it appear that you have)! If my investment in the characters is little more to you than a tool you can use to jerk me around, then consider me an ex-viewer. I've got much better shows to watch.
Another "Crime and Misdemeanor" you missed: Bennet's wife somehow didn't recognize the man that turned himself in for beating her husband almost to death. Even if she didn't recognize him as the dad of the prominent murder victim her husband was accused of killing, she certainly should have recognized him as her husband's confessed attacker. Gimme a break.
And it started out with such promise. What a disappointment.
Yes, yes, yes. I wanted so badly to like this show, given that I love detective stories.
But this really wasn't one. There was very little detection going on, as you noticed. So much real detective work was left until this final episode. Holder and Linden worked apparently in a vacuum, having been given no uniformed or junior-detective support, on what was portrayed as the most shocking murder Seattle had seen in a while, given the emphasis on news coverage. Staring tight-lipped at a picture of a victim and touching the computer screen is not detection.
Unlike the rest of the world, I wasn't too enamored of Holder. But the sudden reversal was still offensive, because it might mean everything we'd seen him do, including his emphasis on truth-telling and integrity, was a lie. If so, why go to the bothersome extent of lying to an entire NA group just to make yourself seem trustworthy to your partner? If not, how does his willingness to falsify evidence, badly, relate to his emphasis on honesty?
Finally, why didn't Stan just tell his wife he bought a house?!
Some of my anger had dissipated during the week, but it's coming back now as I'm reminded of how maddening this finale was.
Mark, props to you for sticking it out. Getting a dud on your first currently running show isn't fair. Way to go, Mark!
Happy to know that everyone's been enjoying the reviews. At least we can say something nice came out of the disaster that was the season finale of The Killing.
Jess, nice catch, forgot about that one. Usually I watch an episode at least twice before writing a review, just in case I've missed something. But with this one I thought that once was more than enough.
I just built up the courage to watch it. I didn't get angry. I started apathetic and stayed that way. This was truly a waste of time.
I have another equation for you, Mark: Twin Peaks - charm - interesting plot/characters + pointless storylines = The Killing.
There were more red herrings than you can fit in a Sea World tank.
When I heard the name of this series, I though it referred to the killing of Rosie Larson, not of the audience. With boredom.
Is it too late for AMC to cancel season 2 and give us another season of Rubicon, instead?
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