TV review: The Killing

Summary

The US version of Forbrydelsen, better known to us mere monolinguists as The Killing, is back on Channel 4. And the question on everyone's lips is (still): who killed Rosie Larsen?

First, a recap. When we last saw Detective Sarah Linden she was on the verge of aborting her move to California (again) in the wake of new evidence suggesting that Councillor Richmond may not have been Rosie's killer after all.

Meanwhile, at the scene of Richmond's arrest, creepy Larsen family friend Belko was seen striding purposefully towards the councillor, pistol in hand (having just gunned down his own mother, the cad). And then, without any kind of satisfactory resolution at all, the curtain fell.

Fans and critics were up in arms, with the Los Angeles Times describing it as "one of the most frustrating finales in TV history." Clearly, that critic didn't see the 2007 X Factor final, in which singing bag o'nerves Leon Jackson snatched victory from rightful winner Rhydian Roberts.

Highlights

The calibre of acting in The Killing remains difficult to fault, especially that of Mireille Enos as no-nonsense Detective Sarah Linden.

Lowlights

Belko (the magnificently named Brendan Sexton III) was shot dead at the police station. I'll miss the creepy weirdo.

Full review

Season two resumes the action exactly where it left off at season one's "frustrating" finale: Linden steps off the plane (again); her son Jack (Liam James) sulks (again); and Belko unloads his pistol into murder suspect Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell).

We're still none the wiser as to who killed Rosie Larsen. And, if you think you're going to find out at the end of this season, just remember what happened last time round...

For now though, that's a moot point, because episode one of season two - which veers well away from the template set by Forbrydelsen - had me straight back in the show's steely grip.

Still taut; still tense, and now with an added dash of paranoia, The Killing may lack the panache of its Danish counterpart, but it still packs a pretty mighty punch all of its own.

Linden and Holder

The revelation that Holder (Joel Kinnaman) was connected to the doctored photograph that led to Richmond's arrest is a game-changer. Viewers never quite knew how far to trust Holder in season one (those red herrings again), but Linden is now faced with apparently irrevocable evidence that he's as dependable as a cheap umbrella in an April downpour.

It's all a conspiracy, you see. And, as Holder is promoted, shadowy ex-sheriff Gil Sloane (Brian Markinson) is seen deleting all the evidence of image-tampering from his hard-drive.

In fact the only person Linden can trust now is Attorney Christina Niilsen, played, in a meta-Killing twist by Sofie Gråbøl - that's right: Detective Sarah Lund from the Danish version of the show.

Meanwhile, Richmond lies paralysed in a hospital bed, while his lover Gwen (Kristin Lehman) tells campaign manager Jamie (Eric Ladin) that she was not in fact with Richmond on the night of Rosie's death.

"When he got back he was soaking wet," she tells him; "It hadn't been raining."

And so the plot thickens, the mystery deepens and one begins to wonder if this case is ever going to get solved.

Still, with acting and - yes - writing this good, it's probably worth sticking around to find out.

A family in torment

The brilliantly drawn Larsen family, still reeling from the pain of losing their only daughter (it's only been 14 days), continue to provide the glue that holds The Killing together.

As a standalone portrayal of grief in the wake of Rosie's murder, the Larsen family is second to none. Stan - a giant, tormented hulk of a man - is a perfect depiction of raw impotent rage, unable to communicate with his two young sons now that his wife Mitch (Michelle Forbes) has walked out.

Aunt Terry (Jamie Anne Allman), however, remains on hand to help out and it's surely only a matter of time before she becomes more to Stan than just an obliging sister-in-law. Hey, maybe she killed Rosie as part of some long-term masterplan to get into Stan's bed. Unlikely, but with more red herrings and blind alleys in The Killing than you can shake a very large stick at, you just never can tell.

In this first episode of the second season at least, The Killing got back to basics and recaptured some of the glory of its first few episodes.

• A solid return for the US drama-thriller earns The Killing four stars out of five.

  

TV quotes of the week - The Killing

"Are we staying for good this time?" - Linden's son Jack makes a good point; this isn't the first time she's yanked him off the plane to California.

"If I can stop the internal bleeding he may still bleed out from the incision." - Things are sounding pretty bleak for Councillor Richmond.

"Chips are, like, potatoes." - Jack tries out the old five-a-day trick on his long-suffering mum.

"You're like that monster in Friday the 13th. The only way to kill you is to chop off your head." - Holder knows how to sweet-talk a lady."

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