REVIEW – AMC’s The Killing is Superbly Crafted, Mesmerizing

AMC’s The Killing begins with two women running. One, Sarah Linden (played by Mireille Enos), is running for sport — floating along a nature path with a confident and measured gate, breathing in equally measured cadence, and not even breaking a sweat. Watching her closely you can see that she is in control, aware, yet somewhere inside is giving it all she’s got. The other, Rosie Larsen, is anything but focused and measured. She is powered by instinct and adrenaline; lurching forward with bursts of energy broadcasted straight from the peak of pure desperation. She stumbles, gets back up, and reaches urgently through her gasping breath and failing muscles for more energy to move forward — but it’s obvious it isn’t there. Back and forth we go between these women, one running at night and one in the morning, until Rosie’s plight merely ends with a cutaway as Sarah comes upon the beach of a pond — and a dead animal submerged partially in the mud. For all her running, Sarah is still calm, collected, and curious. You can see the calculations taking place, she’s not astonished by the presence of the animal, or disgusted, she’s working it out — how it got there, how it died..

As far as openings go, The Killing‘s is pure art. We come to know the nature of two lives that will become inextricably entwined by the way they run. One ruled by determination, logic, and control; and another ruled over by danger, fear, and tragedy. There is subtlety and attention to detail operating from every angle, bolstered by performances that are perfectly in pitch and on time — and the best part of the opening to The Killing is: it is just the first five minutes. The nuance and thoughtful approach to storytelling gets even better from there on out.

The Killing is the sort of show that is not served well by its description. Truly great art of any medium cannot be broken down into a synopsis that fully captures the power of the finished product. It is so rare to find television programming that fits that description these days that I often forget it is even true. The Killing is one of those rare instances.

Based on a very popular Danish series Forbrydelsen — which I have never seen — The Killing presents a three pronged narrative that develops in the wake of a murder and pursues the Detectives working to solve the case, the family as they process the tragedy, and the suspects as they do what suspects do.

On the detective side of things we have aforementioned Sarah Linden, a young single mother about to marry her long-time boyfriend Rick, played by Callum Keith Rennie, and leave Seattle for San Francisco. Mireille Enos’s mastery of stillness makes Sarah so interesting to watch — she’s not the garish whip crack of a TV detective that anyone would expect, instead she exudes intelligence through a superhuman calm and a level of observance that is always-on whether the case is running or not. Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) as her incoming replacement is the perfect foil. Brash, direct, and much more brute-force oriented than Sarah, Holder is gung-ho but still a character that steers clear of any cop-show clichés.

In the family we have Michelle Forbes and Brent Saxton as Mitch and Stanley Larsen, respectively. Yes, they represent working class Americans quite well, yes they do grieving parents with emotionally crushing resonance, but their power is established during a phase of the story that rarely receives the amount of attention lavished by The Killing: the not-knowing phase.

When The Killing kicks off, it does not do so with the sort of savage/act, explosions, sneering bad-guys so typical in crime drama — it begins with suspicion, gloomy hope, and insinuation. Sarah’s discovery of the dead animal partially embedded in wet sand at the foot of water is a moment of narrative prophecy, and since the show is called The Killing, it’s not a huge reach to think that somebody dies — probably the girl running for her life — but despite all that, it is the long trek towards confirmation as the family searches for their daughter with increasing levels of panic that we begin to see the humanity of these characters. It’s like an emotional vivisection. There are moments where you too will hope against hope that Rosie turns up around the corners they turn, and you truly come to dread the moment when truth crystallizes before them in all of its horrible geometry.

On the side of the suspects we find more engaging characters, and even more mystery. The suspects are as varied as the rich ex-boyfriend with a passion for drugs and older women, to the staff of Mayoral candidate Darren Richmond, played by Billy Campbell. When the narrative moves amongst them it does so with an organic motion free of double entendre and evasiveness. There are no characters stopping short of completing a revealing sentence, or cutaways that leave us squirming in the midst of an anticipated revelation. The mystery of The Killing is presented with stark realism and a muteness that is disarming.

The Killing is quiet, yet powerful — and at times uncomfortably emotional. It is a superbly crafted narrative that is thoroughly mesmerizing. The Killing will absorb you as readily as you absorb it. Not being a fan of crime drama in general, I sat out expecting to be a hard sell and instead was immediately entranced by the intricacy of the film making and the mastery of storytelling from the micro to the macro level. The Killing is a genre buster for crime drama, and will be a tough act to follow.

AMC Has become somewhat synonymous with high-quality and intelligent programming — to the point that it is almost passé to point it out on a show-by-show basis — but The Killing introduces yet another level to the quality threshold for the cable channel. While the way Sarah runs may make for a perfect metaphor of her character, it is also a great analogy for the fierce insistence of everyone involved in The Killing to deliver an emotionally engaging and powerful story — apparent by their total success. Watch it.

The Killing premieres on AMC Sunday, April 3 at 9PM|8c.