AMC's The Killing

Anybody else watch last night? I figured I'd give season 2 a chance ... Interesting to see how one bad move by a dirty, over-eager cop had so many consequences. I actually thought last night's episode was pretty decent. Enough to want me to come back and watch next week at least.

 

I'm with you, Cosmo. Enjoyed last night's episode more than most of last season. I'm in (again).

 

Is it really "one move" by a dirty cop? The show is suggesting a massive conspiracy, which was merely waiting and licking its chops for a dirty cop to conveniently request doctored photos.

I will watch until the promise of Season 1 -- Who Killed Rosie Larsen? -- is answered.

Meanwhile, this show is unintentional comedy.

-- Richmond, in order to protect his campaign, decided it was better to hide his alibi and remain THE prime suspect in a child murder rather than risk revealing he'd attempted suicide. Yeah, that makes sense.

-- Richmond's lawyers will reign fire down on Linden if...if...if...someone (the evil press?, portrayed cartoonishly and stereotypically at every turn) finds out that he tried to commit suicide. Oreeeely? For telling the truth? For revealing his alibi?

As opposed to, say, suing the hell out of the Seattle PD for wrongful prosecution.

-- The D.A. actually wavers about dropping charges. By all means, proceed with a case where numerous parties know the evidence is doctored.

-- The toll-booth photo order was made using Linden's badge number?

The case against Richmond breaks in Season 1 12 days into the investigation, even though tracing "chain of command" on the car containing Rosie would have been the FIRST thing any rookie detective would have done.

This is a show the feigns complexity and suspense and relies on astonishingly unbelievable human behavior to do so.

Its fiction. But you don't see Stan Larsen turning into a gargoyle and flying around Seattle.

 

SPOILER ALERT!!

 

I just can't stop watching though. I must know who killed Rosie Larsen. It will be interesting to see how the detective who now knows he was a stooge reacts.

 

All true. I am still watching, but the characters' ridiculous, counterintuitive reactions invented to keep the "suspense" going are annoying. I can't think of anything stupider than Linden running around keeping the "secret" of the doctored photo. Hell, tell the reporter and get it on the front page of the Seattle Times. Poof goes the conspiracy and the need to run around hiding in motels. And poof goes the rest of the season, I guess.
Ditto with Holder and the backpack. Go to the FBI. Do something. You're just gonna keep it in your trunk? Sure, that's smart. And believable.

Anybody want to guess how soon Stan seeks comfort in the arms of his sister-in-law? And how quickly that event is followed by the reappearance of his wife?

 

Right now Holder is the only character you can have any sympathy for, because he's obviously been played. Previously he's been as unlikeable as everybody else, including Linden, who makes some of the dumbest moves for a detective in TV annals.

Meanwhile, the "conspiracy" spreads. Isn't this storyline getting just a little too common and unoriginal in TV drama these days? Why not just have everyone get hit by a truck? It's just as predictable.

 

Holder is sympathetic ONLY in relation to everyone else on the show.

He doctored evidence (which could and would have been vetted on Day 1 or 2 of the investigation in a non-absurd universe) AND covered his ass by using his partner's badge number.

He is, at best, a gaping albeit flawed asshole.

But I will keep watching to find out whodunit. And to bitch about the show's pretzellian logic.

 

I agree, Zim. I was referring to degrees of sympathetic quality. And I'll probably keep watching out of some sense of abject curiosity. And someone should tell Richmond if it's leaked that a fisherman pulled him out of the water, the truth is a libel defense. Just sayin'. God, most of these characters are idiots.

 

That was kind of "Point 1" of my rant. The characters on the show operate in a universe that ranges from "really stupid" to "abjectly unbelievable".

The entire "mystery" is essentially being driven by an unbelievably inept and inexplicably corrupt police department while pretending to be something clever.

It is a "Pandora's Box of shit," to borrow a line that made me hold back laughter.

 

Yes, incely put.
I think we're to believe that the current mayor is pulling all the puppet strings on the corrupt police, but he is a cartoonish buffoon who is easily misled, as Richmond's aide proved last season.

 

This show began to lose me last season when the big break in the case was "he must have driven more than we though because nobody ever stops for gas unless they are on empty."

After the finale I vowed not to watch this season, but I am curious enough about who did it I keep checking this thread.