The Killing
I'm only watching this show now. I'm up to 1x11 and I don't get how this show went from being so good in the first two episodes and showing so much promise to ending up being so badly handled after that. The first two episode feels like a completely different show to me. Missing was the first episode in a long while that actually held my interest all the way through. And that's a big problem on it's own because this episode puts the investigation (which is the main draw of the show), and everything related to it mostly on hold. Focusing an entire episode on Linden's personal life and Linden and Holder bonding while leaving out everything else was also an incredibly weird choice (especially following an episode that put them back at square one with the investigation) and had come a few episodes to late imo. So while I did like this episode, I couldn't help but feel it was a somewhat of waste of an episode at the same time.
Not to say that was my only issue with it. This is one of those episodes asks you put aside common sense and accept things like Linden and Holder spending a whole day looking for her son as if they had a whole day to spare while waiting for the warrant. Wasn't there anything else for them to do while waiting? I mean if Linden hadn't noticed the ATM, what would they be doing then? This also came after they had just ended up back at square one with the investigation in the previous episode. So you'd almost expect them to be working harder to find new leads.Then there's the coincedence of there being a kid that fits Jack's description found dead while she was looking for him. And why Linden didn't think to call Jack's dad when he went missing. He's a teenager acting out, has issues with his mother, and he's brought up his father before. Holder even throws out that possibilty in this episode a couple times, yet she doesn't think to actually check with that. Instead Linden chose to just ignore that possibility and run around the place trying to find him. If they couldnt have her contact him (since found out that's where Jack was) they could have atleast told us something like maybe Linden doesn't have a way to get in contact with him. Something that might have made her not looking into that make sense.
The reason this show as been so much of a disappointment to me is because it had so much going for it. The writing was good, there was some great acting, and I like murder mysteries so was also that. And I saw it as the kind of show I could truly get into. But then it was one bad things after the other.
I've come across an article that mentioned the fact that they don't reveal who Rosie's killer is in the first season finale. And I don't get it. The show as barely been managing to find ways to prolong the investigation so far, with the overuse of red herrings and weak plot twists that never really lead to much of anything or gets them them any closer to the truth. So why on earth would they actually push back revealing the killer ? I get that a show with a premise like this can be hard to deal with especially when you want to go further then one season but I still think that was bad idea. Unless they plan on doing a better job with the murder mystery and fleshing out the characters at the same time and find a way to make me care about these characters, especially Rosie, then I guess I can get on board with that. But yeah, I'm not very hopeful right now.
One of the benefits of a show like this is that it can let us get to know the victims then an episode of Law and Order, CSI, and other crime shows can. The crazy thing about this show though is that eleven episodes in and I don't feel like I know Rosie at all. If anything there are times when I barely remember what she looks like. A couple reviews I've read have brought up how little effort the show as put into letting us get to know her character and in trying to make us care about her. This one from an AV-CLUB review of the show is of them that describes some of my feelings on this.
I think one of the reasons that The Killing, despite its significant potential, is so far just-kinda-okay, is that Rosie is just a big black hole at the center of the story. Instead of getting to know her through the investigation, we’re getting to know everyone else. (Ideally, of course, we’d be doing both.) This is a problem because it means we don’t care terribly about the identity of her killer-at least not on a visceral, I'd-pay-a-hundred-bucks-to-know-the-answer-now level. Murder mysteries should inspire obsessive, fevered speculation, and I doubt anyone feels that passionately about discovering the identity of Rosie’s killer. There is also something undeniably creepy about how irrelevant Rosie has become to her own murder. Finding her killer matters only slightly more than finding out why Linden almost lost her son, or what’s the deal with Mitch’s cuckoo sister.
I won't get into the issue of the police work on this show which as been pretty bad up until now. This show rely's too much on "coincidences", ridiclous plot devices, and red herrings to keep the storyline going. The case seems to just be a random series of leads that don't get them any closer to the truth. The Benett storyline being the worst of all and took up so much screentime and didn't get us any closer to Rosie's killer. It's one thing if all the leads at least left them with some kind of extra clue to finding the killer but they keep introducing these plot twists, spending quite a of bit time on it, and then nothing really comes off it in the end. And they move on to the next one. It almost feels like they are just making it up as the go.
The Richmond campaign as been hit and miss so far as well. The show hasn't really able to keep it connected to this murder in any real or interesting way. And the campaign itself is just boring. I don't really care who the mole is or about Richmonds weird personality changes with each episode. It's like the writers completely forget the one episode = one day thing when portraying him. Nobody's personality or opinions change overnight like his does almost every episode. It's weird. Right now his connection to the murder and this campaign plot is probably the weakest part of the show for me.
I don't really have much to say about Holder. The show seems to go between showing Holder as someone, for all bad clothing and attitude, is good at what he does in own way and someone who really needs to be watched by Linden so he doesn't wreck the investigation.
Linden isn't doing much better either.The whole idea that Linden gets too into her cases might have worked and also added something extra to her character and the show if they handled it better. In the first few episodes it was her boss who was forcing her to stay and see this case through. Linden seemed like she genuinely wanted to be leaving to go see the finance. Until her fiance brings up her issues and suddenly there's a complete turn around in her. Like with most od the characters on this show, I don't feel the show as done enough to make me feel emotionally invested in her.
I liked the Linden and Holder bonding. For the first time in while I found myself really genuinely interested in both of their characters. I think this kind of thing that was desperately needed. They haven't really felt like partners until now. With the exception of a few good scenes their characters and whatever dynamic they were supposed to have just wasn't working well together. It wish these scenes between them in Missing had come earlier though. There was no reason why it needed to take so long to get to this point. They waited too long to really flesh out these characters that I already started to lose any interest in getting to know them by time it happened. I can see why it might have been hard to do an episode like this then. How do you justify the characters putting off the investigation so early into it? Then again you can barely justify them doing it now as well imo. This episode should have happened earlier and it should have happened the way it should have played out here. I wish we would have seen this kind of thing (or scenes of them slowly starting to get along more and starting work as partners in general throughout the season) while they worked on the case and dealt with their personal issues.
TBH I was kinda glad to get a break from the Larsens in Missing. This show works on the one episode = one episode day thing so their grief is realistic I guess. It just isn't entertaining to watch after a while. There are only so many scenes that can have Mitch and Stan wander around in doing the same things in what looks like the same scene in each episode before it gets to be too much. It worked earlier episodes. I loved some of their scenes together and the acting as been good but now it's just tiring. And I was glad to get that break from it.
So yeah, I kinda really hoping the last two episodes somehow gets better. And enough to atleast make me want to stick with the show for s2.
Not to say that was my only issue with it. This is one of those episodes asks you put aside common sense and accept things like Linden and Holder spending a whole day looking for her son as if they had a whole day to spare while waiting for the warrant. Wasn't there anything else for them to do while waiting? I mean if Linden hadn't noticed the ATM, what would they be doing then? This also came after they had just ended up back at square one with the investigation in the previous episode. So you'd almost expect them to be working harder to find new leads.Then there's the coincedence of there being a kid that fits Jack's description found dead while she was looking for him. And why Linden didn't think to call Jack's dad when he went missing. He's a teenager acting out, has issues with his mother, and he's brought up his father before. Holder even throws out that possibilty in this episode a couple times, yet she doesn't think to actually check with that. Instead Linden chose to just ignore that possibility and run around the place trying to find him. If they couldnt have her contact him (since found out that's where Jack was) they could have atleast told us something like maybe Linden doesn't have a way to get in contact with him. Something that might have made her not looking into that make sense.
The reason this show as been so much of a disappointment to me is because it had so much going for it. The writing was good, there was some great acting, and I like murder mysteries so was also that. And I saw it as the kind of show I could truly get into. But then it was one bad things after the other.
I've come across an article that mentioned the fact that they don't reveal who Rosie's killer is in the first season finale. And I don't get it. The show as barely been managing to find ways to prolong the investigation so far, with the overuse of red herrings and weak plot twists that never really lead to much of anything or gets them them any closer to the truth. So why on earth would they actually push back revealing the killer ? I get that a show with a premise like this can be hard to deal with especially when you want to go further then one season but I still think that was bad idea. Unless they plan on doing a better job with the murder mystery and fleshing out the characters at the same time and find a way to make me care about these characters, especially Rosie, then I guess I can get on board with that. But yeah, I'm not very hopeful right now.
One of the benefits of a show like this is that it can let us get to know the victims then an episode of Law and Order, CSI, and other crime shows can. The crazy thing about this show though is that eleven episodes in and I don't feel like I know Rosie at all. If anything there are times when I barely remember what she looks like. A couple reviews I've read have brought up how little effort the show as put into letting us get to know her character and in trying to make us care about her. This one from an AV-CLUB review of the show is of them that describes some of my feelings on this.
I think one of the reasons that The Killing, despite its significant potential, is so far just-kinda-okay, is that Rosie is just a big black hole at the center of the story. Instead of getting to know her through the investigation, we’re getting to know everyone else. (Ideally, of course, we’d be doing both.) This is a problem because it means we don’t care terribly about the identity of her killer-at least not on a visceral, I'd-pay-a-hundred-bucks-to-know-the-answer-now level. Murder mysteries should inspire obsessive, fevered speculation, and I doubt anyone feels that passionately about discovering the identity of Rosie’s killer. There is also something undeniably creepy about how irrelevant Rosie has become to her own murder. Finding her killer matters only slightly more than finding out why Linden almost lost her son, or what’s the deal with Mitch’s cuckoo sister.
I won't get into the issue of the police work on this show which as been pretty bad up until now. This show rely's too much on "coincidences", ridiclous plot devices, and red herrings to keep the storyline going. The case seems to just be a random series of leads that don't get them any closer to the truth. The Benett storyline being the worst of all and took up so much screentime and didn't get us any closer to Rosie's killer. It's one thing if all the leads at least left them with some kind of extra clue to finding the killer but they keep introducing these plot twists, spending quite a of bit time on it, and then nothing really comes off it in the end. And they move on to the next one. It almost feels like they are just making it up as the go.
The Richmond campaign as been hit and miss so far as well. The show hasn't really able to keep it connected to this murder in any real or interesting way. And the campaign itself is just boring. I don't really care who the mole is or about Richmonds weird personality changes with each episode. It's like the writers completely forget the one episode = one day thing when portraying him. Nobody's personality or opinions change overnight like his does almost every episode. It's weird. Right now his connection to the murder and this campaign plot is probably the weakest part of the show for me.
I don't really have much to say about Holder. The show seems to go between showing Holder as someone, for all bad clothing and attitude, is good at what he does in own way and someone who really needs to be watched by Linden so he doesn't wreck the investigation.
Linden isn't doing much better either.The whole idea that Linden gets too into her cases might have worked and also added something extra to her character and the show if they handled it better. In the first few episodes it was her boss who was forcing her to stay and see this case through. Linden seemed like she genuinely wanted to be leaving to go see the finance. Until her fiance brings up her issues and suddenly there's a complete turn around in her. Like with most od the characters on this show, I don't feel the show as done enough to make me feel emotionally invested in her.
I liked the Linden and Holder bonding. For the first time in while I found myself really genuinely interested in both of their characters. I think this kind of thing that was desperately needed. They haven't really felt like partners until now. With the exception of a few good scenes their characters and whatever dynamic they were supposed to have just wasn't working well together. It wish these scenes between them in Missing had come earlier though. There was no reason why it needed to take so long to get to this point. They waited too long to really flesh out these characters that I already started to lose any interest in getting to know them by time it happened. I can see why it might have been hard to do an episode like this then. How do you justify the characters putting off the investigation so early into it? Then again you can barely justify them doing it now as well imo. This episode should have happened earlier and it should have happened the way it should have played out here. I wish we would have seen this kind of thing (or scenes of them slowly starting to get along more and starting work as partners in general throughout the season) while they worked on the case and dealt with their personal issues.
TBH I was kinda glad to get a break from the Larsens in Missing. This show works on the one episode = one episode day thing so their grief is realistic I guess. It just isn't entertaining to watch after a while. There are only so many scenes that can have Mitch and Stan wander around in doing the same things in what looks like the same scene in each episode before it gets to be too much. It worked earlier episodes. I loved some of their scenes together and the acting as been good but now it's just tiring. And I was glad to get that break from it.
So yeah, I kinda really hoping the last two episodes somehow gets better. And enough to atleast make me want to stick with the show for s2.