The Killing Information

The Killing is an American crime drama television series based on the Danish television series Forbrydelsen (literally The Crime) translated as The Killing in its English language distribution. The American version was developed by Veena Sud and produced by Fox Television Studios and Fuse Entertainment. The series' first season, consisting of 13 hour-long episodes, premiered on the cable channel AMC on April 3, 2011, with a two-hour premiere. On June 13, 2011, AMC ordered a second season that contained 13 episodes, which debuted on April 1, 2012, with a two-hour premiere. AMC announced on July 27, 2012, that the series would not be renewed for a third season. However, on January 15, 2013, AMC and Fox Television Studios announced that the series had been renewed for a 12 episode third season.

Cast

Main

• Mireille Enos as Sarah Linden, the lead homicide detective
• Joel Kinnaman as Stephen Holder, Sarah's homicide detective partner
• Billy Campbell as Darren Richmond, politician running for mayor of Seattle (regular season 1"2)
• Michelle Forbes as Mitch Larsen, Rosie's mother (regular season 1"2)
• Brent Sexton as Stan Larsen, Rosie's father (regular season 1"2)
• Kristin Lehman as Gwen Eaton, Darren's lover and his campaign adviser (regular season 1"2)
• Eric Ladin as Jamie Wright, Darren's campaign manager (regular season 1"2)
• Brendan Sexton III as Belko Royce, Stan's co-worker and close friend (regular season 1, guest star season 2)
• Jamie Anne Allman as Terry Marek, Mitch's younger sister and Rosie's aunt (regular season 1"2)
• Annie Corley as Regi Darnell, Sarah's social worker and mother figure, who also helps take care of Sarah's son Jack (regular season 1, guest star season 2)
• Liam James as Jack Linden, Sarah's son (recurring season 1, regular season 2)
• Peter Sarsgaard as Tom Seward, an inmate in death row for the murder of his wife (regular season 3)
• Amy Seimetz as Danette Lutz, a single mother of a missing girl (regular season 3)
• Bex Taylor-Klaus as Bullet, a tough guy who turns out to be a girl (regular season 3)
• Johnny Ray Gill as Alton Singleterry, a gangbanger inmate in death row (regular season 3)
• Elias Koteas as Ed Skinner, Linden's former partner (regular season 3)
• Max Fowler as Twitch, a streetwise teenaged boy (regular season 3)
• Hugh Dillon as Becker, a death row inmate who goes head to head with Tom (regular season 3)

Recurring

• Evan Bird as Tom Larsen, Rosie's brother (season 1"2)
• Seth Isaac Johnson as Denny Larsen, Rosie's brother (season 1"2)
• Tom Butler as Lesley Adams, the mayor (season 1"2)
• Garry Chalk as Lt. Michael Oakes, the detectives' boss (season 1"2)
• Katie Findlay as Rosie Larsen, the teenage girl who was found dead (season 1"2)
• Brandon Jay McLaren as Bennet Ahmed, a teacher at Rosie's high school (season 1"2)
• Ashley Johnson as Amber Ahmed, Bennet Ahmed's wife (season 1"2)
• Callum Keith Rennie as Rick Felder, Sarah's fiancé (season 1"2)
• Kacey Rohl as Sterling Fitch, Rosie's best friend (season 1"2)
• Alan Dale as Senator Eaton, Gwen's father (season 1"2)
• Richard Harmon as Jasper Ames, Rosie's ex-boyfriend (season 1-2)
• Barclay Hope as Michael Ames, Jasper's father (seasons 1-2)
• Claudia Ferri as Nicole Jackson, the manager of the Wapi Eagle Casino (season 1-2)
• Don Thompson as Janek Kovarsky, a figure from Stan Larsen's shady past (season 1-2)
• Mark Moses as Lt. Erik Carlson, Linden's new boss at the police department (season 2)
• Brian Markinson as Gil Sloane, Holder's NA sponsor (season 2)
• Aaron Douglas as Gabe, a death row prison guard (season 3)
• Andrew Jenkins as Cody, Sarah's co-worker from the ferry (season 3)
• Benjamin Charles Watson as Rayna, a transgender teen (season 3)

Series overview

Set in Seattle, Washington, the series follows the various murder investigations by homicide detectives Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, with each episode covering 24 hours of the investigation.

Season one (2011)

See The Killing (season 1) for more information The first season covers the first two weeks of the investigation of the murder of local teenager Rosie Larsen and has three main storylines: the police investigation into Rosie's murder, the Larsen family's attempts to deal with their grief, and the fluctuating electoral fortunes of a political campaign that becomes embroiled in the case.

Season two (2012)

The second season debuted on April 1, 2012, with a two-hour premiere. The season resumes the investigation into the murder and reveals secrets about the Larsen family as well as a possible conspiracy within the campaign race and the Seattle police department. The Larsen murder case gets closed, with the discovery of those involved in it.

Season three (2013)

A year after the Rosie Larsen case, Stephen Holder searches for a runaway girl and uncovers a string of murders connecting to Sarah Linden's previous murder investigation. Linden, no longer a detective, must return to both a career and a case she had put behind her.

Production

The pilot was ordered by AMC in January 2010, and then was picked up for a full series order in August 2010. The series is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, with some scenes in season two filmed in Coquitlam, British Columbia at Riverview Hospital. Production began on the pilot episode on December 2, 2010. The pilot is written by series creator and executive producer Veena Sud and is directed by Patty Jenkins.

In contrast to the original Danish series, executive producer Veena Sud explained, "We're creating our own world. We are using the Danish series as a blueprint, but we are kind of diverging and creating our own world, our world of suspects and, potentially, ultimately who killed Rosie Larsen." Sud describes the series as "slow-burn storytelling in a sense that every moment that we don't have to prettify or gloss over or make something necessarily easy to digest, that we're able to go to all sorts of places that are honest, and dark, and beautiful and tragic, in a way that is how a story should be told."

Cancellation and revival

AMC announced on July 27, 2012, that the series would not be renewed for a third season. However, Fox Television Studios announced that they were attempting to shop the show to other networks. In August 2012, it was revealed that Fox Television Studios was in talks with both DirecTV and Netflix in an attempt to revive the series. In November 2012, it was confirmed that Fox Television Studios were in final negotiations with Netflix in order to continue the series for a third season. AMC, who had originally canceled the show, was also included in part of the deal. The deal in question would gain the network the privilege of airing the new episodes before they are hosted by Netflix in return for sharing any associated production costs with Netflix. Variety reported on November 30, 2012, that the show will be returning to AMC, planning for a May 2013 debut, with production set to begin months before that. Cast members Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman are confirmed to return, with Veena Sud as showrunner and returning writers including executive producers Dawn Prestwich and Nicole Yorkin. On December 12, 2012, it was confirmed that cast members Billy Campbell, Michelle Forbes and Brent Sexton will not return for the third season.

On January 15, 2013, AMC and Fox Television Studios announced that the series has been renewed for a 12 episode third season. Production started on February 25, 2013 in Vancouver, Canada and is scheduled to end on June 25, 2013.

Reception

Critical reception

Season one

The series premiere received universal acclaim from critics, and holds a Metacritic score of 84/100. Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter gave the series a very positive review, calling it "excellent, absorbing and addictive. When each episode ends, you long for the next " a hallmark of great dramas." Goodman also praised Mireille Enos' performance as the lead character Sarah, saying "It's not until you watch Enos play Sarah for a while that it sinks in " there hasn't been a female American character like her probably ever." Entertainment Weeklys Ken Tucker gave it a B+, saying "The acting is strikingly good" and that "Some viewers may find The Killing a little too cold and deliberate, but give it time. Its intensity builds steadily, giving the series unexpected power." Alex Strachan of The Vancouver Sun says the series "is soaked in atmosphere and steeped in the stark realism of Scandinavian crime novelists Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson" and that it "is not as much about a young girl's murder as it is a psychological study of what happens afterward, how a tight-knit community tries to recover and how a dead child's mother, father and siblings learn to deal with their pain in their own private ways." Matt Roush of TV Guide applauded the series, calling the acting "tremendous" and that he "was instantly hooked by the moody atmosphere of this season-long murder mystery set in Seattle." He went on to say "What really stands out for me, in this age of cookie-cutter procedurals, is how The Killing dramatizes the devastation a violent death has on a family, a community, on the people involved in the investigation. Nothing about this show is routine."

Subsequent episodes were met with lesser praise by some critics, criticizing the show's reliance upon increasingly implausible red herrings to drive each episode, and the withholding of details about each characters' background, especially Rosie's, thus making them difficult to relate to or empathize with.

The first season finale was met with negative reviews from a number of critics. The Los Angeles Times called it "one of the most frustrating finales in TV history", with Alan Sepinwall of HitFix.com calling the end "insulting". Finally, Maureen Ryan of AOL TV said the finale "killed off any interest I had in ever watching the show again." "[The show] began last spring looking like the smartest, most stylish pilot in years," complained Heather Havrilevsky in The New York Times Magazine. "Fast-forward to the finale, in which we learn that what we've been watching is actually a 26-hour-long episode of Law & Order, and we're only halfway through it."

Season two

The early seasonal episodes received generally favorable reviews from critics, scoring a 68 on Metacritic. Lori Rackl of the Chicago Sun-Times stated: "Few television shows are as addictive as this pensive, wonderfully paced suspenser." The Washington Posts Hank Stuever stated: "My own enjoyment of The Killing begins and ends with the gloom so brilliantly conveyed by its pace and performances." Brian Lowry of Variety stated the series remained "compelling," adding "the writers... are adept at overcoming the stodgy pace by dangling tantalizing clues near each hour's end, creating a strong pull to see what transpires next." HitFix's Alan Sepinwall compared this season to the first and called it "better". He added: "The performances are still good, and now the characterization is a bit better. When you add that to the fine atmosphere... and you view the mystery itself as a kind of necessary evil that allows you to see the parts of the show that do work, then it's not bad."

The season finale "What I Know" received mixed reviews. Sepinwall stated: "I'd like to say that season 2 of The Killing was an improvement on season 1, and in some ways, it probably was. The second season certainly did a better job of doing what Veena Sud claimed to be doing last year, in that it took advantage of the extra time to sketch in some of the characters... I honestly feel like any kinder feelings I have for the second season came from the complete lack of investment I had in it." Sean McKenna of TV Fanatic rated the finale 4.7 out of 5 stars, but, upon first viewing, "wasn't sure what to feel. I wasn't elated. I wasn't excited," however, after watching it again, was "sucked into the world, mesmerized not by the victory of our hero cops...but by the gut-wrenching moments that unfolded." CraveOnline's William Bibbiani called the finale "an odd duck." After citing Jamie's early revelation as "melodramatic silliness", Bibbiani added: "The rest of the episode gets its job done, with one major, glaring flaw. The characters end up more or less where they need to be, but some nearly ridiculous loose ends remain." Brandon Nowalk of The A.V. Club rated this finale a C-, calling it "so unconvincing," adding "I couldn't believe how little all this resolution affected me after The Killing so thrillingly took my grudging engagement for a ride a few weeks ago. This is the same show that delivered Richmond's hospital nightmare, the hunt for Holder, the anti-Western standoff "Sayonara, Hiawatha," and the crazy train of the last two weeks? No, this is the full-circle episode, the one that takes the show back to its roots. Wah wah."

Ratings

When it premiered, the pilot was AMC's second-highest original series premiere following The Walking Dead. The premiere drew 2.7 million viewers and a 2 household rating. The two encores of the premiere episode brought the ratings of the premiere up to a total of 4.6 million total viewers and a 3.7 household rating. The UK premiere on Channel 4 brought in 2.2 million viewers. In the second season, the viewership and ratings dipped to a series low 1.59 million viewers and 0.6 rating with adults aged 18"49.

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
2011	1st Critics' Choice Television Awards	Best Drama Series	The Killing
		Best Actress in a Drama Series	Mireille Enos
		Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	Michelle Forbes
	63rd Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Mireille Enos
		Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series	Michelle Forbes
		Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series	Patty Jenkins (Episode: "Pilot")
		Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series	Veena Sud (Episode: "Pilot")
		Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series	Elizabeth Kling (Episode: "Pilot")
		Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series	The Killing
2012	38th Saturn Awards	Best Television Presentation	The Killing
		Best Actress in Television	Mireille Enos
		Best Supporting Actor in Television	Joel Kinnaman
		Best Supporting Actress in Television	Michelle Forbes
	64th Writers Guild of America Awards	Best New Series	The Killing
	69th Golden Globe Awards	Best Actress " TV Series Drama	Mireille Enos
	Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series	Patty Jenkins

Distribution

Netflix

In March 2013, Netflix, an on-demand Internet provider, closed negotiations with Fox Television Studios with a deal to be the exclusive subscription service for the series' third season. Netflix will stream the season approximately three months after its finale. It already provides the first two seasons.

International distribution

Country	Channel	Premiere date
	A&E Network Brasil	2011
	AMC	April 3, 2011
	Paris Première	October 17, 2011
	RTL Crime	March 1, 2013
	TVB Pearl	January 11, 2012
	Yes Oh	January 26, 2012
	Fox Crime	November 3, 2011
	TV3	December 6, 2012
	TV3	October 25, 2011
	TV JOJ	January 7, 2013
	TV4	June 13, 2011
	Channel 4	July 7, 2011
	Fox Crime	November 14, 2011
	Fox	2012

Online promotion

Season one promotion on AMC's The Killing website included "Rosie's Room", a virtual simulation of murder victim Rosie Larsen's bedroom that users could explore in order to learn more about Rosie's life and search for secrets and clues that could help lead to the discovery of who is responsible for her untimely death. Users could peek inside Rosie's dresser, look under her bed, listen to her answering machine messages, flip through her vinyl record collection, and explore her laptop computer to access her social networking profile, vlogs, photos and emails. Season one promotion also included an interactive application called the "Suspect Tracker", where users could vote each week for who they think is the prime suspect in the murder investigation and discuss their theories about the case and its suspects with other fans. A personality quiz titled "How Would You Be Cast in a Crime Thriller?" was also released prior to season one, which told users what part they would be cast in on The Killing based on their reactions to various crime-related situations. AMC's The Killing website also featured exclusive sneak peek and behind the scenes videos, trivia games, numerous photo galleries, episode and character guides, a blog, and a community forum.

For season two's promotion, AMC's The Killing website added the "Rosie Larsen Interactive Case File", which gives a glimpse into the suspects, evidence, crime scene photographs, and documents related to the case.

See also