The Killing Season 4: What America got criminally wrong

22 August 2014 - 02:25 By Melvyn Minnaar
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TOP NOTCH: Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is the chief detective on the case
TOP NOTCH: Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) is the chief detective on the case
Image: FOX

The subtle shift from the original Danish title Forbrydelsen ('The Crime') to the one for the have-to-remake American version, The Killing, erased its subtle double meaning.

When the talented Søren Sveistrup created the first series way back in 2007 for that country's national TV, the complexity of the dramatic narrative and the vivid characters were repeated in the ambiguity of the title.

Whose crime is it anyway?

Morality as the string balances the puppets at play.

As this, the fourth season of The Killing, now racing towards its end on M Net Showcase, makes clear, it is as much about the intrigue and solution of a crime as it is about how the characters spin out the story while exposing their own foibles.

In this series the detective duo, Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder - who took the first two series to solve the killing of the teenager Rosie Larsen - stumble upon another family murder. But this is only part of a kaleidoscope of intrigues that has enveloped them since they discovered in the series three that Linden's former partner, lover and boss was a serial killer.

What Sveistrup created is the modern version of a whodunnit. Episodes constantly shift the focus from person to person, place to place. Tension is ever tuned high like a piece of music rushing towards its finale, but not getting there... which makes it, of course, all too watchable.

What the American version does get right - and is beautifully and succinctly demonstrated in these final six episodes - is the casting.

Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman, who play the two all-too-human detectives who anchor the entire project, seem to play that dark paradox, suggested in the original, to the hilt. This is top-notch acting, and they are not left in the lurch by the supporting cast and crew.

  • 'The Killing' is aired every Wednesday on M-Net Showcase at 9pm. The final episode, 'Eden' is on September 10
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