The Killing II

The Killing II

 I am such an old fashioned guy. This manifests itself in many ways; my love of old comedy shows - Dick Van Dyke, Bilko - my love of neatly crafted plots, my dislike of any music that sounds more like a security alarm. Now I discover that it's actually old fashioned to watch a television show. I mean really watch. Apparently I should be watching whilst updating my Facebook, playing games on my phone – sorry, mobile communications device, beam me up, Mr Scott – whilst listening to some indie scream on my ipod.
Well, sorry, this old fashioned guy likes to watch, give a show my full attention. Okay, there may be the distraction of a warming cup of Earl Grey, several biscuits and, on a Sunday, the entirety of the national press strewn before me and around me as the 4 o'clock football match plays on the TV but generally those shows I choose to watch are those I like to give my full attention to.
So, when it came to the Danish series The Killing, which returned to BBC4 this weekend in a double episode, subtitles were no problem. Because I watch. What those subtitles may have done to people who prefer the less dedicated approach to viewing, the juggling with various other bits of technology as described above, is to make them watch too. The thing about a Danish show for an English speaking viewer not versed in the mother tongue of Hans Christian Anderson is that to follow the plot you absolutely have to read what's there on the screen. And in reading we pay closer attention. Maybe we should make a few of our more elegant shows in foreign languages - just to focus the viewer's mind a little more sharply.
I'd put the first series of The Killing in my top three shows of the year - I came to it late and caught up with the repeats stripped across four weeks. This compressed showing, 6 nights a week, was brilliant. I couldn't wait for ten o'clock each night to find out what twist the next episode would provide. The parallel storylines of a local election and a local murder were intertwined so carefully you never knew where the thing was going but - unlike Lost - it headed towards a finale that satisfied on all levels.
However, the show wasn't written or plotted in entirely before fiming commenced. The writers were working on the storyline and scripts as the show was going out. To be fair, much American writing follows the same pattern but here in the UK I can't imagine a broadcaster committing to a twenty episode series on the basis that 'this happens and this happens and we'll find our way to a conclusion'.
The Killing was and still is more than just a plot. It is as much a character study as it is a detective story, though the thrills here are more cerebral than car chases and gun battles. Like so many admirers of the show I suggest anyone viewing lock away all other possible distractions because Saturday nights from now until Sarah Lund finds her man - or woman - are going to be compulsive watching.