The Killing on BBC4

[aeolium]

Whatever their failings they were like Holmes and Watson compared with Wallander and his bunch of incompetents....

[kernelbogey]

... can't post any more without spoiling it ....can we have a close date on spoilers so we can revisit the plot lines?

How about twenty days?

[PatrickOD]

Spare a thought for two unsung heroes of this excellent series - the mobile phone and those Danish jumpers.

[kernelbogey]

Spare a thought for two unsung heroes of this excellent series - the mobile phone and those Danish jumpers.

Them jumpers have been sung about quite a lot, at least in the Grauniad. They cost around €350.

[PatrickOD]

Them jumpers have been sung about quite a lot, at least in the Grauniad. They cost around €350.

Oh! The Manchester Guardian noticed too! I must have missed that, and I'm usually a fair Observer. The jumpers aren't going for a song, are they? Or am I behind the Times?

Sincere apologies.

[kernelbogey]

Patrick, although you Express yourself rather well, perhaps you just take a rather Mail perspective on clothes? The jumpers are made in the Faroes. No doubt the phones are made in Finland. But don't nokia it.

[Mobson7]

and nicotine gum....don't forget that...Lund was constantly seen fiddling with a blister pack of tablets which she chewed almost constantly until Meyer came on the scene and they started smoking...she went back to them after ... .....!

[string]

Wow what a brilliant show - right to the end. The political espisodes a few weeks back (the ones with Troels as the suspect) were some of my favourites. Agree about the breakup of the Lund/Meyer partnership. Hated the jumpers - but I get the point, especially after all the attention they got. Even though I knew who the killer was in advance (I looked it up on Danish - thanks google - online weeks ago) I still couldn't watch towards the end of ep 19. Scaaarrrrry. (I am very easily spooked though and my computer makes the show look even darker than the TV!)

[kernelbogey]

I'm going to word this in a way that I hope will make sense to those who've watched all twenty episodes, without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't.

While watching the denouement in episode 20 I found myself thinking that the identity of the killer was perhaps still being concealed in a red herring. I think I felt this for two reasons. If you think about the 'confession' - had we seen this in (say) episode 16, it would probably have been revealed as a red herring within an episode or two. Why should we believe this 'solution' more than any of the others we've been presented with?

Secondly, we had the trailer for The Killing II tacked on to the end of E 20: this began with the body of a woman being found tied to a post or tree. So is a serial killer still at large?

Could the person who 'confessed' not be the killer but have other reasons for what he said and did? What do Brix, Bremer, Troels and others know that we don't? Who is the (political?) puppet master behind it all?

[kernelbogey]

Good and witty review in the Guardian here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/26/tv-review-the-killing

And Vicky Frost's blog here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/series/the-killing-episode-by-episode

[Mobson7]

Just in case you missed Saturday's last two episodes or want to see them again, they're repeated on BBC4 tonight from 11pm and 12am respectively...

[Mahlerei]

Oh dear, really missed the boat on this one with my thread on Platform 3 :) Must look in here more often.

BTW, when did Lund ever get any sleep?!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

interview with the actors playing Lund & Hartmann

[PatrickOD]

Thanks for that Calum. I read it, and every word drained a bit of magic from the play. I'm not being petty or argumentative when I say that I don't want to see Hartmann in a beard, or hear Danish sounding like a 'Scouse-Glaswegian mashup'. And I have nothing against the actors - why should I? - but I want to remember Lund and Hartmann et al as they were in the play, not as celebrities in their own right. The play's the thing.

I found the piece a bit self-congratulatory in a strange sort of way, as if the success of the series was down to its acceptance by the British viewers.

OK - maybe I am being petty.

What did you think?

[french frank]

Just for us (well, you, really):

Weds 6 April, 9.15pm, Night Waves:

Nordic Crime Drama

"The Danish crime thriller, The Killing, is drawing to a close on BBC 4. In 20 parts, it spans 20 days of a murder investigation. The Killing is the latest import from Scandinavia, following on from Wallander and the Stieg Larsson trilogy. Matthew Sweet asks if the success of this latest example of Nordic noir is a sign that the British public has tired of American crime dramas."