The Killing on BBC4

[Angle]

Would it not be great if that proved to be the case? After fifty years or more of US gangsters and detectives, the appearance of Spiral a couple of years ago came as a welcome and invigorating breath of fresh air and excitement. Spiral II continued the pace and whetted the appetite for even more. All the Wallanders were super and The Killing was breath-taking.

The arrival of Spiral III tomorrow has me in an an already restless state, as has the forthcoming screening of The Killing II.

The high quality of writing, direction, acting and all support roles, of these mainland European productions put America's assembly line tv products to shame and with any luck will steer the BBC more often towards continental opportunities - but please let's have the original footage: spare us English language remakes. Somehow, the subtitles add to the excitement and while the Branagh versions of Wallander had their merit, they were not much of a match for the originals.

And I don't usually go for detective stories!

Don

[Uncle Monty]

So, lonely, scruffy, out-of-favour woman detective with a dodgy home life and under pressure from corrupt superiors, and stuck with a thuggish male colleague, obsesses over a baffling homicide case, which involves dastardly goings-on in the city's mayoral office. The stupid and violent police dash mob-handed like heavily armed-headless chickens on one wild goose chase after another (a poultry theme emerging here), usually involving going into dark buildings with torches instead of turning the lights on, and we get a protracted succession of red herrings and blind alleys before the eventual denouement.

I'm getting fed up with this. Thank heavens it's Spiral next up, something completely different for Saturday nights.

Er, wait a moment. . .

[Mahlerei]

Uncle Monty

Yes indeed; Laure is Lund's twin. My kids watched the first few minutes of last night's episode and left the room muttering darkly about the weird stuff their parents watch. And yet they're happy to watch horror flicks. In their minds those aren't as disturbing as the things they they see in The Killing and Spiral. Perhaps modern horror as a genre has become such a cliche - they seem to be parodies of each other - that no one takes them seriously anymore.

[DracoM]

Except that Laure has some kind of enigmatic need for the thug Gilou who regularly drives her investogations closer and closer to the wind. Svelte Pierre / Ginger-haired avocat mechante is back as well. The bug-eyed gangsta boss of Pierre looks ripe for a towsing, but I bet he isn't. Tired middle aged Local goverment apparatchiks all over the place.......so France is same as us? Sad epiphany - another myth bites the dust. You just have to hang in to see where the multiplicity of plot threads is going.

Praise to BBC4 for bringing us a goldmine. Takes me back to student days with subtitles. French flicflicks don't go for much clever / beautiful photography as part of The Killing and all the Swedish Wallander did apparently. Still..............can't have everything.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i was interested in the career background on the actress who played Lund but the piece was essentially trite ...

Spiral III is an excellent replacement for saturday night .... if Berthaud doesn't change from that drooping tshirt she will incur sexual harassment charges every time she leans forward in an interrogation ... [not something that could be said about Lund!]

les flics are a scruffy lot

.. in both series [Killing & Spiral] the cops run after a lead and into disappointment, Wallander stands back and reflects .... for ages ...

Laure seems in deeper trouble than Lund, frantic rather than obsessive ...

[austin]

And if you missed it or want to watch it all again!!

http://tinyurl.com/3t88cqc[/URL]

[PatrickOD]

i was interested in the career background on the actress who played Lund but the piece was essentially trite ...

I suppose I should have been too, but in this instance I wasn't. All the players did a fine job, the plot twisted wonderfully, the tension was maintained and the production was visually satisfying. It all stood successfully alone, and I fear a sequel will be disappointing.

I might watch part 2 of Spiral. Part 1 ended with that old 'eyes-flash-open' cliche, which still works! but which rather put me off. I feel a load of deja vu coming on.

[Angle]

I liked the Spiral and Spiral II very much but having watched the whole of The Killing from the edge of my seat, the pace of Spiral II seems over-excited. I wonder what new-comers will make of all the back references to the previous series.

[johnb]

Am I the only person who is reminded of 'Life on Mars' by Spiral?

Is this really how the French police operates? It seems a time warp - back to the 50s - casual police brutality, suspects interviewed in the police offices rather than in an interview room, no forensics called in to examine the site where the first body was found, detectives instantly jumping to conclusions on minimal evidence.

'This Killing' it isn't, but it well help with my withdrawal symptoms.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

point taken johnb; but without the time travel, just a cultural 'survival' ....

re The Killing the yanks are now at it as only they do ....

[aeolium]

Am I the only person who is reminded of 'Life on Mars' by Spiral?

Is this really how the French police operates? It seems a time warp - back to the 50s - casual police brutality, suspects interviewed in the police offices rather than in an interview room, no forensics called in to examine the site where the first body was found, detectives instantly jumping to conclusions on minimal evidence.

Not so much 'Life on Mars' but 'Red Riding', that extremely grim series based on David Peace's novels on corruption and brutality in Yorkshire policing in the 1970s and 1980s. I don't think I'll be persisting with 'Spiral' - it seems to lack any spark of humanity or, as you say, even the most basic procedures of obtaining evidence before jumping to conclusions.

[Mobson7]

That extremely grim series was well received when it came to Channel 4 in 2009, wasn't it..won lots of plaudits, but not from me, despite the great cast including Andrew Garfield, now an oscar nominee, and knowing the production designer on the series; whilst wanting to show support, I simply could not watch it even when it was repeated! For those who are curious, the whole series (3 @ 99mins) can still be watched free on:

http://www.seesaw.com/TV/Drama/b-5151-Red-Riding?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=red%2Briding%2Btv&utm_content=Phrase&utm_campaign=Red%2BRiding&gclid=CLbc2aXHhagCFUdP4QodZDFArQ

Spiral III's acting seems slightly ridiculous after the measured if prolonged performances in The Killing, following the one off Wallander series with Henriksson, not Branagh (didn't watch those), and despite all the blood and gore, I found myself laughing once or twice at the manic and outrageous behaviour of the police crew; the smugness of the redhead until she nearly got it shot off, and the town hall shenanigans....still I suppose it does a fill a gap in schedules until something else comes along!

[aeolium]

One thing about all these series, compared with the traditional detective/police series, is that they show among other things the number of errors made during a criminal investigation and to that extent they are more realistic. Of course the incompetence of the police was a feature of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and police corruption was brought out in Raymond Chandler's Marlowe stories. On the other hand, police procedure is now far better regulated than it used to be - anyone remember the bad old days of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad?

[kernelbogey]

[....]they show among other things the number of errors made during a criminal investigation and to that extent they are more realistic. [....]

But what made The Killing outstanding is the way it showed human relationships in all their complexity: the power games and the partnership between Lund and Meyer, the grief of Pernille and Theis pulling them together and then apart, the comradeship and rivalry between Troels and Bremer, the rivalry and suspicions among Troels's staff and so on and so on. I'm not very familiar with UK cops 'n' robbers but this seemed streets ahead.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

but this seemed streets ahead.

absolutely; better even than the Swedish Wallander with Krister Henriksson and Lena Endre ... [sigh]