Resolution recedes further

In its first season, the offbeat crime series, The Killing, started with a really cool idea and then blew it big time.

Now, as season two is about to unfold, the question is: can this show win back the sceptics who feel burned by it?

Presenting itself as a fresh alternative to broadcast television's formulaic crime-of-the-week shows, The Killing took on a single case - the murder of Seattle teenager Rosie Larsen - and examined it in-depth, from various angles, over 13 moody episodes.

It instantly seized our attention.

Then came a disappointing bait-and-switch finale.

Instead of providing a resolution, executive producer Veena Sud and her writerskept the case open, tossing in wild, out-of-nowhere twists right at the end.

For the show's ever-patient devotees who expected some closure, it was a slap in the face - a senseless act of disrespect and betrayal. So the haters went on a rampage.

Critics and viewers tore into Sud, many of them vowing to dump the show for good.

All the clamour put specialty cable TV channel AMC executives in the awkward position of having to apologise without overtly admitting doing anything wrong.

At a news conference with TV critics last year, network programming chief Joel Stillerman said: "If we had to do anything differently ... we would have taken a different approach with respect to managing the expectations ..."

Now, as 13 new episodes come down the pipeline, Sud and AMC are doing their best to head off those expectations, telling anyone who's still listening that - spoiler alert! - Rosie Larsen's killer will be revealed at the conclusion of season two.

But is that what fans really want to hear?

That they've spent 13 hours following a complex, sprawling mystery, just to be told they're only halfway there?

Ratings will provide the answers in coming weeks, but first a quick review.

When season one ended, stoic homicide detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos, left) believed the Larsen case was solved. But suddenly, one phone call changed everything: the prime suspect, mayoral candidate Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell) apparently might be innocent, and Linden's partner, Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman, far left) might be corrupt.

The good news is that tomorrow's two-hour opener answers several key questions in relatively rapid fashion and in ways that don't seem totally unreasonable. The bad news is it also puts Sarah back at square one, and therein lies the problem.

Even before critics vented their spleens in righteous outrage over last year's finale, the show had developed a limp.

In their effort to lather the Larsen case over a full season, the writers found themselves backed into narrative corners with too much time to fill. So they frantically threw out red-herrings and eye-rolling plot contrivances like 24 used to do.

It was sort of like watching a basketball team trying to run out the clock and looking foolish in the process.

Moreover, the longer we spent with the show's brooding characters, the more we came to realise that they were an unbearably dour and detestable bunch (though, the goofy/quirky Holder remains oddly captivating).

So the thought of spending 13 more hours with them in dark, rainy Seattle and being teased with clues that lead to dead ends doesn't exactly make our eyes light up in anticipation.

Of course, the show could always redeem itself, but for now, The Killing seems a lot less thrilling.

The second season of The Killing premieres tomorrow at 8.30pm on SoHo.

 

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