Is anyone watching this? It is the new AMC series, an American remake of the wildly popular Danish series. Each episode is one day in a police investigation of a killing, so presumably it will be solved in 12-13 days. I have not seen the Danish original, but apparently this first US season hews pretty faithfully to the original. It is too soon to say how good it is — I am three episodes in — but there are promising signs. It is highly derivative of… well, countless dramas of the recent past. There are elements of Twin Peaks, without the supernatural gloss, and several interesting echoes of the X-Files. It is set in Seattle, and the rain and gloom are a major part of the atmospherics. The lead detective is Mireille Enos, and she bears a striking resemblance to a young, harried Gillian Anderson. You don’t get clues so much as new elements of horror. The cast of potential killers gets longer every episode. But while it tiptoes along the edge of melodrama all the time, there is something that sets this drama above the run-of-the-mill police procedural. The depictions of the family of the slain girl, Rosie Larsen, are especially poignant: that father trying to comfort the remaining children; the mother holding her breath under water in the bath to try to imagine what it was like for her daughter to drown to death; the younger son setting a plate for Rosie by mistake. This may not deliver on the promise, but there is promise.
I’ve only seen the first two hours, but we like this a lot in our house. Mireille Enos has a calm, steady presence in front of the camera, and she delivers some priceless, slow burn reaction shots. Enos played a pair of twins on HBO’s “Big Love” for a couple of seasons and was really, really good.
I really like the show and look forward to seeing how it unfolds. I actually thought the lead is more reminiscent of Melissa Leo’s character in HOMICIDE than Gillian Anderson’s in X FILES.
I ended up watching the first three last night, utterly engrossed. There are a few moments too on-the-nose, where the machinery of melodrama and coincidence reminded me of tedious network serials. (E.g., a fired campaign employee, walking by with his stuff in a box just as the politician shakes hands with a former rival). But the acting is superb — Enos is, as Chris and Jeff both note, utterly compelling when she’s just paying attention. Props, too, to Joel Kinnaman, whose Detective Holder is aggressive and unlikable and interesting as hell–I’m not at all sure what he’s capable of.
It’s interesting what other series these folks come in from — the father was good in a small recurring role in season one of Justified; the mother was excellent in season one of In Treatment. As if there’s a LinkedIn for smart cable series work. . .
Mom was also fun as the devourous maenad in the second season of “True Blood.”
Last night… almost made me bail. The AV Club’s write-up, as well as a few of the sharp comments beneath the review, nails it: the show seems to have fallen into not just patterns but a deadening rhythm. No one, besides Holder, is really surprising or confusing me; the dialogue or various scenes’ explorations failed to move the characters much; I’m hanging on simply to track the reveals… and I never stick out a mystery just to see who done it. I might go another week before jumping off.
What a pain. I haven’t watched that episode yet but it was kind of walking a tightrope between arresting TV and conventional melodrama.
I’m out. Sunday’s episode was better, but still limp. I am giving up, and went looking for spoilers from the Danish version.*
*Rosebud is a sled!
Yes. I will probably keep recording it, and maybe watch if the rain we are getting continues to prevent any kids soccer-related activity, but it has become very disappointing. I loved the way the early episodes handled the reaction of Rosie’s family, but it has now become almost pornographic in its obsession with depicting grief. Dangling clues all over the place, combined with a refusal to elaborate on obvious plot elements, is more irritating than atmospheric.