Forbrydelsen /The Killing (Season 2)
Jun. 3rd, 2014 08:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakJust finished marathoning the second season of Forbrydelsen/The Killing.
Generally speaking, I thought this one had the qualities of the last one but was better constructed than the last one in that there were no late important to the solution of the mystery characters introduced (Frederick Holst could have been such a one, but wasn't, his purpose being a red herring and an excuse for Lund to make that trip to Afghanistan; Holst himself added no new information). There was at least one moment where my suspension of disbelief broke down entirely, though, and it wasn't in Afghanistan; it was when Lund, aware that there's a killer after all members of a certain group on the loose leaves one of the two surviving members of said group alone in her car in order to give chase. One of her superiors called her out on that later, but I don't think we were meant to agree with them.
The whodunit aspect was good - I changed my mind several times, but ultimately came down to who did it because who else would have a reason to not kill Lund that time mid season? Lund's reason for figuring it out, however, was far better on a Watsonian level. She'd asked several times through the course of the series just how Anne the lawyer, the first victim, had discovered new proof, and there'd never been an answer, plus we heard even in the first episode that Anne had installed all these security systems, i.e. had expected a threat, and yet she hadn't called the police.
Civilian deaths in Afghanistan, unauthorized missions and govermental cover-ups are of course still a timely topic. As with the first series, there was a paralllel political storyline, which I thought was very well done - right until the end. Which felt like a lazy way for the series creator to make the point "even well meaning politicians get corrupted by the system" all over again without having done the groundlaying character work, because as opposed to the first season's pov politician, who started out well meaning but also ambitious, Thomas Buch wasn't presented as ambitious for advancement, so his "if you can't beat them, join them" decision at the end felt like plot over character. Not to mention that I don't really buy the media wouldn't have jumped at Buch's story about the Prime Minister, and that Buch, having just witnessed the PM throwing his old ally Rossing to the dogs, had no reason to believe the man would even keep his promises instead of firing him a month later. So, a weak ending, which is a shame because until then the political storyline was good, with Buch as a rare overweight lead.
Jens-Peter Raben, the veteran locked up for PTSD, escaping early on, had the most important subplot and here the show played fair by on the one hand offering the possibility that Raben had invented the officer because he couldn't cope with his own guilt but on the other, since Raben had been still in prison for the first two murders, making it clear SOMEONE was out there killing people who couldn't be Raben. My early guess for the killer (and officer-gone-beserker) had been Raben's rival Sorgard, but I hadn't considered Raben would have recognized him immediately and so would the other soldiers have, which the show pointed out, too. It did occur to me that the officer-goes-beserk scenario did lack something - i.e what did everyone else do? - and thankfullly Lund asked the very thing I wanted to know, "what did you do while this was happening?" Raben saying "I held the little girl" (while she was being shot) was a really powerful moment, well played by the actor. (And also makes me think that the killer telling Raben at the end that he did in fact shoot the little girl, not just hold her, was true and not him playing a mind game.)
Lund lost her non-professional life and most of her career last season, but being a noir detective is in for more torment, so while she has the chance to crack a case, her slow thawing towards her new partner is of course a sign for just this. So I was grateful that her relationship with her mother has improved, i.e. her mother now accepts matter of factly and in fact graciously that her daughter hardly can get through three lines of conversation without the phone ringing or another cop showing up. The hug between them at the wedding was lovely.
In conclusion: continues to be a good show, but I am almost afraid to continue because of what could wait for Sarah Lund next....
Generally speaking, I thought this one had the qualities of the last one but was better constructed than the last one in that there were no late important to the solution of the mystery characters introduced (Frederick Holst could have been such a one, but wasn't, his purpose being a red herring and an excuse for Lund to make that trip to Afghanistan; Holst himself added no new information). There was at least one moment where my suspension of disbelief broke down entirely, though, and it wasn't in Afghanistan; it was when Lund, aware that there's a killer after all members of a certain group on the loose leaves one of the two surviving members of said group alone in her car in order to give chase. One of her superiors called her out on that later, but I don't think we were meant to agree with them.
The whodunit aspect was good - I changed my mind several times, but ultimately came down to who did it because who else would have a reason to not kill Lund that time mid season? Lund's reason for figuring it out, however, was far better on a Watsonian level. She'd asked several times through the course of the series just how Anne the lawyer, the first victim, had discovered new proof, and there'd never been an answer, plus we heard even in the first episode that Anne had installed all these security systems, i.e. had expected a threat, and yet she hadn't called the police.
Civilian deaths in Afghanistan, unauthorized missions and govermental cover-ups are of course still a timely topic. As with the first series, there was a paralllel political storyline, which I thought was very well done - right until the end. Which felt like a lazy way for the series creator to make the point "even well meaning politicians get corrupted by the system" all over again without having done the groundlaying character work, because as opposed to the first season's pov politician, who started out well meaning but also ambitious, Thomas Buch wasn't presented as ambitious for advancement, so his "if you can't beat them, join them" decision at the end felt like plot over character. Not to mention that I don't really buy the media wouldn't have jumped at Buch's story about the Prime Minister, and that Buch, having just witnessed the PM throwing his old ally Rossing to the dogs, had no reason to believe the man would even keep his promises instead of firing him a month later. So, a weak ending, which is a shame because until then the political storyline was good, with Buch as a rare overweight lead.
Jens-Peter Raben, the veteran locked up for PTSD, escaping early on, had the most important subplot and here the show played fair by on the one hand offering the possibility that Raben had invented the officer because he couldn't cope with his own guilt but on the other, since Raben had been still in prison for the first two murders, making it clear SOMEONE was out there killing people who couldn't be Raben. My early guess for the killer (and officer-gone-beserker) had been Raben's rival Sorgard, but I hadn't considered Raben would have recognized him immediately and so would the other soldiers have, which the show pointed out, too. It did occur to me that the officer-goes-beserk scenario did lack something - i.e what did everyone else do? - and thankfullly Lund asked the very thing I wanted to know, "what did you do while this was happening?" Raben saying "I held the little girl" (while she was being shot) was a really powerful moment, well played by the actor. (And also makes me think that the killer telling Raben at the end that he did in fact shoot the little girl, not just hold her, was true and not him playing a mind game.)
Lund lost her non-professional life and most of her career last season, but being a noir detective is in for more torment, so while she has the chance to crack a case, her slow thawing towards her new partner is of course a sign for just this. So I was grateful that her relationship with her mother has improved, i.e. her mother now accepts matter of factly and in fact graciously that her daughter hardly can get through three lines of conversation without the phone ringing or another cop showing up. The hug between them at the wedding was lovely.
In conclusion: continues to be a good show, but I am almost afraid to continue because of what could wait for Sarah Lund next....
no subject
Date: 2014-06-03 11:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-03 01:18 pm (UTC)...actually, Buch walking away - after trying to get the story out and seeing it doesn't topple the government or change anything significant - would have been a completely believable ending, for me. But as opposed to the first season's politician, the corruption angle just didn't work for me.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-03 01:00 pm (UTC)I did think it was cheating concealing the killer's previous career until quite late in the story. On the one hand, it might have made it too obvious that he should be a suspect; on the other, it would have been possible to set it up so that he'd been brought in specifically because of his experience in that area.
And I did completely buy the killer's relationship with Lund, from his side at least: it starts off as part of the game, but as time goes on I think he becomes obsessed by her, and seducing her becomes a key part of winning.
[Icon because I have no Forbrydelsen icon, but I did mention this series in a Kate/Irene story.]
no subject
Date: 2014-06-03 01:23 pm (UTC)I also thought that Lund at the end was 99% sure it was him - hence her preparation that saved her life - but wanted to trick him into confessing rather than confront him directly because there was that 1% hoping there would be an alternate explanation.