Who Killed Rosie Larsen? (AMC Series "The Killing")

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by agentalbert, Apr 3, 2011.

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  1. bopdd

    bopdd Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I think that this week's episode was probably the best I've seen, since it managed to do something the show hadn't done before--evoke a reaction from me. The ending of the episode left me deeply unsettled, if not a little frustrated.

    This show is uncommon in that not only (as others have mentioned) are there no characters that leap out and grab your interest, but there aren't even characters who seem to demonstrate a high degree of intelligence (uncommon for a murder mystery). Rosie's parents are complete morons and I hope they get what's coming to them. The lead detective doesn't seem to know how to retain control over a case, voice her instincts, or remind the parent of the murdered child that the teacher was merely a suspect and should be presumed innocent. Her partner is kind of obnoxious and he interferes as often as he helps.

    Strangely, I keep watching. After this latest episode, I feel rewarded for sticking it out. Even if I want to reach through the TV screen and strangle some of these characters myself, I want to see where this goes. Then again, I'm a sucker for mystery.
     
  2. El Bacho

    El Bacho Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    Everything involving Richmond in the last episode was cringe-inducing. The scene at the bar with the speech about his late wife's favorite song. The $5m basketball match. The sudden concern about Somalis.

    The red herring about Bennett wouldn't irk so many people if
    a) it hadn't been dragged for three or four episodes
    b) Bennett had just thought of, maybe, talking to the police sooner, as the criminal section doesn't handle immigration. It was completely stupid of him as he could have realized that the investigation and Muhammad's meeting with Rosie could interfere with his boy-scoutish good deed for Aisha.

    And the minute after it's revealed Bennett and Muhammad are protecting Aisha, Bennett speaks about her to Rosie's father. Bennett, you're supposed to be smart, you're a teacher. Couldn't you talk about it to the father the first time he had kidnapped you and threatened to kill you?

    Concerning Stan and Mitch, I find them too busy Mystic-Rivering Sean Penn.
     
  3. Jamey K

    Jamey K Internet Sensation

    Location:
    Amarillo,Texas
    I bailed on this about 2 weeks ago.
     
  4. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    Agreed 100%

    ...anyone care to guess what the hell is wrong with Stan's buddy? I think his freaking out in the last episode was scarier than the beating Stan was giving Bennett.
     
  5. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Oh, for sure.

    Foreshadowing, no doubt, the fact that Stan's buddy is somehow responsible for Rosie's death.
     
  6. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    I knew the Bennett thing would be a dead end, and they foreshadowed the Muslim involvement at the beginning with the racist attitude of Stan's buddy. The fact that the teacher was close + a Muslim made it easy to try and pin it on him.

    What I didn't like was the fact that they spent 3 "days"/episodes to close that out. I'm really not interested in watching an entire season that really doesn't go anywhere. None of the subplots are even interesting enough. There needs to be something to close this out.
     
  7. Ken_McAlinden

    Ken_McAlinden MichiGort Staff

    Location:
    Livonia, MI
    My take: If you don't like the characters but feel compelled to know who the murderer is, just watch the last episode. I find the characters as portrayed interesting and the fact that Rosie's father visciously beat Bennett has a lot more going on from a plot/characterization perspective than just eliminating a red herring.
     
  8. El Bacho

    El Bacho Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    It was already done in Mystic River. And even if I'm not fan of this particular movie, it was done better.

    How I am supposed to care if Belko (Stan's friend) is busy beating a rock in the background during the scene? Was it a Muslim rock, a rapist rock, a crooked-politician-with-a-fake-vasectomy rock?
     
  9. El Bacho

    El Bacho Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    Last night, there was some progress: the police investigators remembered that their job was to investigate on the murder and that there was a dead girl named Rosie Larsen. I don't think the season can recover of the whole Bennet stuff that ultimately went nowhere (outside of putting Stan in jail) and lasted over three or four different episodes

    Idiotic moments of the episode:
    - the whole deal about two different girls coming at Bennet's house the same night and having the very same T-shirt about the Grand Canyon (it was from last week's episode but still...)
    - the cab with photographic memory who can distinctly remember a fare and the client's face from two weeks before but couldn't make the connection when he saw her picture in the paper to call the police
    - Darren's scene with Linden. What was the point?
    - Linden's son who drinks beer, smokes cigarettes, calls the friend an homophobic slur (and listens to compressed music, I assume) and gets punished for it. It's supposed to be a low point but actually it's a progress from sending all his friends confidential pictures of a murdered body two days before
    - Linden's boyfriend who nastily reveals she spent some time in a clinic
    - Belko who's decorated his room based on the book "Creepiness for Dummies"
    - the fact that nobody who lives in Seattle would remember that Adela is also a ship's name.

    There are lots of plot holes in many shows and The Killing is certainly not the worst offender. My issue is that the developments were so contrived after the second or the third episode, with little continuity or character building, that, whoever the killer is, his or her identity will appear out of the blue and look as arbitrary as the six or seven red herrings that were previously introduced in the show.
     
  10. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    What is the time frame? Is it one day per episode??

    Hard to believe it's only been 10 days...
     
  11. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    I dunno...I sure hope the killer isn't someone we've not seen before or who is so far removed from the main narrative that (s)he hasn't played any substantial part. The fact that Rosie appears in the politician's video can't be (IMHO) a red herring. That is going to play into it all. We're getting close to the end. We don't have time for any more "Muslim" side stories. Plus, we still have to tie in the politicians with the death. I still think it's the mayor...although it's conceivable it's the "good guy". He does have that repressed anger thing going on.

    Other possibility is that it's that scumbag who gave $5 million to the politician for his campaign. That seems too colorful a character for the small amount he's contributed to the plot.
     
  12. El Bacho

    El Bacho Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    One episode = one day.
    There's a title that appears usually ten or fifteen minutes into the action to confirm the day change. We're currently on Day 10 of the investigation (or 12 since Rosie died).

    I'll try to tone down my criticism or stop my interventions here. I won't deny that I'm very disappointed by the show, especially as I thought it had potential in the first episodes. I'd blame the writers. The art direction is fine, the actors and the different directors do a fine job. Unfortunately, they're given generic material that's basically a very long episode from a procedural TV show padded with lots of dead ends. And the secondary plots have only arbitrary links to the main investigation (the campaign for mayor).

    It's a show that tries to sell itself as moody, deep and realistic. But it's actually quite hypocritical, as it's exploitative and the structure is dominated by gimmicks that don't pay off (one episode, one day or the last minute red herring). The Bennet arc was basically filler material to reach 13 episodes. As a result of the padding, the cops look completely stupid, as they don't even check the basic things (it took them ten days to ask cab companies if Rosie had been spotted on the night of her disappearance).

    As somebody curious about screenwriting, I'm actually more fascinated by the show now that I find it disappointing. It's very instructive about what can work and what doesn't if the writing can't find the right tone and balance.
     
  13. El Bacho

    El Bacho Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    It will turn out to be a red herring. Next episode, the cops will find another connection between Linden and Rosie, they'll investigate and then, nada or almost.

    The Muslim side story was ridiculous for two reasons:
    - we were halfway the season. The rest of the episodes couldn't be about how to put him in jail.
    - it was an articulate Muslim in a TV show that's convinced that prejudice is bad and empathy good. There was no way that Bennet could be the killer. And it turns out he was even a good Muslim, some guy who was fighting against female genital cutting.

    The idealistic politician rivals the articulate Muslim as the worst killer possible. Making him the killer would suggest that social policies are just hypocrisy and that all progressive are a fraud.

    Personally, I would consider the suicide theory. Rosie pushed the car in the lake then tied and locked herself in the trunk. She previously stole a car from the campaign in the hope that the car would catch a few red herrings in the lake.
     
  14. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    This most recent episode felt strangely out of order. Almost as if they re-cut all of the remaining episodes to rearrange the story. Scenes had no real feeling of continuity. It was bizarre. Maybe they made more sense in the original (if I'm correct) order?
     
  15. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    |'m about halfway the original Danish series...it's fantastic!!!
    It has the intensity of Twin Peaks (the drama in the family is heartbreaking) and the thrill of "24"!
    I saw a part of the American version and it seemed quite different in tone and quite ''condensed'' in it's story so early on I decided to stick with the Danish version.
     
  16. Bender Rodriguez

    Bender Rodriguez RIP Exene, best dog ever. 2005-2016

    If one of the goals of this show is to portray a "realistic" homicide investigation, then grumbling about "side stories" and red herrings isn't valid criticism. "Real life" police work isn't all straight lines and neat little packages. If that's what you're after and the "dead end" investigation into the teacher left you feeling cheated somehow, perhaps you should be watching Kojak re-runs instead.
     
  17. El Bacho

    El Bacho Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris, France
    The story about the two girls being at Bennet's house on the very same night, a few minutes apart, and having the same Grand Canyon T-shirt in their wardrobe was frankly ludicrous. Sarah relied only on circumstantial evidence and threw away any hint of psychology she had shown in the early episodes. For instance, she didn't even think of a solid motive for Bennet outside of an alleged affair between him and Rosie. It would have been slightly realistic for Holder but not for Linden.

    She didn't check for instance Bennet's "testimony" according to which Rosie was there to return a book and left. She could have searched for a taxi long before.

    Anyway, I would find it suspicious too if some girl was busy returning a book after 10pm just after spending some time at a school dance.
    Especially if both Rosie and Bennet were actually at the school and had presumably met there...
    But in the show's universe, there's nothing wrong with it...
    That's why there's nothing remotely realistic in the show. It plays it slow to give an illusion of realism most of the time, it pretends to portray regular people honestly but it's ham-fisted and the twists are awfully convoluted.

    You mention Kojak. Actually, the show runner for The Killing, Veena Sud, was previously an executive producer and a main writer for Cold Case...
     
  18. Bender Rodriguez

    Bender Rodriguez RIP Exene, best dog ever. 2005-2016

    The detectives are going where the evidence takes them. Why would a detective waste his/her time checking cab records when there is no evidence (until later) that Rosie took a cab.
    I am enjoying this show for what it is, not wishing it was something else.
    Personally, the only thing I find convoluted and ham-fisted is Linden's change of attitude about Holder after seeing him at one NA meeting.
     
  19. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    Hey Bender, we're on the same page.

    Going to have to check out the Danish version one of these days.
     
  20. CBC

    CBC Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Coast,USA
    :righton:
     
  21. Ed Hughes

    Ed Hughes Senior Member

    Location:
    phila.pa.
    Another useless subplot on last nights show.:wtf: I should have bailed on this show weeks ago.:realmad:
     
  22. Bender Rodriguez

    Bender Rodriguez RIP Exene, best dog ever. 2005-2016

    You call it useless, I call it character development. We learned much last night about Linden and Holder that we didn't know.

    This show follows a murder case day-by-day, and there aren't always daily developments in a case; sometimes "real life" even gets in the way. Those of you looking for a detective show that follows standard TV formula, this isn't the show for you.
     
  23. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    I didn't think it was useless -- I thought it was quite good, actually. We got a lot more backstory on both Linden and Holder, and some more insight (or at least hints) as to why these missing/killed kids cases eat at Linden so much. It could be argued that maybe this episode should have been EARLIER in the season -- running it third-to-last admittedly killed the momentum of the main story -- but I liked the episode for what it was.
     
  24. Ed Hughes

    Ed Hughes Senior Member

    Location:
    phila.pa.
    I suppose that is what bugged me about this episode.character development
    12 episodes in?
     
  25. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    Well, there you've got an argument. It probably would have been a better episode halfway through the season -- putting it all the way at the end just frustrates the viewers.
     
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