Mini Movie Reviews: Daylight Robbery

Today's theme is heist flicks featuring films by John Huston, William Wyler, Stanley Kubrick, Jules Dassin, Peter Collinson, and Basil Dearden.

Five Great European Crime Thrillers

Do you think that Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is too upbeat? Are you tired of watching good looking TV cops run around an obvious back lot in sunny LA? And are you curious to see if that language course you took in college really paid off?

Then why not try one of these chilly European thrillers.

Doux News: January 20, 2013

This week: Walking Dead finds new showrunner -- Ron Moore has another show in the works -- The Killing returns from the dead (but not the one I love) -- Alphas is now omega -- And has the CW found its Wonder Woman?

Doux News: December 9, 2012

This week: New shows, premieres and cancellations (Horizon, The Killing, The Cult, Bates Motel, The Casual Vacancy) -- This week in casts, and other cool stuff (Castle, Doctor Who, Supernatural)

Doux News: November 11, 2012

This week: The Killing -- Haven -- Beauty and the Beast -- Arrow -- Ron Moore, Outlander, and yet more Battlestar -- Now Tarzan? -- This week in cats

Doux News: June 24, 2012

This week: The Critic's Choice Awards--This Is How The Killing Ended--This Week In Casts--Hunger is Coming--Fringe Spoilers?--Bravery vs. Slavery

The Killing: Orpheus Descending

“Every piece of this place hurts me.”

Look on the season finale of The Killing, ye Mighty, and despair!

The Killing: Beau Soleil

“Nothing beats dead Indians. Didn't you see Poltergeist?”

My friends, last week The Killing had never risen higher. And now it has fallen so much further.

The Killing: Missing

“Everything makes sense, it's about how you perceive it.”

Are you kidding me? We're three episode from the finale, with so many questions left unanswered, and Veena Sud decides that now is a good time to suddenly drop everything so we can follow Linden and Holder around as they go chasing after her missing son? Huh, good call, Veena, because I honestly thought this was the best episode of The Killing to date. Even if it did feel somewhat misplaced.

The Killing: I'll Let You Know When I Get There

“I thought it was the menopause, it was Belko.”

I don't know why so many fictional detectives even bother doing any sort of detecting. 90% of the time it's happenstance, rather than investigation, that ultimately solves the case. Why bother going through all the hassle of pursuing leads and interviewing suspects when all you have to do is go for a nice morning jog.

The Killing: Undertow

[Note: Sorry for the extreme lateness of this review. My computer's been in the shop this past week to have a new hard drive installed after my last one failed.]

“By the weekend I'm gonna be working as a security guard at the Space Needle.”

The Killing: Pilot

“Mrs Larsen, do you have a daughter?”

The Danish series Forbrydelsen (The Crime) is one of the best crime dramas of the last few years. Powered by a phenomenal performance by Sofie Gråbøl as Detective Inspector Sarah Lund and her now legendary jumpers (jumpers are cool), it plays out like a Scandinavian cross between Twin Peaks and State of Play.

The Killing: Stonewalled

“I should've known, subtlety isn't exactly your strong suit.”

As some of you might have guessed I've not been feeling much love for The Killing lately. For the last three weeks the police have been circling around their prime suspect but are still no closer to knowing for certain whether or not Bennet killed Rosie. If it turns out that he's just another red herring (something that is looking increasingly likely) then at least a third of the season has been wasted chasing after false leads.

The Killing: Vengeance

“I don't wanna be that man again. I can't.”

One of the strengths of The Killing has been its commitment to creating a sense of realism (television realism, at least) while other crime shows are happy to go for sensationalism and absurdities, like crime labs that look more like the bridge of the Enterprise. But all that hard work went out the window in this episode. Not once, but twice.

The Killing: What You Have Left

"Dead men don't press charges."

This week's episode picked up the pace somewhat as Linden and Holder stumbled on more incriminating, yet still circumstantial, evidence against their number one suspect, and Seattle All-Star, Bennet Ahmed. But lets put that aside for a moment and talk about the stuff that really matters, namely Linden's latest jumper and Holder's suit.

The Killing

Season 1 | Cast |

Programming note: Due to extreme frustration with the first season finale, our coverage of this series is incomplete.

The Killing (2011-2014) is an American crime drama based on the acclaimed Danish series Forbrydelsen. The first season follows the police investigation into the murder of teenager Rosie Larsen and the many lives that are left shattered as a result. Set in a Seattle where it never, ever stops raining, The Killing is an often dark and tragic show that is as much an emotional character drama as it is a thrilling whodunit.

Season One

1.1 Pilot
1.2 The Cage (not written)
1.3 El Diablo
1.4 A Soundless Echo
1.5 Super 8
1.6 What You Have Left
1.7 Vengeance
1.8 Stonewalled
1.9 Undertow
1.10 I'll Let You Know When I Get There
1.11 Missing
1.12 Beau Soleil
1.13 Orpheus Descending

Cast

Mireille Enos (Sarah Linden)
Joel Kinnaman (Stephen Holder)
Michelle Forbes (Mitch Larsen)
Brent Sexton (Stanley Larsen)
Eric Ladin (Jamie Wright)
Brendan Sexton III (Belko Royce)
Brandon Jay McLaren (Bennett Ahmed)
Seth Isaac Johnson (Denny Larsen)
Bill Campbell (Darren Richmond)
Jamie Anne Allman (Terry)

The Killing: Super 8

“Unless this is a snuff film we’re wasting our time.”

For me ‘Super 8’ was the weakest episode of the series so far. I found it a chore to get through at times. While the Larsen storyline was as strong as ever, the others, those more dependent on narrative momentum, felt as if they were treading water. Offering us only dribbles of new information with little of it riveting. One of the drawbacks of long form mysteries like The Killing is that they are, well, long. In order to sustain suspense for the entire season you sometimes have to drag things out as well as hold back on major revelations.

The Killing: A Soundless Echo

“I am just so ready to start living, I guess.”

It’s strange some of the things you think about when watching a show. I’m not talking major stuff like plot twists and character arcs but little, incidental things like how much the production team must spend on water for those rain towers. The Killing’s Seattle currently rivals Blade Runner’s LA and that nameless city from Se7en when it comes to non-stop torrential downpours. I’m surprised half the cast aren’t dying of pneumonia by now.

The Killing: El Diablo

[Let's welcome long-time best friend of the site Mark Greig! He's going to be reviewing AMC's The Killing for us.]

"No, no flowers. Flowers die."