"THE KILLING" REVEALED...

The fine cast of the excellent murder thriller series THE KILLING. Image: DR TV.

After eighteen previous episodes full of complex mystery, plot threads, red-herrings and foul deeds, including a shocking and unexpected death in episode seventeen that almost had me screaming "No!" at the TV screen last week, with its implications for the remainder of the story, what looks set to be the gripping finale two parts of the superbly made Danish murder thriller series, THE KILLING, have finally arrived on BBC 4 in the UK, airing tonight, and to anyone who hasn't seen it, I thoroughly, wholeheartedly recommend that you catch up with it on the BBC iPlayer system-it's quite easily one of the best modern day thriller/dramas of the last ten years, with brilliant scripts, wonderfully atmospheric direction and acting from a great and varied cast, headed by the excellent actress Sofie Grabol in her performance as a fine female detective character that easily surpasses many of the other great actresses out there worldwide who have played similar type roles in the past, making her interpretation feminine yet accessible and showing us how, for good and bad, just how determined in her job she really is to catch her murderous prey. Even if it may ultimately mean sacrificing her family life and career to do it. Oh, and she even looks good in bulky jumpers, too!

Watching TV of this caliber, I just wish that, with the current poor state of British drama, we could have made something as good as this here. The US TV market has already deftly acquired the rights to re-make the series (on the AMC channel, which is coming out later in the year), but nothing in my mind is going to top this original version with its uniquely Danish locales and characters.

Beyond this 2007 made investigation, another series of FORBRYDELSEN (Danish for THE KILLING) has been made and I hope that the BBC, recognising a hit show when it sees it (though I think it also deserved a terrestrial run on BBC2!), doesn't miss out on acquiring the sequel, an all-new case, for transmission, either. In the meantime, once this current run is over, and the culprit/s behind the murder of Nanna Birk Larssen are finally revealed, one thing's for sure... I shall definitely miss my two episodes a week fix of this memorable soon-to-be classic!

UPDATE 26/3/2011: At the end of the final episode, the BBC announced that they would be showing THE KILLING 2 later in the year, and even included a sequence from the opening episode. Roll on Summer!