Notes on Pop Culture: 'The Killing's' a Conundrum, 'Grey's' Adoption & 'FNL's' Julie Messes Around

Image credit: AMC.

The Killing’s a Conundrum

I’m still watching each new installment of AMC’s pitch dark drama The Killing with a question mark floating above my head as if it were in a cartoon bubble in a comic strip. Every time I think I have an idea of who was involved in the teenage girl’s murder – which is the central question of the show – that notion is quickly dispatched. It’s gotten to the point that I’ve resolved myself to the fact that I won’t be able to identify the killer until it’s blatantly obvious, like when the person’s in handcuffs and says, “I did it.”

But that’s okay with me. I'm liking the mystery. Unlike with some of the unbelievable hokey twists and turns a show like 24 took, when there were intentional dead ends intended to put viewers on the wrong trail, The Killing is going about unfolding this tale in a pretty smart fashion. And the mother of the teenage murder victim, played by Michelle Forbes . . . if she doesn’t win an armload of statues for best supporting actress it’ll be a shame. She’s been terrific.

I reviewed the most recent episode of the show over on CliqueClack TV.

Image credit: ABC.

Grey’s Adoption?

So will it be as easy as the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy led us to believe, that Meredith and Derek will be able to adopt that adorable little girl just like that? After so much heartache, the miscarriage and the failed infertility treatments the baby will just be theirs? (I devoted a recent column to how many primetime shows, including Grey's, have been featuring infertility and adoption storylines.)

There are two more episodes left in this season of Grey’s and while the last episode (reviewed here) made things appear to be looking up for the show’s central couple -- they got legally married and hope to adopt baby Zola -- I’m assuming that before the season ends the boom will be lowered once more, most likely in the form of the Alzheimer’s clinical trial being invalidated because of Meredith’s actions and Alex’s big mouth. But I really hope I’m wrong about that. It’s been too good of a season to just allow the uncharacteristic, preachy behavior of Alex to undo the study in the waning moments of the season.

Do you think Zola's adoption will go through smoothly? Will Meredith get caught for helping Adele?



Friday Night Lights’ Julie Messes Around

Pity Friday Night Lights’  Tami and Eric Taylor. They’ve poured so much into their first child Julie, tried to do the best they could to put her on the right track. And now Julie’s off at college messing around with a married teaching assistant in her very first semester. Not a very auspicious start to her college career.

Then there’s Buddy Garrity’s kid, Buddy Jr. who broke into his father’s bar, got drunk and passed out, stole his father’s credit card and took off in his father’s truck . . . after his mother had sent the teen to live with his father because he’d become uncontrollable and been taking drugs as well as drinking.

Given those two parental situations, I’d rather be the Taylors.

Image credits: Carole Segal/AMC, Richard Cartwright/ABC.

Why I’m Really Into AMC’s ‘The Killing’ Right Now

Image credit: AMC

Normally, when I hear about a TV show or movie that features a woman in peril who winds up dead, I tend not to be all that interested. (The drama Medium was one exception to that rule because I was a huge fan of the depiction of the central DuBois family.) When I saw the promos for AMC’s new drama The Killing which asked, “Who Killed Rosie Larsen?” I didn’t lift a finger to set my DVR.

But then I read all of these reviews. Glowing reviews. Heard people raving. Read praise on Twitter feeds. So I decided to take a peek at the pilot.

And the pilot was all it took. I was hooked on this dark, intellectually stimulating conundrum of a mystery that contains layer upon layer of intricacy and intrigue. I wanted more.

It stars the awesomely understated Mireille Enos who you might remember as twins JoDean and Kathy Marquart from Big Love. She plays Sarah Linden, a homicide detective whose last day of work was the day when 17-year-old Rosie Larsen went missing and was later found dead, bound in the trunk of a car that had been plunged into lake. She was supposed to move to Sonoma with her fiancé and bring along her grade school aged son.

But Linden couldn’t bring herself to leave Seattle, the pull of the Larsen case was too strong.

Complicating factors: Larsen was found in a car that belonged to the mayoral campaign of Seattle City Councilor Darren Richmond, played by Billy Campbell whom I loved when he was a downtrodden divorced dad in Once and Again. It’s not clear right now whether Richmond, whose wife was killed in a violent crime years ago, was involved in the case or whether someone from the campaign had something to do with it.

Michelle Forbes, who has appeared in In Treatment and Homicide: Life on the Street, is heart-rending as Mitch Larsen, Rosie’s mother who’s collapsing, disintegrating is a shadow of her former self, whose grief is currently blinding her to the needs of her two young sons.

If you like a Rubik’s Cube of a TV show that doesn’t talk down to you and whose cast is low-keyed but intense, I highly recommend you take a chance on The Killing.

Want to see what the fuss is about? AMC is streaming episodes online for a limited time.
Image credit: Carole Segal/AMC.