And the winner is…
I persevered with iPlayer from episode 16 of Forbrydelson onwards. Still yet to see the final episode, but I’ve got to say, the Danish version has so much more to offer the crime drama fan than the US one. It’s multilayered and complex and drives forward with an irresistibly pacy plot. There are so many potential suspects I can barely keep up (missing episodes 6 – 15 didn’t really help with that). And all the time I’m still trying to compare it with the storyline of the Seattle-based version. I think I may have to stop.
A couple of things The Killing USA has that I do miss are
1) the torrential rain (it may be pathetic fallacy, but like a cliche, it only seems hackneyed because it works. Frazier, Niles and Daphne should have been a LOT soggier throughout their 11 year run) and
2) the continuing impact losing a child would have on a family. The Birk Larsons seem to have picked themselves up and dusted themselves off after only two weeks of grieving. That’s what really set the US drama apart from most crime series. It felt grown up – more like The Wire than CSI.
That said, I’m really looking forward to finding out how Sarah Lund gets out of her current predicament and solves the case. Go Lund.
And bring on series 2. Why can’t the UK make crime drama this well?
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