I think that’s the point. This character is morally ambiguous to say the least. He is unsettling to the extreme which is something we don’t see a lot on TV. My skin crawls every time he is on screen.
I’m not sure about that. The talky girl’s reaction may have shown a little inexperience with pot but if his goal was to uncover the seamy secrets of the school, I don’t think bluffing with fake marijuana is going to get the job done. These are high schoolers, not middle schoolers. Further, his character is shady. The way he played those girls, the lengths to which he took it suggest that he’s got some experience macking on younger girls.
He offered them a smoke, they obviously didn’t know what the hell was going on (they reacted like Shake did to Moonajuana - and why the hell does everything in this show remind me of Aqua Teen?), and then he sort of politely asked in a sideways fashion, “Which one of you bitches is going to blow me first?” Then one of them says, essentially, “Oh oh oh - me first!” I’ve seen people put in more effort to get laid in porn. Unless the fine art of macking on underaged girls amounts to little more than deliberately and awkwardly treating them like cheap whores, I’m not really sure that the scene was trying to convey any great amount of talent and experience on his part. Even in his prior scene in that vein he wasn’t precisely subtle or nuanced when he went poking The Only Black Guy in Seattle as to the potential sexability of the presumed-dead girl. He couldn’t have been more obvious if he’d been hopping up and down in a sandwich board with a bullhorn and a sparkler, and in that scene the whole act on his part landed with an almost audible thud, which I assume was on purpose. If he’s a diaper sniper (thanks, Breakout Kings) he’s a pretty damn unsubtle one, and I have a hard time believing that anybody with that little common sense and that predilection would have remained a police officer in Seattle long enough to rise through the ranks of beat cops, through the detective positions on vice, and into a position at the homicide desk. If it turns out that he’s not just putting on an extremely terrible act from time to time in an effort to leverage what he knows, I’m going to have some questions for the writing room.
I’m not saying there is anything subtle about him because clearly there is not. In fact, I’m making the opposite point. When he puts his finger on that girl’s lips, that is some overtly creepy shit and goes well beyond a cop trying to manipulate teenage girls for the sake of information.
I finished the first season of the Danish show. I’ll be interested to see how the American version goes, but it’s interesting to compare them. The American version is very loyal to the original, almost scene for scene. And the sound design is also identical. But there’re definitely differences in the personalities and acting, not necessarily for the worst, just different. I’ll definitely watch it. It’s clearly a first rate production. I think the casting of Linden’s partner is perfect.
I notice the American actors seem more effusive, especially Linden. I’m not sure if these are cultural differences (Danes are more restrained?) or just choices on the part of the show runner or the actors.
I haven’t seen the US show (well, I really haven’t watched the Danish either… I always turn in the opposite direction, when everybody is raving about the same thing), so I can’t compare directly what you’re describing. But I will say generally that Danes are much much more restrained than Americans. It’s something that everybody I know from either country with an experience in the other has commented on (good or bad, but it’s always something people notice… I don’t remember who said that Danes couldn’t smile, because our faces was constantly frozen, but it’s not entirely untrue)
Yeah, that’s definitely the case in that show. Sarah Lund barely smiles, maybe twice.
Also, I can’t help but find the inter-Nordic joking really funny, because I’m sure most Americans couldn’t distinguish between Danish and Scandinavian food if it killed them, but her colleagues are all making fun of her for her moving to Sweden or confusing Swedes and Norwegians, etc.
The pacing is a bit too leisurely for my taste. But the first three hours were definitely worth watching.
It is interesting to read the different reaction to the vice cop. He reminds me of a large proportion of druggies I’ve know which is admittedly isn’t a ton. So I think he’d fit right in the drug culture, and he has bad boy written all over him, so I am not at all surprised that teenage girls would find him attractive.
I thought they were going to stretch out the “diablo” clue over the next ep at least. But a few minutes go by, and boom, they not only solve that mystery but they get a pretty damn clear video clue telling the cops where to go next.
That’s why I don’t get the Twin Peaks comparisons. That show would drop something like “the owls are not what they seem” and then chew on that for the next four episodes.
I came away from that episode with the feeling that Jasper, Kris, and Sterling purposefully made that movie to make it seem like Rosie (and Sterling was complicit) because they were mad at Rosie for something that she did and they wanted to get back at her by circulating it around the school. I’ll bet Rosie had left the dance and school before the Cage scene and ditched her wig on her way out.
I’m guessing Rosie’s disappearance has to do with whatever pissed those three off, which probably is higher up the food chain than Jasper and Kris, and possibly involves the politicians.
Good call on the necklace / nosebleed idea, though.
By the way, I suggest NOT checking out the IMDB page for The Killing because it shows how many episodes the characters are in, which is a spoiler of sorts.
pretty sure that the girl in the pink wig isn’t Rosie; in the video where everyone is at the dance and you see the dude in the freaky devil mask (around 24:30 of the last episode) you can see that the girl in the pink wig isn’t wearing a necklace, and I think Rosie is supposed to have always worn that butterfly necklace.
It got better. This was a less jarring experience for me, and it’s good to finally feel like I’m SUPPOSED to think that the vice cop is a gigantic douche.
As for the girl…I think that the fact that they’ve got to get at least thirteen episodes out of this tells us that it cannot possibly be Rosie in the video, for much the same reason as we always know that it’s never, never the first diagnosis on House.
Episode 3 was a bit slower but ended with a surprise! It will be interesting to see if it’s just another false lead. It looks like Rosie’s father is getting ready to stir up some trouble, however…
