These are some photos of Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman in Vancouver, filming the second season of The Killing. The second season begins on April 1st. Obviously, April Fool’s Day, at 8 pm on AMC. The second season starts with a big two-hour premiere. Will you be watching? I’m still undecided. I recapped the finale last year, and at that point, I was still ambivalent about whether I would actively seek out the second season.

The show has many good points – great acting, mood, atmosphere, a complicated female lead (Enos) and the wonderful Swedish hottie-turned-dirtbag Joel Kinnaman. But the first season ended up being an unfocused mess, and the writing (especially in the last half of the season) did a great disservice to the characters, and to the fans of the show. At the time, I blamed the show-runner, a woman who seemed to think she was some monumental genius by not delivering on the implicit promise to REVEAL THE KILLER. Back in January, TV Guide’s Matt Roush discussed some of last season’s issues and the issues that remaining fans might have with the new season:

Question: For the legions who went ballistic over the non-ending, no payoff on Who Killed Rosie Larsen in lucky episode 13 of season one of AMC’s The Killing, here’s a pre-emptive Jeer for Veena Sud — who runs the show. I just read an extensive interview in Written By magazine (the monthly of the Writers Guild of America). For all those who were left hanging and vowed not to return, as well as for those who were led to believe that the murderer would be revealed in the first episode or two of next season as an enticement to give the show another chance — don’t hold your breath. According to the article: “For the record, who killed Rosie Larsen will not be revealed until THE END OF SEASON TWO.” The capitals are mine — for emphasis — and to show my anger at being manipulated. I for one will not be watching season two — nor will I be buying the DVD set for season one. So I count on you and TV Guide Magazine to tell me whodunit — while I use my time watching other shows. — Michael

Matt Roush: At least this time they’re being upfront about it. But yes, that admission does seem to have once again raised the hackles of those who felt so poorly treated by the way the first season ended (or didn’t) — which seems to be the prevailing critical opinion, though by no means a universal one. The Killing might have gotten away with extending the Rosie Larsen mystery instead of becoming an industry punchline if we’d been given some dramatic payoff along the way, instead of what now feels in retrospect to be an endlessly frustrating wallow in mood. I still find the show tonally interesting, and will stay with it through the second season, so yes, I promise to tell you whodunit when the time comes. If you still care.

[From TV Guide]

You can read the referenced Written By magazine article here – I could only get halfway through it before I decided that The Killing’s writers simply don’t give a sh-t about balancing character and story development with the reasonable, implied expectations of the audience. I understand that The Killing’s writers are trying to create complex characters living in a realistic, morally ambiguous world. That’s fine. But it’s also a television show with an eight-month hiatus – be realistic about THAT too. Do you really expect the average viewer to remember (or care enough to remember) the nuances of the first season when there was absolutely NO PAYOFF? Some of the writers of The Killing came from Damages, and THAT is how the show should go. One central, complicated mystery/storyline told per season. New season, new mystery. You give your audience a payoff at the end of the season.

Here’s another huge peeve: instead of building the puzzle pieces around the police investigation, the story and the characters went off on so many tangents that the two lead cops – Linden and Holder – look like incompetent idiots. If they were investigating the murder of someone close to me, I would want them off the case. It took them two weeks to search a car and trace the murdered girl’s footsteps on the night she went missing. That kind of ambivalence to how a real investigation is conducted does a disservice to the characters, truly. Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson would have gotten a confession in the first 48 hours.

So, basically… I’m still very undecided whether I want to stick with this. Will you be watching it?

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

**This post contains spoilers for The Killing’s finale, and the entire season.

Part of me is still processing what happened on the finale for The Killing. I was told that at the end of the season, I would know exactly what happened to Rosie Larsen. I didn’t find out, and now I’m kind of over it. Let’s recap the finale: the episode picked up on last week’s cliffhanger, with Det. Linden in Darren Richmond’s home, staring at his computer, realizing that he was the “John” that hired an underaged escort (Rosie). I’m sure it was supposed to be suspenseful and we were supposed to be worried that Richmond was going to hurt or harm Linden in some way, but I was convinced he wouldn’t do anything. Maybe Billy Campbell is a really wonderful actor, or maybe he’s sleep walking through the part, either way, I’ve never bought him as the killer, or a man capable of any kind of violence. He just doesn’t seem threatening in the least. That didn’t stop Linden and Holder from deciding that he was the dude, and they ended up arresting him AT HIS RALLY, which is a political catastrophe that could have easily avoided.

Throughout the finale, there seemed to be several moments that could have led to some bigger revelation. Closeups of Gwen excited me, because I had always pegged her for the killer. My theory was that she followed her lover/candidate and saw that he was meeting the same under-age escort time and time again, and Gwen decided to take Rosie out. But then the finale had Gwen doing weird stuff – confessing to Linden that Campbell’s alibi was crap, acting all weepy and emotional. I still think something weird is going on with her, but I guess I should admit that my theory was wrong…?

I put that question mark because we still don’t know who did what to Rosie. The finale ended without a definitive answer, and all we really know is that Darren Richmond is likely being framed, although we don’t really know by whom. It looks like my guy, my boyfriend, Det. Holder is a dirty cop who knowingly accepted manufactured evidence to frame Richmond. It also looks like that weird guy, Belko, is going to kill Richmond, Lee Harvey Oswald-style. And that’s pretty much how the finale ended – Belko hadn’t pulled the trigger, Linden realizing that their case against Richmond wasn’t really that air-tight, Holder meeting with his shadow-conspirator. Oh, and Mitch left her husband. I hope to God Mitch isn’t in the second season. I want to punch her in the face.

Here are some random thoughts, just because I don’t know how else to organize it:

*After TWO WEEKS of investigating (within the world of the show), Holder and Linden finally got around to tracing the likely path Rosie took to get into the forest where she met her death. So we finally have the timeline, sort of. Is it just me, or should they have nailed down the timeline WAY before the finale?

*Linden was pissing me off, the way that she got so emotional about the way Rosie was “hunted” and how she confronted Richmond. I found that very unprofessional, and I normally love her. She got way too emotionally involved in the case.

*I love Rosie’s dad (and I love the actor playing him), but I felt like they were just glossing over how he almost beat to dear that poor Muslim teacher. Oh, he helped Mohammed’s wife! That makes it all better! NO IT DOESN’T.

*I get the feeling that we’re supposed to think that the frame-up job on Richmond was done by his political opponent. If that’s really what happened, I will be sorely disappointed. It’s a mayoral race, not the presidency! I just don’t buy that a political opponent would arrange a murder and a frame-up, just to get at his opponent in a MAYOR’S race. Perspective, please.

So, meh. Will I be watching next season? Probably, especially if they’re doing it over the summer, when there isn’t much else on. But it still pisses me off. I appreciate that they’re trying to do a different kind of storyline, and a different WAY of telling the story, but realistically, Americans aren’t going to care enough to remember all of the details of the show FOR A YEAR while we wait for the second season. I’m really disappointed.

Photos courtesy of The Killing/AMC.

Have you guys been watching The Killing on AMC? I wasn’t watching it until this past weekend, when I got caught up in the marathon and then had to watch the whole thing on DVR. I’m now obsessed – it’s a really thoughtful, interesting, well-done detective story with excellent performances and great production value. And the miniseries has helped launch a barely-known character actress (if you don’t watch Big Love, that is) into The Next Big Thing. Her name is Mireille Enos, and she plays Detective Sarah Linden, a woman whose empathy and compassion is scrawled all over her face. But it’s getting more difficult to hide Mireille’s beauty behind oversized fisherman sweaters and non-existent makeup – the woman is stunning. And now she’s going to be working with Brad Pitt. Maybe. Probably.

Paramount Pictures, once shaky about the prospects of the Marc Forster-directed zombie extravangza World War Z, is now on track to make the picture this summer. I’m told that Mireille Enos, star of the AMC hit series The Killing, is in talks to play Karin Lane, the wife of Gerard Lane, the character played by Brad Pitt in the adaptation of the Max Brooks book. In The Killing, she plays Sarah Linden, the homicide detective trying to solve the murder of Rosie Larsen. This will be the first major-studio starring role for Enos, who starred for three seasons on HBO’s Big Love. She’s repped by Innovative and Authentic.

There had been speculation that Paramount would not bite on the Plan B-produced WWZ because it has a $125 million budget. But as Deadline reported, the studio brought in a couple of risk-sharing partners that will include David Ellison’s Skydance. That cleared the way for the movie version of the book that looks at the aftermath of a global zombie war 10 years after the conflict, with a researcher for the UN Postwar Commission interviewing survivors in countries that were decimated by flesh-eaters. It was thorough, and a thoroughly creepy read. Matt Carnahan wrote the most recent draft of the script, after earlier drafts by Michael J. Straczynski.

[From Deadline]

I can see it. I can also see some juicy rumors about Mireille and Brad’s sexy times if she ends up getting cast. Except that I doubt the tabloids would bite at it, would they? Because she’s not well-known enough. And it’s easier for them to just run stories about Brad and Aniston. But the idea of Brad and Mireille together… is hot. So is the idea of Angelina and Mireille together. How about Brad, Angelina and Mireille? Also hot. That’s what happens when you add a ginger to the mix: anything goes!

By the way, I am SO not interested in World War Z. It sounds like a boring waste of money to me.

Photos courtesy of Fame & WENN.