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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Tralfamadore
Posts: 10,343
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Tralfamadore
Posts: 10,343
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TV review: The Killing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...ling-tv-review
Sarah still has her jumper, but the US remake of The Killing murders the dialogue
Quote:
I'll tell you what about Americans: when they want to transpose a foreign programme into American, they do so shamelessly, keeping it exactly the same, except for the fact that it is suddenly full of Americans. They are unperturbed by questions such as "what was wrong with it before? Do you find it hard to empathise with foreigners? Or did you just not like the subtitles?" So, the American version of The Killing (Channel 4) has arrived.
Here are the things that have stayed the same: the lady detective's big jumper (she is now called Linden, by the way; it is still a bit Scandi, but not as bad as Lund). In the Danish version, she only has one jumper for much of the way through, and criminals stab her through it, yet there she is, wearing it again the next episode, with no bloodstains or darning. You have to assume it is part of her character never to buy one itchy-looking item when she could buy six.
The plot and structure are the same, right down to the practical jokes, which seem a bit odd played upon someone so manifestly lacking a sense of humour (Linden is not a barrel of laughs, whereas Lund, I always thought, would have had a laugh if people would just stop killing one another long enough for her to engage her lighter side).
There is a piano conceit so pronounced it is almost a character in its own right: when Lund/Linden has an epiphany (you can tell because she adopts her "thinking" face), the music goes "ting ting ting" and five seconds later she runs off and finds a dead hand or hacks through a false wall and finds a cellar full of barbiturates. If they ever released the soundtrack to The Killing, they would call this "Lassie Smells a Smell". Once you've noticed it, it is incredibly annoying; it's a shame they didn't think to axe it for the remake, but no, there's Linden. In a field. Eyes go starey. Lassie smells a smell!
The differences are mainly in dialogue, so that all the things left unspoken in the original are suddenly affixed to a lame line. "You know I'm not one for words," says Linden to her fiancee, which is possibly the last thing a person who wasn't one for words would ever say. "He's not my dad!" says her kid, who is now called Jack (again, disaffected teens never actually say the thing you're worried they're thinking. That's what necessitates flesh and blood relationships, otherwise we could all just communicate remotely, as if playing chess).
Linden and her new sidekick/side-thorn have a wooden exchange about the nature of evil and how to identify a bad guy, which he rounds off with: "Is that why you're running away, Linden? Because you don't know any more?" That's almost the worst of it, except for this, between the young politician in a hurry and the older one (standing in a gym): "I never cared much for games." "Councillorwoman Yitanes does. I wouldn't depend on Ruth." All the characters who, in the original, tread such a subtle line between shiftiness and solidity are shunted one way or the other.
In summary, if you loved the Danish version, and felt an ache of longing at the end of each episode, culminating in something like bereavement when it was all over, then this will be like meeting the cousin of someone you were once in love with, a combination of curiosity and sorrow. If you never saw the original, on the other hand, then you may as well watch this because it certainly passes the time.
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I won't bother .....
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