
Over here in the UK, the Engrenages (Spiral) and The Wire-deprived portions of the population searching for decent crime TV (or indeed decent TV) have been eagerly watching Danish thriller The Killing (aka Forbrydelsen) on Saturdays on BBC4. Not that we’re behind the times, but it was actually made in 2007. Ho hum.
Anyway, airing in two-parts on Danish TV (two blocks of 10 episodes), Forbrydelsen details the police’s investigation of the murder of a school girl, with each episode showing a day’s worth of investigation. And although I’m only up to episode five, I’d have to say it’s damn fine TV and you should all watch it if you can. If you can’t, it’ll be out on DVD from April 4th.
Since that first series, it’s gone on to have a sequel series and a third series is in production right now, but hey, guess what, AMC in the US (home of Mad Men, Breaking Bad et al) is remaking it and is going to air its version from April 3rd. So you can compare and contrast, here’s an English language trailer for the Danish version and a trailer for the US version. If you’ve seen the first few episodes of the Danish version, you’ll be able to see they’re making it very, very similar to the original, don’t you think, right down to the music?