The Killing Returns, But Do You Care?

Det. Holder just called to say he misses you. And he’s going to wash his hoodie this season, he swears.
Remember The Killing? The downpours, Linden’s terrible relationship skills, that mayoral candidate that squinted a lot? Dumb old Belko? Good times.
We were so excited when the crime drama premiered last April, "Who Killed Rosie Larson" posters a-blazing. It had all the hallmarks of a prestige project, including being remade from a Scandinavian hit and airing on the same channel as Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Since the show was set in Seattle—woohoo, establishing shots of the Space Needle!—we were pumped.
Like many viewers, the Seattle Met editors blogging about The Killing soon got critical. The show was filmed in Vancouver, not Seattle, so locals nitpicked sets and locations. Week after week featured painful scenes of grief, interspersed with byzantine political conspiracies or contrived acts of religious bigotry. As the mystery unfolded, red herrings piled up and started to stink like, well, dead fish. Worst of all, come the final episode [first-season spoiler alert!], we still didn’t know who killed Rosie Larsen.
But there was also the good: The breakout star was Joel Kinnaman, who played Detective Holder as a lanky ex-hoodrat with addiction issues, and it’s easy to care about what happens to him next. Not surprisingly, Hollywood has nabbed Kinnaman for an upcoming RoboCop remake.
The show returns Sunday—um, April Fools?—and this time it’s making some solid promises. Producers promise [vague second-season spoiler alert!] to reveal Rosie Larsen’s killer by (and possibly in) the final episode of the season. But the show could be overshadowed by the return of the eagerly anticipated Mad Men and buzzy HBO series Game of Thrones (now that was a TV season that always paid its debts, if you know what we mean).
Tell us: Are you signing up for another season of casinos and call girls? Have you been holding your breath for more of Holder smoking and Detective Linden yelling at her son? Do you even remember who Belko was?
The Killing premieres April 1 on AMC.