For a show that started off being awful (its first two seasons always promised more than they ever delivered), The Killing’s third season sure is an improvement. I’ll admit that I was skeptical that the season could maintain its early momentum and keep from sputtering out into an aimless stream of red herrings.
However, the last three hours of this season turned out to be the show’s best episodes ever. The execution of Peter Saarsgaard’s Ray Steward (episode 10 of this 12-episode season) was the scariest episode of television I’ve seen all year. Far more than vampires or werewolves or the cartoon psychopaths of most CBS procedural shows, the idea of an innocent man being executed by a heartlessly petty system——–one of the prison guards didn’t allow Steward’s son to see him before he was executed just to be spiteful——–and set up by a police captain while evidence is suppressed by people invested in the execution was realistically terrifying. It had the feel of a nightmare that happens more than any of us would like to think, and the season finale skewed admirably authentic as well.
Early in the season, I felt the killer would turn out to be Holder’s partner Reddick (a very rough looking Greg Henry, looking like the father of the man he was in Payback, among other films), and he was the prime suspect for much of the two-hour season finale. BUT no, in a genuinely surprising twist, the killer turned out to be Skinner, the police captain played by Elias Koteas (who looks like a stone-serious version of Gargamell from the Smurfs, and isn’t exactly as handsome as I’m used to seeing him either) who just so happens to be the once and future lover of lead detective Sarah Linden.
It was a smart twist to have the major villain of not just this season but really the entire series (the Steward case nearly broke Linden in the first two seasons) be Linden’s lover. Listening to Skinner justify the killings and reveal how they began was a gut-wrenching but moving scene for Linden. In a shocking final scene, Linden shot him dead, and left us all wondering how she can possibly continue to be a detective in the next season, if there is one. The biggest surprise: I actually want there to be a next season, and I once wrote an entire article begging AMC to cancel The Killing after season 2. Grade for season: B…Grade for Season Finale: B+
Falling Skies…This show just keeps chugging along, and enjoyed their third season finale tonight even though some people may have forgotten that this show is still on the air. By now, you either accept this show’s horrible dialogue and thin characterizations or you don’t, and I guess I’m hopelessly along for the ride until TNT finally kicks it to the curb. I’m thinking season 4 should be it and they should wrap up all loose plot lines in those final 10 episodes, but who knows? For now, I’ll just say that I’m excited to see the appearance of the new aliens, the killing of Karen (finally!), and to learn just what exactly is going on with Tom’s daughter, who is growing a few years every week and seems to possess superhuman powers. Grade for season: C+…Grade for Season Finale: B