The Killing Channel 4 (US version).

The Killing is remake of the hit TV series shown on BBC 4 (and as a must have box-set) right down to the bobbly wool jumper worn by the lead detective Sarah Lund. The woolly jumper wearer in this series is Sarah Linden (Mirielle Enos). Her sidekick Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnamen) had moved over from narcotics to homicide and this is his first case. The thing is, I can’t remember Sarah Lund’s sidekick in the original. I can only remember Sarah Lund. It was all about her.

Here Stephen seems to have more frame time, or maybe not. My memory distorts things and jumbles them about like a dog with tin cans on its feet. Holder’s an edgy character and makes the big discovery of ‘The Cage’ in the first, or perhaps the second episode. It was well worked. He was seemingly smoking weed and some kids asked him if they could get a smoke. He asks them if they want to party. Yeh, yeh, yeh and he finds out the hot-spot in the school is the basement. The dénouement, with what seemed the same big toothed music as the orginal: blood on the walls and a video of the crime scene was great, but the journey to it a bit unrealistic.

Mitch Larsen (Michelle Forbes) Rosie’s mother is beginning to come into it more in episode three. And she’s good at falling apart, bringing her grief to the screen. Her husband, Stan Larsen (Brent Saxton) a bear of a man is taken from the original and they work beautifully well together.

The story line doesn’t follow in a scene-by-scene manner the Danish version. And there are new characters, such as Jasper Ames (Richard Harmon) and with a name like that you know that Rosie’s ex boyfriend is going to be obnoxious and his friend, the long side-fringed Chris Echols (Gharrett Patrick Paon) with a haircut that echoes Phil, from the band ‘The Human League, ’ was obviously not allowed to be in the Boy Scouts, or whatever the Seattle equivalent is.

Darren Richmond (Billy Campbell) the politician, running for Mayor, whose story runs side by side and cuts through the killing of Rosie Larsen is up and running, but lagging behind. All in all, it’s very slick and might just be as good as the original. I’ll wait and see. I know who done it anyway!