‘The Killing’ season 4, episode 1 review: Is the truth in the piano?
As we said on Friday, we’re going to be reviewing an episode of “The Killing” season 4 every day until we get to the series finale. With that, we’re diving in today with the first episode.
In the move to Netflix, it is fair to say that not much has changed about Veena Sud’s dark, moody mystery. The themes of heartache and despair are the same, but now with a few more f-bombs and with a longer run time per episode. Basically, you are getting somewhere close to eight AMC episodes in a Netflix series of six.
One episode in, and we certainly do feel like the season is off to a strong start, with the only criticism being that this is not a show that gives you any time at all to recall past events. Maybe some prefer this, since there is absolutely zero insulting of your intelligence going on here. It’s all straight into the action, which includes Linden having to immediately figure out how to dispose of the gun used to murder Skinner. The fact that a bullet casing is missing at the end of the episode? Bad news, especially with Skinner’s daughter outside demanding to see him immediately.
The case-of-the-season is an interesting one involving a military academy and a young man who may have killed his entire family in gruesome fashion. There are no other suspects, no motive that can be figured out, and the boy vehemently denies having anything to do with the tragedy. He better hope that a mystery revolving around the piano (one that only Linden seems to care about) can be the thing that saves him in the end.
Performance-wise, Joan Allen was strong as the leader of the aforementioned academy, while Joel Kinnaman once again proved that he is the scene-stealer of the show. Holder’s girlfriend is now pregnant, and he quickly made her a fiancee in about the least-romantic way possible. The problem with this man is that no matter what he does, he is marred by a certain layer of self-doubt under that layer of confidence. Being an accessory to murder right now probably doesn’t help that.
This was a great first episode of the season, and the star of a smooth transition to Netflix. We had few questions we found ourselves asking that were related to story decisions, and while tough-to-watch at times, it was only a mere step away from outstanding. Not bad for the start to a grand finale. Grade: A-.
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