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The Killing

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: June 19, 2011

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: The Killing, “Orpheus Descending” (Season 1, Episode 13) [Watch on Netflix]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: In many ways, The Killing was the canary in the coal mine for prestige cable dramas. Just as the Mad Men/Breaking Bad double was convincing people (or at least TV critics) that basic cable could be just as fertile ground for great drama, there was The Killing to temper expectations. Just as networks were catching on to the benefits of limited series and short episode runs, there was The Killing to remind executives and creatives alike that audience expectations for these kinds of series were different than the usual demands made of traditional network shows.

By its 13th episode, The Killing had gone from phenomenon to moody homework to a frustrating work of grim cliches and little forward motion. “Orpheus Descending” came after weeks of red herrings, moments of rainy portent, and most pertinently, an all-encompassing ad campaign asking who killed Rosie Larsen. The season finale aired, everybody who’d been trudging through the season watched, and in the end they didn’t tell us who killed Rosie dang Larsen. For that, you’d have to come back next season.

If watching the entitled internet hordes collectively riot is something that brings you perverse joy (and it might), June 19, 2011 was the night for you. People were SO ANGRY. The Killing had a RESPONSIBILITY to reveal the murderer. It had made PROMISES. Promises on SUBWAY POSTERS. Those posters are legally binding! It was a bit of an odd reaction considering that TV never seemed to be under these requirements before. The end of the first season of Lost not only didn’t tell us what the island was, it didn’t even show us what was inside the hatch. Somehow, Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse’s heads weren’t requested on a platter (that would come much later).

The difference, I think, was that Lost was a network show, with the expectation that it would behave as such, coming back every fall with a continuation of the tale. The Killing was part of this new breed of limited series, and what this new creature had appeared to be offering with those legally binding subway posters was a 13-episode mystery, complete with an answer at the end. That promise was snatched away, seemingly at the last second, like Lucy with Charlie Brown’s football. What made it all kind of funny was that a lot of the anger seemed to be coming from people who were eager to see the mystery solved so they could stop watching the show. “Sorry about it!” – The Killing season finale.

[You can stream The Killing on Netflix]

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.

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