The Killing: Season 2 DVD

The sweater is different, but fans of Sarah Lund and this groundbreaking crime drama will find that its requisite elements are firmly in place again, says Barry Forshaw.

The original Danish series of The Killing was a remarkable cult hit in Britain, with its methodical investigation of a brutal killing by the unsmiling copper Sarah Lund, sporting the traditional male detective's inability to sustain a normal family life. (Lund, as played – superbly – by Sofie Gråbøl, became a cult character in her own right, with her unvarying Faroe Island jumper).

The problem, of course, with the second season of The Killing has been how to re-establish the dynamic of that highly successful first series. We have seen (spoiler alert!) Sara Lund solve the case, but lose everything important in her life – notably her family – in the dogged pursuit of a criminal; in order to recreate the elements that made the first season work so well, would it be necessary for her to regain everything that counted in her life and lose it all again?

Other strategies have been used by the filmmakers here – Sofie Gråbøl subtly conveys that her character is still dealing with the seismic psychological events of the first series, and has been consigned to an inconspicuous job on the Danish/German border, checking passports. But then a lawyer is murdered under strange circumstances, and her supercilious boss Lennart Brix decides to bring Sarah back into the fold of the Copenhagen Homicide department, and she is once again on the trail of a ruthless killer, whose murders are creating waves in the upper echelons of the Danish coalition government and the army.

Season Two again employs the political element that was so successful in the first series, as a youthful, freshly appointed Minister of Justice is trying to finesse a new terror act with his recalcitrant political colleagues. And as a variety of new victims are within an elite army unit, Sarah (as before) finds many doors closed on her face. The new series is considerably more concise (only 10 episodes as opposed to the 20 parts of the inaugural season), but fans of Sarah Lund and this groundbreaking crime drama will find that many of the requisite elements are firmly in place again.

Barry Forshaw on 14th October 2011
Author of 564 reviews