Q about this review of The Killing

[Slubberdegullion]

Hello all. Never posted in this topic before but am a lurking learner.

Last night dh and I finished watching the (recorded) US version of The Killing (series 1) before we start on the Danish version of series 2.

As I was distracted at the end and not quite sure if he did it or not so I had a google this morning to look for answers.

Came across this review in the Guardian, comparing the Danish with the US versions.

The penultimate paragraph has made me somewhat confused. Am I reading it right, that this guy thinks the US Linden is poorer version of her European counterpart because she is lacking sexuality?

Am on the cusp of being quite annoyed as I loved the US Linden partly now I think about it as she was utterly focused on the case and not much else.

Anyone seen both versions and can compare the two female leads?

Oh and if anyone can tell me if he did it that would be great too

Good to see you on this topic Slubber!

(You know me by another name.... think sheep across the road with harnesses on, overambitious Cobb cuisine....)

I haven't seen The Killing but that review made me laugh. He is so determined to dress up his desire to have a nice sexy female lead to lech at, as an artistic preference: it's not that he wants to look at her knickers, you understand, it's that the American version lacks internal conflict

That's interesting Lenin, seems the US version has stuck quite closely to the characterisation of Lund/Linden. She is v work centric but also seemingly reluctant to be matey-matey with her partner and no friends shown (although I didn't take that to mean she had none).

Am not generally a great over analyser of tv but that review really got me thinking about why I liked this character so much. The lack of sexual-tension/romantic story lines was so refreshing.

Is the second series v sexually violent?

Hello Elderberry . I've read it several times now, trying to decide if that is what he is actually saying. I think so too.

Lenin in the US version you get a whole episode/back story about her being left by her mother aged 5 and then being made a ward of the state/in a series of foster homes. This was all done to explain the issues she was having with her son.

All unnecessary imo, so I agree with the review in that respect.

arrggghhh, it's that sort of caper (shoehorning in some backstory to explain the character - WHY?!!) that made me avoid the US version. Sophie Grabol created the Sarah Lund character with the writer so it feels wrong to see anyone else playing her tbh.

That's interesting, that the writer wanted to go with a relationship angle and she may have talked him out of it. Am v pleased. I didn't pick up on any romance subplot in the US version. Is Hartmann the politician?

Re the jumper yy I can see why she is annoyed, they must have picked up on the obsession in the US too as Linden has a series of knitted affairs rather than a singular item. Maybe writers feel that protagonists need a 'thing' to identify them or something. Am thinking of George Smilie and his glasses.

Yes Lenin. I agree. Clothes are completely irrelevant to her, as is make up and hair styles. Loved her for that, although her lack of suitable rainproof outerwear drove me completey nuts. It's raining in ever other scene, get some decent goretex fgs, how can you concentrate if you are perpetually damp??

Ironic that the writers have used the whole jumper thing to illustrate how unconcerned she is about what she wears, and how irrelevant it is and yet it's now one of the main things people identify about her. I gather you can get the knitting pattern for the jumper in this weeks Radio Times.

In one of Sofie Grabol's interviews about the role she talked about the way that jumper signifies (for Danes anyway) the sort of socialist-communitarian-idealism of the 1970s (when Lund would've been growing up, I guess) and how that's at odds with a character who is basically crap at communicating with others.

i really like the Danish version. cannot see the point in watching the US version. to me Sarah Lund is completely absorbed by the crime. i like the way she wears the same jumper - coz there are more important things than a nice top! i dont see it as a women detective series but a great series about a detective who is a woman.

Prolesworth you don't have a link to that by any chance?

I thought the Danish female lead character wasn't much interested in sex, or at least not in all that jokey crap in the workplace, I thought it was refreshing. Even in the second series she is not interested in talking about herself or her personal life, she just wants to focus on the work, I really like that about it, no sexist banter, no bullshit, just a focus on the story.
Totally agree. She's one of the most real female characters I've ever seen; reminds me of some relatives and ex-colleagues whose work really is the centre of their lives to a sometimes unhealthy extent - and like those women she doesn't routinely flirt or take much notice of fashion.
(It's years since Prime Suspect was on, but I seem to remember Jane Tennison was a little more glamorous & flirtatious at times.)

I didn't watch the US version as I was sure I'd be disappointed.

Sorry Freya, I can't even remember if I read it or she said it in a TV or radio interview I think it might've been in her interview on Woman's Hour?

first that's the telegraph not the guardian - which makes a difference i think.

second, yes, he's pissed off that the US linden is really not sexy at all - ha ha ha, tough shit on him.

the US linden is not sexy at all, i've just started watching the danish series two and the danish linden is sexy, though she is also 'real'.