Why The Killing Still Deserves Respect

"I realized I didn't want to spend the rest of my life babysitting drunk twenty-two year olds" - Veena Sud on directing reality

This is where every writer eventually gets their start. Realizing that those kids yelling random things across the road and knowing that you have to care about them.

Or maybe it's different when you're trying to coral the people of Jersey Shore (let's all take a moment and think good thoughts for those people).

For Veena Sud, the showrunner of the hotly contested AMC show The Killing it was about the research.

Long before she was on The Killing, she was on Cold Case - a show that ran on for years. But how did she get there?

One of the coveted Disney Fellowships.

When she was on Cold Case, one of the best parts for her was ""This great murder happened and I'd get to jump into research right away" - which is of course, what we all think of when we think of research.

Definitely.

Veena didn't seem to dislike being on Cold Case - if the discussion I saw had anything to do with it - but she did seem to want something a little different. A little darker in a lot of ways. Which is where the Killing came in.

But at the end of the day being the showrunner is different than being the writer. Veena described it as ""It's like being on a bullet train and trying to hang on"  - apt, as most showrunners end up falling into a weird world of catch up that requires both scripts, casting and more.

There's been a lot of contention over The Killing lately. People upset about the season finale. People not upset about the season finale. Some people may be upset over the change from what the Danish show did. A lot of it may feel like a cop out.

But there's also some navigating involved. The room involved took a show and made minute changes that will arc beyond season one. Perhaps that's not exactly what people expected, wanted, what the set up dictated.

Perhaps season two will make that even better.

Maybe it won't. Here's the thing - the source material and The Killing right now have been very close to date - but the intention was never to remake the shows that closely. This has angered a lot of purists.

Veena seemed focused more on bringing a solid character arc to things - and neatly dodged questions outside of that realm. Part of it may be experimental. Part of it may be asking the audience to take a leap of faith. But sometimes it's not that bad to take it and let it breath.

"There's no room for error in network - it's like a boot camp. In cable there's more breathing room."


This is part of the Banff2011 series of posts.