Cast off

The Killing's casting is just as inexplicable as anyone thinking Nutella cookies are not all that. Why does Mireille Enos/Detective Linden have to be so dour, and not in a House-like, fascinating way? Her dialogue delivery is as dead as her facial expressions and no viewer is going to feel even a twinge of empathy for her fate. Now Holder, (Joel Kinnaman), on the other hand, has the requisite good looks, a dollop of animation and the desperate junkie manner to pull at a few heart strings at least. 

The series is interesting despite the way the main protagonists have been outlined, although it's obvious the writers are spinning it out for as long as they can with the slightly-crazed plot twists. The Mayoral hopeful (who wouldn't have a soft spot for Billy Campbell) and (spoiler alert) his aide who is obviously in love with him, (and I'm not talking about the chick), and the ex-mob father is what keeps my interest level up but if they don't do someting about Linden soon....Couldn't they kill her off and rope in Carla Gugino, for God's sake?

The other entirely insupportable element in this show is the way the mothers behave. With Linden, when the teen son has fever, she says take some painkillers and I'll be home when I can. He plays truant and she doesn't ask why. He badmouths her and she tells him Don't Do That. All with the same fish-eyed look she does everything else.

The mother of the dead girl turns out to be as inept as Linden. She says No to everything and when one child dies abandons the other two and leaves so she can deal with the rotten cards Her life has dealt Her. With mothers like these, one would rather be abandoned on a Church doorstep.