Just when I get done binge-watching one great series on Netflix, Netflix has to go ahead and release another season of a show that I have to watch. Netflix just released the last season of The Killing and I have to say, it has a better home on Netflix than on AMC. Not to say AMC is a bad place to live, no no, they're pretty great. They're the home of Breaking Bad, but they're also the home of Halt and Catch Fire, which is one of the worst things I have ever seen.
The first two seasons of The Killing were pretty iffy. Season one hooked me but ended without any answers. Season two ended and it was just awful. You can only shoe-horn so many red herrings in a how before the viewer wants to purposely throw a Wii-controller at the TV. But then there was season three. Season three was great, heart-breaking, and truly a revamp of the once promising show. It starts with a bang, and ends with a , "Oh, no, they're going to cancel it on such an epic ending?! NO!" Enter Netflix.
What's it all about:
Basically, it's about a female cop with a hard life dealing with murders. He partner is a former drug addict who is also going through some bad stuff. That basically sets the scene of the show so you can jump right in. She's dealing with her ex and her kid, and he's dealing with being a crackhead.
The season begins with the repercussions of the last season, and a new murder mystery at an all boys military school. Watching the main characters try to solve a crime with such an overwhelming sense of dread weighing over them is almost hard to watch. It reminds me of the early seasons of Dexter where you watch and wonder how he is going to get out of each situation. Setting the show in such a depressing place as Seattle doesn't make things easier. Every day looks like a visual version of a depressing Johnny Cash song, and you're watching it in a wet bathing suit. It's that depressing, yet fantastic.
Why you should watch it:
Before watching season four, just go back and watch season three. You can watch the first two seasons but you don't really have to. I mean, you can, but you don't really need to if you want to jump right in. All it will make you do is question my taste and I haven't had that happen since I tried to rip my theater chair out and throw it at the screen during Transformers 3.
What I really liked about the show is that they don't have to show gruesome murder scenes in order for you to understand what happened. Dialogue and camera angles that don't show you much can let your imagination imagine the worst. It's so much better than some garbage show showing a dead body that is all mangled to hell, but saying a swear word or showing a butt is worse? Cut it out, network TV. That's why no one watches you anymore.
Be prepared to pause the show multiple time upon viewing an episode. Not because you have to go do something, but because it really hits you right in the gut. When a realization of something awful hits a main character, you have to stop, look away, and audibly say, "UGH, man, you're screwed." and then hit play.