END OF THE WEEK:
Another week, another bunch of stuff happening. Here, without any further interruption, is this week's picks for the best and/or most memorable moments of the past seven days (and, yes folks, it will include another anti-"The Killing" rant, in case you were wondering):
Death of the Week: Peter Falk, longtime actor most notable for his role that won him 4 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series Emmy victories as Lieutenant Colombo in the TV series "Colombo." He was a one-of-a-kind character actor, and the TV landscape would have probably been a lot different without him. May he continue to wow other dead people with his great acting skills in the Great Beyond.
Commercial of the Week: Peyton and Eli Manning in "Football Cops"
Fighting crime one lockout at a time.
Stories of the Week:
-The Actual Story of the Week: President Obama Announces That He Will Bring 33,000 U.S. Troops Home From Afghanistan by Fall 2012
Baby steps, people. Baby steps.
-The Tiger Woods Saga of '09 Memorial Story of the Week: Russian Woman Dies At Her Own Funeral After Being Mistaken For Dead
And the award for Most Convenient Place To Die goes to...
Petitioned Name Change of the Week: Ron Artest to Metta World Peace
Damn! I had Prince Destiny's Child on my "Ron Artest Name Change" betting pool! Anyways, good to see Ron Artest continuing to remember that he's Ron Artest and that it's been a year since he's been able to try to top his 2010 NBA Finals postgame interview.
Video of the Week: "Tom Hanks en Univision "Despierte America' "
Two Oscars and 90 seconds with the weather girl and her too-good-to-be-true rump? Man, some guys just have all the luck!
Proposed Bill of the Week: Barney Frank's and Ron Paul's Proposed Reduction of Government Enforcement of Marijuana
This thing will probably get tossed out of the House by the 4th of July, but hey...at least it's some kind of marijuana bill! That almost counts as something!
Person of the Week: "The Killing" Executive Producer and Show Runner Veena Sud
for co-writing the season finale of TV's most disappointing and nerve-racking drama of 2011, "The Killing," one that has already received the strongest criticism of any episode since the "Lost" finale (especially if you've read the post-episode review from TV critic such as Alan Sepinwall and Maureen Ryan, who sounded like they wanted to get medieval at whoever came up with the idea for the episode). Now, while the show's first season was a failure and an overall waste of people's time (you can read my full explanation of why here), all that seemed like just like a very long prologue to what would turn out to be the show's ultimate failure, which was the final five minutes of Sunday's episode, the last one of the season. To recap: by the fifty five minute mark of the episode's airing, we saw the show's main character, Sarah Linden, sitting inside a plane heading towards Sonoma, California (where she would soon get hitched) with her son, Jack, thinking that the 13-day long investigation into the murder of Rosie Larsen was complete, with the supposed killer (Seattle Councilman Darrel Richmond) arrested and in the process of being prosecuted. But then, at the exact same time that the airline stewardess was asking her to turn off any electronic device, she manages to pick up a phone call from another police officer saying that the photo that was taken of Richmond the night of the murder (the one that convinced Seattle police to arrest the man) was manufactured by none other than her partner, Detective Holder, for some currently unknown reason. In other words, it turns out that the murderer may not be Richmond after all, and that we're going to have to wait until season two. But, oh wait, there's more! Around the same time that this occurred, we saw Belko Royce, disturbed friend of Rosie's father Stan, walk towards Richmond (who was being escorted into a police car) and do a Jack Ruby on him just before the screen went blank. So, not only do we not know who shot Rosie, we don't even know if the prime suspect is alive or not!
So, for those of you who have never watched "The Killing" before (and, I suppose, those who still like it), here is a six point list that, in a nutshell, details why this ending (and the episode as a whole) has now reached "Lost" finale levels of hate and vitriol:
1) Another f@cking red herring! Throughout the season, it seemed that Sud and the writers of "The Killing" completely abandoned any chance at character development and an inside look into the actual life of Larsen (after all, what's the point of watching a show about a dead girl if we don't know what the dead girl was like before she passed away) into creating one false hope and clifffhangers after another to keeping drawing viewers in. It was fine after a few episodes, but once that became a formula repeated itself every week, it just became irksome as a whole. And this...this final red herring just seemed like the last straw for many people.
2) For the viewers of the show (including myself) that grew tired of the show thanks to many of its flaws (and there were many), finding out who killed Rosie Larsen was the only reason that they continued to return from week-to-week. So, as you can probably guess, ending the episode to realize that they would have to come back next spring to this mediocre show to have the murder solved was not taken very well.
3) All season long AMC used the tagline "Who Killed Rosie Larsen?" as well as a weekly suspect tracker to promote this show, suggesting that THERE WILL BE RESOLUTION by the time the season finale aired. To see that not take place just seemed like the network had been lying to its viewers about the show the entire time.
4) They took what was arguably the most compelling and most likeable character of the show, Holder, into a villain (at least that's how many have interpreted that ending to be). That's the television equivalent of a bad baseball team trading away they're only star in favor of a few no-name minor leaguers.
5) We are arguably leaving the season knowing less about who killed Rosie Larsen than when we did coming in. Seriously! You could've skipped the entire season (except the first one) and still know as much about the murder investigation as the people who viewed all thirteen episodes.
6) No reason to justify the ending other than the dumb "Cliffhangers happen all the time!" reasoning that I've been hearing from the remaining fans of "The Killing." This is where those major flaws that the show had comes into play. Seriously, why should I (and the other viewers who complained about the show) tune in next season other than to see who killed Rosie Larsen outside of maybe the good acting and cinematography. Is the show wonderfully written? No! Does the show have a wide range of compelling characters? No! Does the show have realistic and/or competent policework? No! Are the red herrings interesting? No! Is the show really better than those "Law and Order" and "NCIS" franchises that they were trying to avoid being? You can argue that's it's probably worse! An hour before, "Game of Thrones" aired a season finale that also ended a cliffhanger. But you know why I loved it? Because season one of "Game of Thrones" had the exact opposite qualities of "The Killing," in that all of it was mostly superb.
But that now-infamous ending is not the only reason why I chose Veena Sud as my Person of the Week. I also chose Sud because she did something to AMC's original programming that no previous show runner has done before: damage it's brand. What I mean by that is that, because "The Killing" was so bad, it ruined the reputation of the network (previously 4-for-4 in its programming) as a cable channel that offered its viewers a well-constructed, emotionally engaging and intelligently scripted program to watch week after week. For all we know, this show (as well as "The Walking Dead," which was entertaining in its first season but not as well-made as "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," and "Rubicon," which I liked but, considering its cancellation, most people didn't seem to) might have also given its once loyal fanbase some hesitation to tune in to its upcoming new shows. I mean, will "Hell on Wheels" (premiering in the fall) be good? Considering the network's slate of recently new shows (like "The Killing") I really wouldn't bet on that just yet.
Don't think that the first two reasons were good enough to justify my choice? Well then, how about the arrogant way that Sud carried herself through interviews after the episode finally aired. Read her interview on HitFix following the episode as an example. First, she justified the ending by saying that it was it was a continuation of the show's approach to avoid becoming a formulaic show, which makes no sense because the show was indeed formulaic in that each week had one suspect who the police tracked only to find that they did not end up killing Rosie. Then, she continued to justify it by saying that she never said that they would solve the murder by season's end. Hey, Veena, if that were the case then why would you allow AMC to use "Who Killed Rosie Larsen?" as a tagline of the show throughout the season if you knew that the question would be solved by the time it ended?
Third, she actually compared the show to TV dramas of much higher quality like "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" (and later "The Sopranos") when she had no reason to do so! She actually believes in her right mind that she's making a show just as good as the ones she's comparing them to when in fact she just put together a show that has been nothing more than mediocre. In other words, she has the ego of a David Simon or a Matthew Weiner but with only less than 1/64th of a talent! So, congratulations, Ms. Sud! In a span of thirteen weeks you have gone from the producer of "Cold Case" to showrunner of one of the most hated dramas on TV, and it all culminated this week with an episode that the Los Angeles Times called "one of the most frustrating season finales in TV history." Can't wait to see how you follow it all up next spring with the second season of a show that I'm sure you have no clue of what you're going (though I'm sure it will still end up insulting viewers intelligence).
-Runner-up: Rory McIlroy. Not only did he win this year's U.S. Open this past Sunday in dominating fashion (8 strokes) and in record strokes (199), quickly rebounding from his epic final round choke at The Masters two months prior, but he's now officially carrying the torch as golf's leading young superstar and leader of the new generation of male golfers with the win. Overall, not a bad week for the 22 year old from Hollywood, Northern Ireland.
And that's the way it was! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and once again, up yours Veena Sud!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or
tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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