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Okay, who asked for a second helping of Bleak, drizzled with Grim, and a side order of Gloom? Ah, that’ll be The Killing II, or, if we’re doing this properly, Forbrydelsen II, which returned on Saturday to BBC4. Will you have needed to watch the previous series? No. But ask yourself if you’re fully able to commit one hour of your life each week to this show; you may find it unbelievably addictive (or vanedannende).
The opening of the first episode doesn’t mess about: “there’s blood everywhere!” cries a voice during a phone-call to the emergency services, and before long, the lifeless body of a young female lawyer is discovered by the police. A different approach from last series, when it took a full hour to discover the body, but the style of filming remains very familiar indeed, as does the amount of rain falling in Denmark – why does no one think to carry an umbrella?
Our heroine, Sarah Lund, (Sofie Grabol) now performs the very unglamorous job of regulating ferry traffic, and as fetching as she looks in that uniform, it’s a relief to see her return to what she does best i.e. showing those police guys how it’s done. Lund’s former boss (Murten Suurballe) begs her to help with the case – well, not beg exactly, but you can see the pleading in his eyes – and after a bit of casual refusing and shrugging, she pops into the station to take a look. But only because she’s visiting her family anyway, you understand.
Once again, the majority of this episode is dedicated to laying out the main characters like pieces on a Cluedo board: was it the ex-soldier, in the Psychiatric Unit, with a child’s drawing of a dragon? It really could go any way at the moment, especially with Lund’s coincidental ability to recognise a videotape wrapper at her son’s birthday party and then infer that the murderer must have filmed the crime. Duh.
A political element remains prominent – discussions about Danish political parties are perhaps the only times when the language barrier becomes an issue, but roll with it – and now it’s right at the top with the Minister for Justice (Nicolas Bro) and his attempts to push through anti-terrorism laws. Oh, terrorism. There’s no denying that bringing these issues into the story is contemporary, but will they be able to do something new with the idea? Maybe I’ve been watching too much Spooks, but it’s all too easy to form the usual theories as the characters, including the victim, are revealed to have military links with Afghanistan…
Despite a change in characters then, and a greater political undercurrent, The Killing II promises to be just as intriguing as the last series, with Lund’s determined, brilliant, yet self-deprecating character making for a perfect TV heroine. Yes, her face may be a foreign land to such expressions as smiling, but she’s just so cool. With fast-paced drama like this, you won’t be able to draw your eyes from the screen – and that’s not just because of the subtitles.
Episode Three of The Killing II will air on Saturday, BBC4 at 9pm
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