That's the Danish original (or Forbrydelsen for you pedants/legit Danes), rather than the American remake that recently got cancelled and resurrected for a second time. Whilst Pizzolatto did actually work on the AMC adaptation, he admitted in a recent interview that he worked from showrunner Veena Sud's route map and wasn't all that happy with it. Especially the generally reviled first season finale he's credited as writing. Whilst the Americanised Killing was an ambling mess, stretching out the central mystery for way too long and chucking in unnecessary twists in place of resolution, the original is probably the closest we've got to a proto-True Detective. With nicer jumpers. Each season (there's been three so far) has centred around one self-contained story that gets solved by the end; the development of characters, especially protagonist Detective Inspector Sarah Lund, are the focus nearly as much as the mystery itself; and, whilst it often deals with disturbing crimes, it doesn't linger on gory details, instead showing us the way the murders reflect the society they were committed in.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
