Research Catalog

Title

The killing / John Alberti.

Author

Alberti, John

Publication

Detroit : Wayne State University Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

v, 112 pages; 18 cm.

Summary

Although it lasted only four seasons, The Killing attracted critical notice and sparked debate about its distinctive style and innovative approach to the television police procedural. A product of the turn toward revisionist "quality" television in the post-broadcast era, The Killing also stands as a pioneering example of the changing gender dynamics of early twenty-first-century television. This book looks at how the show's focus shifts the police procedural away from the idea that solving the mystery of whodunit means resolving the crime, and toward dealing with the ongoing psychological aftermath of crime and violence on social and family relationships. This attention to what creator and producer Veena Sud describes as the "real cost" of murder defines The Killing as a milestone feminist revision of the crime thriller and helps explain why it has provoked such strong critical reactions and fan loyalty. The author examines the history of women detectives in the television police procedural, paying particular attention to how the cultural formation of the traditionally male noir detective has shaped that history. Through a comparison with the Danish original, Forbrydelsen, he argues that The Killing rewrites the masculine lone wolf detective-a self-styled social outsider who sees the entanglements of relationships as threats to his personal autonomy-of the classic noir. Instead, lead detective Sarah Linden, while wary of the complications of personal and social attachments, still recognizes their psychological and ethical inescapability and necessity. The author also looks at how the show's move to ever-expanding niche markets and multi-viewing options, along with an increase in feminist reconstructions of various television genres, makes The Killing a perfect example of cult television that lends itself to binge-watching in the digital era.

Series Statement

TV milestones series

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• Contemporary approaches to film and television series. TV milestones

Subject

• Television crime shows > United States > History and criticism
• Feminism on television

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Machine generated contents note: 1. The Lonely Wolf: Sarah Linden and the Evolution of the Woman Detective -- 2. Remade in America: Revising Forbrydelsen -- 3. The "Real Cost" of Murder: Family and Relationships in The Killing -- 4. From Cable to the Web: The Killing as Cult TV in the Digital Age.

ISBN

• 0814342124
• 9780814342121

OCLC

• 957636090
• SCSB-11967103

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library