In the original an emeging theme - it became more intersting as the show unfolded - was how the two opposite-type leads slowly formed a team. In the context of Denmark and Sweden, two nations with very much in common, the additional potential for national-level metaphors was pretty limited.
However … the idea of Aspergers as a metaphor for US regional projection … LOL.
They once had State Trooper from Nebraska play over the end credits.
Everyone still watching?
The latest episode had a couple of eye-rolling moments. One is the teenage girl who walked alone to Juarez and accepted an invite to a strange guy’s place, and didn’t panic when he locked the door.
The other was Galvan finding Linder as he was burying that guy.
Lots to like though, especially Marco and Sonya’s conversation about Sonya’s murdered sister.
Not liking Charlotte’s story line at all. I’m assuming she called that old friend for some sort of protection.
He’s a dead man walking IMHO.
Could someone remind me what video they kept talking about? I got the impression it was a video of the decapitated FBI guy, and I kind of sort of half remember that maybe I saw a video the FBI guy was in, but large tracts of this show shall completely out of my head. Not sure why I have such bad retention for it.
I can’t help with that – I’m in the same boat. All I know (I think) is that the FBI guy was in the video with the murdered Mexican woman from the first episode. Are we to think the FBI is involved in the murders? I’d rewatch but I don’t think it would make it more clear.
I believe the first missing video in the series sent of the girl ( Christina Fuentes, the one who supplied the lower legs of the first corpse ) turned out to have also featured Gedman the decapitated FBI guy as well, whether taken by him or a third party. Later Sonya discovered ( off camera ) that Gedman visited Fuentes once a week when she was working as a prostitute. Finally Sonya determined from the killer’s phone hints that the FBI is well aware something was hinky was going on with their agent and the dead girl and are now trying to exclude the El Paso homicide from getting involved because of that embarrassing bit of intel.
Quite convoluted. Not as good as some other FX series like The Americans or Justified - for example I think Auntie Pam’s two WTFs from the last episode are spot on. The second in particular is a stupid bit of plot magic. Also, yeah - poor Annabeth Gish is wasted so far in a boring role/plot-line.
But I like the look of the show, some of the other basic outlines of the plot and most of the casting. The two leads in particular are growing on me.
Too late to edit…
Oh and after last episode I’m betting the police chief was the one on Sonya’s sisters case years ago and has acted as a surrogate father ever since, gently shepherding her through her career. Hence her panic at his plan to finally retire. I imagine his protective influence is the only thing that has allowed her to advance to the sensitive position she has. Looks and brilliance will carry you only so far otherwise.
Did anyone catch Marco’s last question to Sonya, at her apartment, about her sister? It sounded to me like “Was it a violent death?” but that couldn’t be it, since Sonya had said that the drawings were by the person who killed her sister.
Also, did anyone think Marco didn’t try hard enough to explain the wallet to his wife? When it fell out of his pants in their bedroom, he could have said that he used the facilities at Charlotte’s house and it fell out in her bathroom. I thought of that excuse right away and I’m not nearly as smart as Marco.
Yeah, in general I agree. But I think how it played out was reasonably realistic. Sometimes when you get caught out like that* you freeze up just a bit, hesitate a second too long while your mind is whirling and that is all it takes to blow any shot at a lie. I’ll give the writers credit for not stretching out that plot point for three or four more episodes which would probably be more typical.
*Note: I have never cheated ;).
Forgot about this thread. My thoughts on the show mostly mirror those of others, and I think the rough edges are relatively minor and slowly improving. I think it’s definitely worth watching at least the whole season, even if it weren’t slowly improving. I’ll bet it gets picked up for another season (if it hasn’t already), and S2 will get even better.
I’m almost positive that is what he said, and I’m not clear why you say that couldn’t be it because of who drew the pictures.
It was indeed “Was it a violent death?” I didn’t like that question not just because it was kind of stupid, but also pretty insensitive. I suppose that could be Marco adjusting to Sonya’s aspergers, though; hard to offend an aspy with a socially inappropriate question.
My immediate assumption when Sonya revealed that the killer drew the pictures was that it was a drunk driver who ended up getting brain damage from the crash. Now that I think about it, Sonya drives her sister’s truck. So I’ll further fanwank that it was someone her sister knew, and she was a passenger in the drunk driver’s car.
What a weird typo. I meant “fall” out of my head.
I guess it’s because I don’t think of someone who’s brain-damaged as being capable of killing someone. So when she said the artist was brain-damaged, I assumed at first that she was talking about a relative, and when she got pensive, I thought she was going to say “my son” or “my brother”. Then she says “he killed my sister”.
Ellis Dee’s speculation about the killer makes sense. As does Tamerlane’s explanation of Marco not trying to lie. Somehow, it makes him seem more honest. I hate cheating but that thing with Charlotte was more in the nature of comfort than lust. And he let her down so gently in the cafe, like he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He’s the only TV cheater I respect.
I’m wondering why she doesn’t just call Lyle Lovett and offer to sell the ranch to his boss. It’s not like she’s having a great time there.
How did Sonya know the girl in the closet. I couldn’t really tell but I assume the dead guy was the father, so are we assuming the cop car was driven there by the killer or is that something for next week (don’t like to watch previews)
The girl in the closet was the shoplifter she saw who’d been at the station all night and who was nearly kidnapped by the Mexican guy in Juarez.
That whole thing didn’t make a bit of sense.
That came out of the blue as well, but I’m wondering if there is a connection between Galvan and Linder, and Linder called Galvan about the incident. That’s the only reason I can think of for Galvan showing up and for not immediately shooting Linder.
The other “rough edge” for me was how in that final scene, Sonya and Marco see a cop car outside the house, immediately become suspicious, and enter the house hastily with a gun drawn. Both are in plain clothes, with no badges visible, and never identify themselves as police, with Sonya only saying a generic “Show me your hands!” when they were all the way in the house, standing behind the dead guy in the chair.
Even if they think a LEO might be a suspect, the cop car could have easily been there for legitimate reasons, and charging in like that with only one of them armed, before calling backup or verifying the identity of that car, was just crazy dumb.
My take on this was:
The boss told the lackey to go find Linder. At the end, the lackey shows up with the boss.
So I suspect that the lackey found Linder, found him disposing of the body and called the boss for instructions. Boss said “Keep an eye on him, I’ll catch up with you.”
But at least now we know that Kelsey Grammer is the killer.
It looked to me like Sonya heard a whimper from the closet and looked in. Didn’t the files on the FBI guy show that he’d been seeing a psychiatrist weekly, and that’s why they went to the house? And if the FBI guy was seeing the prostitute weekly, and she was the only woman killed in the midst of the murdered men in the drug house in Mexico, perhaps she was working as his informant?
When Ruiz was going to bed, and the wallet routine gave him away, I though his wife made a comment about it happening ‘again’. I got the impression he has had a few lapses in fidelity before. That tends to happen in that profession, I’ve heard.