AMC’s ‘The Killing’ is good, but I don’t care for it

Oh, crime serials are a dime a dozen. And one of my favorites, “Profiler,” ran for four seasons in the ‘90s tracking the same serial killer.

What I mean is, from what I gathered from watching Sunday’s two-hour pilot episode, is ... let me see if I can explain.

We meet the protagonist, homicide detective Sarah Linden, played by Mireille Enos, out for a jog somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The clouds are close and heavy, giving everything an otherworldly air.

Her progress through the woods is intercut with a night scene, a terrified teenager named Rosie pursued by ... who? Hopped up teens? A vengeful friend? Political operatives? Billy Campbell as Darren Richmond is running for mayor of Seattle and his campaign is drawn into the investigation -- not leastwise because Rosie’s body is eventually found in the trunk of a car attached to the campaign.

Does Richmond have anything to do with it? Is it incidental? Is it his rival? His opponent, the incumbent mayor, seems to have no respect for him.

In any event, Linden is anxious to get out of Dodge. Her replacement is already on the scene – Joel Kinnaman as Steven Holder, whose methods are unconventional, to say the least, and I don’t mind saying I’m put off by him.

Anyway, Linden is outta there. She’s heading to Sonoma, Calif., to marry her fiance and settle her son into his new life. She’s got no patience for a missing teen, which will probably end up as a sex crime, which isn’t her department in the first place. Her supervisor gave her the case to run out the clock, and then assigned her additional work on it over the weekend.

She should totally blow him off and leave town -- Holder’s got a perfectly capable grasp on ... well, I was going to say the case, but this narcotics officer had a better grasp on the doobie he passed to a couple of teenage girls to get information about the case, so that was a huge ick factor on him.

Bad guy

When he was talking to Linden about his former life -- where he apparently had unlimited and uncontrolled access to the best weed ever -- he said he preferred homicide to narcotics: “At least you know who the bad guy is.” To which Linden replied, “Oh. You be sure to let me know who that is.”

As Linden’s investigation continued she was impressed by the lengths to which this unknown bad guy would go to hide evidence. Rosie vanished from a Halloween party. Linden found her body in the trunk of a car sunk in a pond. And Holder tracked down the blood-spattered room from which Rosie was fleeing in the opening sequence.

All of this was good, atmospheric stuff. Except I often use that word when what I really mean is “boring.” The show moved as if the screenplay were actually a novel, but it hadn’t been adapted enough.

Also the unlikeable male lead, Holder, got on my nerves a lot, but his character was consistent and heck, for all I know the entire homicide division in Seattle is exactly this low-key.

I guess the conclusion I came to about “The Killing” -- which I think I probably will keep watching for at least a few more episodes to give it a fair chance -- is that it’s technically a very good crime serial. It’s got some compelling, down-to-earth characters each with their own secrets and agendas (in and among the unlikeable ones). The attachment of the political campaign adds new dramatic layers, and generally it’s paced well.

Also, it’s well-presented visually. Intercutting the peaceful scenes with the violence in the opening sequence was one thing. The girl’s blue-collar family, their fear and sense of loss, the cynically idealistic candidate and campaign, Linden’s team pulling the car from the lake and discovering the body -- all of that was well acted, well presented, emotionally engaging stuff.

Just, right now, just from the two-hour pilot episode ... my reactions are that while “The Killing” is technically a very good show with strong twists and reveals, I personally didn’t like it very much.

New episodes of “The Killing” air at 10/9c Sundays on AMC, with encores scheduled during the week.