50 Fun Facts About The Killing

The Killing was adapted from Forbrydelsen, a hit television drama first made in which country?

Denmark produced Forbrydelsen, which won a BAFTA for best international programme and was nominated three times for an International Emmy.

The actors behind Linden and Holder in The Killing reunited in 2019 for which Amazon series?

Hanna put the former screen partners back together as CIA operative Marissa Wiegler and ex-agent Erik Heller.

Who revived The Killing for a six-episode final season after two cancellations on cable?

Netflix ordered the last six episodes in November 2013, two months after the drama's cable home dropped it for good.

Detectives Linden and Holder of The Killing work murder cases in which rain-soaked American city?

Seattle is the setting, and the first case opens with a bloodstained sweater found in the city's Discovery Park.

Which future Wonder Woman director won a Directors Guild award for The Killing's pilot episode?

Patty Jenkins, who had made the film Monster in 2003, also earned an Emmy nomination for the pilot.

Critics likened The Killing, a murdered-schoolgirl mystery in the rainy Northwest, to which earlier series?

Twin Peaks, David Lynch's mystery about the murder of a high-school beauty, was a comparison reviewers made from the premiere onward.

On its debut, The Killing was which cable network's second-biggest series premiere, behind its zombie hit?

AMC had only seen The Walking Dead open bigger; the first episode drew 2.7 million viewers, rising to 4.6 million with two encores.

Which punk poet landed a cameo as a doctor in The Killing after sending its showrunner a fan letter?

Patti Smith was invited to watch the final season being filmed, then offered a cameo before she travelled: ten lines as neurosurgeon Dr. Ann Morrison.

Which Big Love actress earned an Emmy nomination as detective Sarah Linden in The Killing?

Mireille Enos, who had played two sisters on Big Love, was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her first lead role on television.

Why did the first-season finale of The Killing provoke a furious backlash from viewers?

The killer was not revealed: a cliffhanger exposed the evidence against the prime suspect as fake, and the answer waited another year.

Which Swedish-American actor played Stephen Holder in The Killing before starring in 2014's RoboCop?

Joel Kinnaman had broken through at home in the 2010 film Easy Money, which won him a Guldbagge Award for Best Actor.

Although set in the United States, The Killing was filmed mainly in which Canadian city?

Vancouver hosted the production, and Riverview Hospital in nearby Coquitlam supplied some locations for the second season.

In The Killing's pilot, where is the missing Rosie Larsen found after a search of a lakeside park?

In a car trunk: the vehicle is hauled out of the water at night and turns out to belong to a politician's campaign.

Rosie Larsen is last seen by her classmates at which school event in The Killing's opening episode?

A Halloween dance was her last known stop; her family had spent that weekend camping out of cell-phone range.

In The Killing, what business does Rosie Larsen's father Stan own after years as a gang enforcer?

A moving company: Larsen Moving and Storage did well enough for his wife Mitch to stay at home with the children.

In The Killing, which member of Rosie Larsen's family finally confesses to a part in her death?

Her aunt Terry confesses at the end of the second season; she had no idea who the victim was and acted for fear of losing her married lover.

Across its first two seasons, each episode of The Killing covers roughly how much time in the case?

About one day passes per episode, so the thirteen episodes of the first season span only the opening two weeks of the case.

Which writer of two first-season episodes of The Killing went on to create HBO's True Detective?

Nic Pizzolatto co-wrote the divisive first-season finale with the showrunner, a year before he sold his own series.

Which Forbrydelsen star makes a cameo as a district attorney in The Killing's second season?

Sofie Gråbøl, famous as the jumper-wearing Inspector Lund of the original, turns up briefly as a district attorney in the episode My Lucky Day.

Which three-time Oscar nominee joined The Killing's final season as academy head Margaret Rayne?

Joan Allen, nominated for Nixon, The Crucible and The Contender, was billed as the season's special guest star.

Which actor earned a Critics' Choice nomination as death row inmate Ray Seward in The Killing?

Peter Sarsgaard said the part, a husband perhaps wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, drew some of the best acting of his life.

Which star of the 1991 film The Rocketeer played mayoral candidate Darren Richmond in The Killing?

Billy Campbell played much of the second season from a hospital bed and joked that he caught up on sleep between scenes.

Which actress earned an Emmy nomination as grieving mother Mitch Larsen in The Killing?

Michelle Forbes also won a Saturn Award for the part, and was not brought back once the Larsen case had closed.

Death row inmate Ray Seward in The Killing's third season faces execution by which method?

Hanging is the method: guards weigh him to work out the counterweight, and the gallows goes up as his last days tick away.

Which former partner of Sarah Linden is unmasked as the serial killer in The Killing's third season?

James Skinner led the task force investigating murders he had committed himself, and the detectives at first suspected Holder's new partner.

What does Sarah Linden do to the murderer she exposes at the end of The Killing's third season?

Shoots him, and the final season opens with Holder helping her to cover it up while the pair take on a new case.

At the start of The Killing, Sarah Linden plans to move to which California wine-country town?

Sonoma was where her fiancé Rick waited, but the flight kept being put off as the Larsen case dragged on.

Stephen Holder of The Killing became addicted to which drug while working undercover in narcotics?

Methamphetamine took hold of him on the job; he even stole a prized gold coin from his nephew to pay for it.

In The Killing, Sarah Linden and her son stay with family friend Regi Darnell in what kind of home?

A boat moored in a marina is home until Regi catches the boy smoking and drinking aboard, argues with his mother and sails away.

In The Killing's pilot, Rosie Larsen's bedroom and the necklace found on her body share which motif?

Butterflies decorate her room, and Linden spots the matching necklace as police photograph the body.

Which Larsen family friend guns down Darren Richmond at the end of The Killing's first season?

Belko Royce fires as police transport the arrested politician, and officers soon learn that he has also killed his own mother.

After being shot, Darren Richmond spends The Killing's second season coming to terms with what?

Paralysis below the waist is the lasting damage; he tests it by pressing a campaign pin into his thigh, then rejoins the race for mayor.

In The Killing's first-season finale, which evidence against Darren Richmond turns out to be faked?

A toll booth photo seemed to place him in the campaign car, until Linden heard on her plane that the cameras had been broken for months.

Which campaign manager in The Killing admits attacking Rosie Larsen, then dies confronting Holder?

Jamie Wright had caught her overhearing a secret meeting meant to swing the election, and panicked.

Which suspect in The Killing is beaten into a coma by Stan Larsen, only to be proved innocent?

Bennet Ahmed, Rosie's teacher, was cleared when a friend supplied his alibi, and Stan then gave himself up to the police.

Where did Sarah Linden of The Killing spend her childhood after her mother abandoned her?

In foster care she met social worker Regi Darnell, who stayed a mother figure through one placement after another.

In The Killing's third-season finale, what item worn by the killer's daughter gives him away?

A victim's ring, taken from the missing teenager Kallie Leeds, sits on the girl's finger as an unwitting trophy.

Bex Taylor-Klaus rose to fame in The Killing playing which street-smart teenage informant?

Bullet, a homeless teenager searching for a missing friend, was the performer's first professional acting role.

What leads Sarah Linden to a murderer's hidden dumping ground in The Killing's third season?

A child's drawing of a grove of trees, made by the son of an earlier victim, matched a real spot beside an abandoned factory.

In The Killing's pilot, a bloody trail at a staged murder scene leads Sarah Linden to what?

Her farewell party was the surprise: colleagues set it up because this was meant to be her last day as a detective.

The Killing episode '72 Hours' finds Sarah Linden held against her will in what kind of place?

A psychiatric ward puts her on a 72-hour suicide watch, and her doctor digs into the earlier murder case that once put her there.

'Ogi Jun', an episode title in The Killing's second season, refers to which clue in the Larsen case?

A tattoo of a manga character, glimpsed in one of Rosie's home movies, sent the detectives looking for the man who wore it.

In The Killing's first season, the name 'Beau Soleil' turns out to belong to what kind of business?

An escort service run through a website, it had been visited again and again from Rosie's laptop, which pointed the detectives to its clients.

Which name from Greek myth is Darren Richmond's online alias in The Killing's first season?

Orpheus, who lost his wife by looking back, is a pointed choice for a widower, and the name returns in the title of the season finale.

Forbrydelsen, the title of the series The Killing remade, translates literally into English as what?

The Crime is the literal meaning, but the series was sold abroad under a blunter English title that the remake kept.

In The Killing, Rosie Larsen's home movies, including her goodbye to her family, use which format?

Super 8 is the format of the reel that gives her family closure in the second-season finale: Rosie happily preparing to leave town.

Which former Cold Case writer and producer developed The Killing for American television?

Veena Sud wrote the pilot herself and stayed on as showrunner for all four seasons.

The Killing's Ray Seward was inspired by Into the Abyss, a documentary by which German director?

Werner Herzog's film follows two men convicted over three murders in Texas, and the showrunner named it as her model for the character.

Who turns out to have shot the family at the centre of The Killing's final season?

Kyle Stansbury, the sole survivor, only becomes aware of his guilt back at the family home, after Colonel Rayne has confessed in his place.

Which Oscar-winning film director took charge of 'Eden', the final episode of The Killing?

Jonathan Demme, who won his Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs, had already directed the third-season episode 'Reckoning'.