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Dear AMC’s The Killing,
Hi! How are you? First let me just say that I am still on board with you. I know I teased you last week about some of your inconsistencies, but the truth is that I love a good, convoluted police procedural with top notes of Twin Peaks, and you are definitely a good, convoluted police procedural with top notes of Twin Peaks. It’s hard to believe that we’re only in day three since Rosie Larson was murdered! So many leads to follow. Everyone is a suspect. Trust no one. Yes! Also, congrats on casting what has to be the creepiest looking teenager I’ve ever seen in the role of Jasper Ames. That kid. Serious case of Yikes Face on that one.
OK, now that I have complimented you and pointed out some of the things that you are doing well, thereby building your self-esteem and softening the blow of any criticism I might have, can we talk about something that’s really been bothering me?
WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH YOUR SOUND ENGINEER?
Excuse me. I’m sorry. I’m just upset. Could you please explain to me what is going on with your sound engineer? Because, uh, you are a very fancy cable TV show with a huge cast and an outstanding pedigree, you’ve got very high production values and were largely shot on location, and yet the audio is so muddy and dim and overcrowded that I cannot hear a single thing that anyone is saying most of the time. Let’s take last night’s episode for instance: right in one of the very first scenes in which the two detectives, Sarah Linden and Stephen Holder, are approaching the school custodian’s apartment to question him about “the cage,” the ambient sound of passing cars was louder than the dialog. Why? That’s incorrect. Similarly, later in the episode, the two detectives arrive at a scene in the rain and THE RAIN is louder than the dialog. WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON HERE?
Let me point out, if I may, that while dialog is intrinsically important to most television programs–with the exception of Jacques Tati’s Chuckle Hut–it’s PARTICULARLY important in convoluted police procedurals with top notes of Twin Peaks. The entire plot can hinge on the half-whispered revelations of a hospital patient, much less an expository conversation between two police detectives. We need to be able to hear what is going on so that we can follow along with your show. Sorry, I know that sounds kind of obvious and I don’t mean to condescend, but apparently this is all news to you, so I guess I do mean to.
GET IT TOGETHER, THE KILLING! I’m willing to accept Joel Kinnaman’s weird, outdated performance where he dresses like an undercover NARC from 1998 and says things like “Yo, kid, you overhear who is getting smacked on crank these days while you’ve been slanging on the flippity-flop? That shiznit is off the chain.” I’m willing to overlook the fact that somehow everything on this show is just kind of…wrong, as if it was directed by someone who got all of their directing techniques by reading a TV recap on TelevisionWithoutPity.
But I will not overlook an inability to understand what everyone is saying. Clean it up, dude! You’ve got at least a million dollars!
Yours,
Gabe’s Ears
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It’s just a TV show, Gabe. It doesn’t know how to read.
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Gabe, do you have a 5.1 system? If so, turning up the center speaker should fix your problem (most dialogue is loaded through the center channel).
Oh, that’s right. Jokes. Forgot the jokes…. Umm… turning up the volume to overcompensate for quiet dialogue will just end up Killing your ears!
Eh…
Gabe does not strike me as a surround sound kind of guy. Too much hassle. Gabe, tell us! Inquiring minds want to know!
Gabe’s right. The first thing you learn in post-production audio mixing is that dialog is the most prominent and important layer in sound. Also, farts.
Are you sure it’s not just that you’re 97 years old
if I were the mayoral candidates, I would run on the platform of getting Seattle more than two homicide detectives.
I would run on the platform of getting that dude in the picture to straighten out his facial hair…situation. Yikes!
Agreed. I haven’t seen Seattle detectives this tied up with work since the double homicide of Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs back in 1998.
“All we can say is the crime scene was quite stylish.” — Seattle P.D.
were you whispering this whole article gabe? i just assumed you were whispering it.
Bob Altman’s up in heaven all “That’ll do, pig/The Killing’s sound engineer, that’ll do.”
Ah, memories of sitting in my apartment, yelling at “Gosford Park”. “I CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU TWITS ARE SAYING!”
got this for you, Gabe, forgot to give it to you in NYC
That makes sense. I saw this ad in the subway today:
This is why they need to Michael Giacchino do the sound for everything ever. I know he’s a composer and not in charge or mixing or editing, which is a very different job, but he is The Best, and should be given all the jobs that even tangentially relate to audio or composing.
*need to HIRE Michael Giacchino TO do the sound for everything ever.
He should also probably take my commenting job from me because I am bad at proofreading.
Many senior citizens rely on closed captioning.
Its also useful for britcoms and their wacky limey accents.
Y’all, my grandfather complained that on Saturdays, after the Lawrence Welk Show, the sound was always bad on LPB (Louisiana Public Broadcasting – Yes, they run Lawrence Welk on LPB every Saturday evening about 6 pm for the past 100 years! followed by 70s and 80s era BritComs!), so we fiddled with his TV and his hearing aid. Guess what the problem was? All those dang British accents!
Interesting you mention Louisiana. Throughout the first season of Treme I had to rewind repeatedly to fully understand what the characters were saying. The British I generally have no problem comprehending. Now Scottish on the other hand…
diversity hire
Apparently he forgoes Avid in favor of cassettes? Mystery solved.
Time to splurge on some surround sound! Then the rain will also be very loud BEHIND you. And your downstairs neighbors will not be thrilled.
Wait this show is about a teenager that was killed and everyone’s a suspect? And it’s not Pretty Little Liars nor Twin Peaks? I’m confused.
SPOILER ALERT it was Aaron Echolls.
#neverforget
It was also that weasely kid who jumped off the roof. What a dick! Also a rapist!
Wait, are we overlooking the fact that the lead homicide detective in Seattle looks about 15 (give or take a half)? It wasn’t in the list. I just found it weird in the opener that she was getting the “Oh man, tough shoes to fill here” treatment when she looked MAYBE old enough to be a star at the Police Academy (that’s a real police, right?).
Yet this 15 year old police phenom thinks that her partner dresses like Justin Bieber.
My problem with this show is the same problem I have with most mysteries that feature plot twists, which is gaping holes in logic. Like in last night’s episode, Det. Linden shows the janitor a picture of Jasper, and he says he didn’t see him in the basement, but then points to the picture of the other kid and says “El Diablo.” But then in the video that gets SEXTed around, Jasper is the rapist wearing the devil mask. So why wouldn’t the janitor have seen him?
Also, I really hate the mom for some reason. Maybe it has to do with the fact that she had no idea where her 17-year-old daughter was for three days? What an asshole! Go drown yourself in the tub.
Maybe she did know where the daughter was cause MOM KILLED HER!!! I dunno, probably not. Much too early to tell!
ROSIE’S MOM. Oh boy. That lady.
First off, she happens to have one of my least favorite TV/movie tropes – the quirky lower-class woman with the masculine nickname. “Mitch”? Really? You might as well go all the way with it, The Killing, and give us more of that because it’s not at all a lazy way to impart uniqueness on a character. What’s that? There’s also a lady in the show named “Reggie”? OF COURSE there is.
Second, if you want me to buy that the mother is solidly working-class, you might want to pick an actress whose face hasn’t been injected and stretched six ways to Sunday. I hate saying that because it’s so close to bodysnarking and that’s not my thing, but . . . she’s just so hard to look at sometimes.
ANYWAY, I agree that the sound was horrible. I only gathered that “El Diablo” was what the janitor whispered when Linden did that weird screen-fondling thing while rewatching that video.
Anybody get the feeling that MAYBE this isn’t the Larsen’s first run-in with the law? Before Rosie’s mom knew what was up, she was pretty flippant with the cops’ questions about her husband. Aaaand when she was talking to the babysitter – an aunt? – she said they asked a bunch of “bullshit questions… AS USUAL.”
My bet’s on Mitch having a past. And the dad’s weirdly racist moving company friend seems really eager to TAKE CARE of some guy in the preview of the next episode.
I cannot agree ENOUGH on this one. My TV normally needs to go to between 20 and 30 on the sound level to make it clear. Last night the TV was up to SIXTY. SIXTY!!!! That is a level that is too unnecessary for humans with ears! Fix the sound, the Killing! And if you do, I promise my next comment will at least TRY to be funny!
Also had to do this, and then changed the channel and it was so loud and frightened me.
Me too, but it was the commercials that blasted me half-way to heart attack.
anyone notice the “Sea Otter Seen Eating At Cafe” headline (or something to that effect) in the newspaper below the fold? Back in ‘Twin Peaks’ territory with that one.
Did the otter have the pie?
the Seattle Daily Record = LOL Street Journal
http://helloseattle.org/post/4516060962/on-tonights-episode-of-amcs-set-in-seattle
(The music festival in the lake headline was also pretty good).
I think we should sea otter people.
Maybe this was the lesson our country needed to finally appreciate sound engineers and stop using the presentation for Best Sound Mixing as our national Oscars bathroom break.
I feel like Darryl Philbin has been teaching Joel Kinnaman how to be street. #fluffyfingers
How hard was it to not just say “Who’s your sound guy, Helen Keller?”
The two things that stood out to me this episode:
1) The lead detective went to that boathouse after a long day’s work and ate soup.
2) Detective Gareth Keenan dry humped the Good Charlotte kid. I mean they were waiting for him for what seemed to be a pretty long time just to do that. No real line of questioning, just a bit of dry humping.
Maybe Rosie had herself killed because her mom is a SUCCUBUS!!!
And for whatever reason, I just want to purrrrr “club sauce” at councilwoman Ruth Whateverhernameis.
I’m really liking the show, but I have a major problem with it that ISN’T the sound quality. Once they solve the Rosie Larson case, what’s the show going to be about? Apparently the second season of the danish version takes place a couple years after the first, but does that mean they don’t solve it? Or do we just follow the detectives into another case? Don’t tell me, I just want to watch the show. I know how you’re all up on danish television.
It’s like: Save the cheerleader. Save the World!
OH AND – either those Larsen kids eat a worrisome amount of chocolate chip pancakes, there was a HUGE continuity issue in the episode, or those shits take LITERALLY ALL DAY to cook.
This is the official chocolate chip pancake theory thread.
“Damn fine chocolate chip pancakes.” – The Larsen kids
Caught this too. Maybe they were leftovers? Although eating leftover instant pancakes is probably sadder than losing a daughter to murder. Probably.
It was weird, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt by assuming that the dad couldn’t cook and the kids always wanted chocolate chip pancakes, and so that’s kinda what would happen for at least three nights in a row.
Also…. Just sayin’….
I found this funny picture of Gabe! He looks so funny, I barely recognize him!
Just me or did this ep drop a few pegs from the really promising start last week? I appreciated the dense atmosphere of the first ep, but this felt more like an ordinary episode of Law and Order: SVU. I suspect (get it, suspect? crime diction!) that this show is going to run into some problems if already, in just the second ep, the atmosphere of mystery and intrigue is giving way to catchy plot turns. And what was with that rapey stuff at the end? Yuck.
Though I don’t remember exactly when it happened, apparently she is trying to quit smoking.
I’ve decided I’m re-naming this show The Killing…Time Until Breaking Bad Comes Back.
I too had trouble with the sound. So I think I may have missed something due to these sound issues. Detective Linden is always eating candy or chewing gum. Did they say she was quitting smoking? It’s really bugging me that she is always chewing on something, but if she is quitting smoking then I get it.
Actually, my biggest issue was: Who tells their wife to go take a bath 5 minutes before dinner is going to be ready, and then waits at the table for her? Baths take forever! Especially when you’re wondering what it’s like to drown, gasping for air and then heaving with grief… Just a weird thing.
Did you listen to the online episode at AMC site? Sounds great – rich and clean and clear dialogue. Sounds like a broadcast issue you are having; the mix sounds pretty fantastic on the online streaming.