Review: 'Those Who Kill'

I tend to watch a lot of police procedurals in my "off" time, so I'm inclined to give new police/crime dramas a chance. Sure, a lot of them are about as surprising as vanilla pudding, but I'm always fascinated by the myriad of ways writers manage to breath life into an over-exposed genre.

I'm especially fascinated by European crime dramas, which are infused with an entirely different feel than shows produced for the U.S. market. The best crime dramas from Finland, Norway, France and Holland all have this sparse and foreboding feel to them that lend an extra level of tension. The dialogue is often minimal and unlike U.S. dramas, the European ones tend to paint every character as struggling with severe psychological scars and ongoing emotional issues. In a show like "NCIS," it's pretty clear who is the good guy and who is headed for an eventual fall. But European shows are often more nuanced and muddy. Yes, there are "good" guys, but they often have flaws as crippling and potentially dangerous as the criminals they are pursuing. There are no hard and fast lines between right and wrong. Every day begins not with the opportunity for redemption, but instead with the struggle to listen to the better portions of our flawed souls.

The new A&E series "Those Who Kill" feels very much like a European crime drama and that's no doubt due in part to the fact that it's based on the Danish series "Den som Dræbe." It retains the haunted quality of the original, while artfully incorporating an American sensibility into the premise.

Chloe Sevigny stars as Catherine Jensen, a brooding and damaged Pittsburgh homicide detective who goes against her boss's wishes when she continues to investigate a case involving a mysterious body that was found at a local factory. She's convinced that there's more to the case and to prove it she solicits help from forensic psychologist Thomas Schaeffer (James D'Arcy). Even in his initial scenes, Schaeffer's grasp on normal behavior seems shaky and his involvement in the case does uncover more bodies and the presence of a serial killer. But it also illustrates that he has scant ability to separate himself from the cases he's investigating. It turns out that he has helped the police before and while it's not clear what happened, it seems to have all ended in the successful resolution of a case. Albeit with Schaeffer apparently suffering a mental breakdown of some sort.

But both Jensen and Schaeffer are invested in bringing the killer to justice, despite the psychological toll it takes on their emotional well being. They are motivated for different reasons, but they both have the need to solve the case, no matter what the cost. That drive for closure nearly costs one of them their life and it leads to a surprising twist at the end of the episode that sets up the rest of the season.

There are certainly parts of "Those Who Kill" that feel familiar and I don't mean that as a compliment. But the sharp acting by Sevigny and D'Arcy kept me focused on the important elements of the story. Showrunner Glen Morgan is extremely good at constructing a tense and spooky feel in any show and "Those Who Kill" seems like a great fit for his strengths. In lesser hands the show could very into hacky cliches but in the end, viewers are confronted with an unsettling and near-lost heroine who seems to only slightly be removed from the potential of being a serial killer herself.

While the first episode was more or less self-contained, the remainder of the series has longer story arcs, including Jensen's belief that her step-father may have killed a member of her family. That's a difficult story to pull off well and Morgan and company's success with that challenge will help determine the ultimate fate of the show.

But based on the early episodes of the season, "Those Who Kill" looks to be one of the surprises of 2014. It's a well-acted and eery addition to the crime TV genre and it'll be interesting to see how these characters evolve over the course of the season.