AMC's "The Killing"

The second episode of "The Killing" was on Sunday, and I am officially on board. The show is flat out great.

I was a little skeptical about it. For one, when everyone is saying how good something is "if you give it time", that's usually a warning sign. And two, I jumped in with both feet into "Rubicon" and loved it and then it got canceled. It broke my heart like Carrie Gibson in the 5th grade. Rubicon Carrie Gibson'd me, you have no idea how fucked up that is.

But I was just hearing too many good things, so I watched the 2 hour pilot last week, and it lived up to the hype.

It's about the murder investigation of a high school girl. Every episode is one day in the investigation, and we follow the Detectives, the family of the dead girl, and Billy Campbell of J. Lo's "Enough" fame as a politician running for Mayor of Seattle. Another character is the city itself, that is if you count miserable, nonstop rain as a character. No wonder Kurt Cobain killed himself, it was the rain! And also, Courtney.

People are saying the show is slow, but I don't think that's right. It's definitely not a fast paced action thriller by any means, but there's just enough surprises and twists and clues to keep you interested to see what is going to happen next.

AMC is building a pretty impressive track record since they got into the scripted game: "Mad Men", "Breaking Bad", "The Walking Dead", and now this. Only the ill fated "Rubicon" didn't last more than a season.

People always ask: "how can AMC do it and the big networks can't?"

Well, it's a lot easier to be successful on a cable channel than a big network. And it proves that Hollywood can make good shit if they don't have to worry about little things like ratings. Unfortunately, CBS has to appeal to the people who kept "The Ghost Whisperer" on for 17 seasons. That's the reason they read the pilot for "The Rememberer" and lose their minds. Fans of The Mentalist are going to love that shit. The Mentalist wasn't remembering enough, now we have a show that fills that whole!

The fact is, AMC only has to make 2 series a year. And they can just focus on quality, and not worry about appealing to the broadest audience. For example:

"Mad Men" averaged 2.4 million viewers this season.

My precious "Lone Star" on Fox premiered to 4.1 million viewers, and it's second episode got 3.23 million. And after that? Yanked. After 2 episodes, for ratings that were way better than "Mad Men", the pop culture phenomenon.

The point is, if any of AMC's shows were on CBS, they'd be canceled immediately. So the question becomes, would it be a smart move for CBS or ABC or NBC to hire the guy at AMC who is responsible for hit after hit?

I guess, sort of. At least you know you're getting someone who can make a good show. But I think the better question is, if you're the guy at AMC, is it smart to go to CBS or ABC or NBC?

And the answer to that is a Will Smith "aw hell no". Well, unless you like money. I guess it's the whole big fish, small pond thing. I'd be happy being the big fish. Others, not so much.

But anyway, for those who enjoy great TV, watch "The Killing". For those that don't, google Jennifer Love Hewitt's boobs and be done with it.