"The Killing" Leaves Many Viewers Angry...and this one, happy

If AMC's talk forums indicate viewers' opinions accurately, "The
Killing"
might be in some trouble. Enfuriated viewers feel toyed with
 because
the finale didn't wrap up the Rosie Larsen murder questions
as promised (during the season's first half).
So many people are
saying they aren't going to bother with Season Two, that
they've been fooled by show creator Veena Sud and her team
once -- and one chance is all they get.
I've never followed discussion boards about a television show
before. I honestly didn't know that the anger could reach such a
high temperature.
Sure, I groaned out loud, and laughed, when I realized how
many questions I'd be carrying around about the murderer, about the trustworthiness of certain homicide cops, about
what central character Sarah Linden would choose when
she realized how far the case was from being closed. (At the very end of last night's finale, she's sitting on an airplane just about to taxi down the runway when
the expanse of the mess and toxic aftershock hit her.)
Still, it didn't occur to me for a nanosecond to ditch the series.
Even during episodes that didn't live up to the series' standards,
I relished the characters' changes, how the dialogue is written, how
color and shapes are used to set up themes and subtext.
I'm going to do what I can to support "The Killing" next season.
Television this strong is rare.  Angry people in discussion rooms are not.

A Break for Maria

If I'd been Maria Shriver a couple weeks back, I would have been praying non-stop for a break in the monsoon of press coverage of my life. This week, Ms. Shriver's assumed prayers were answered. New York Congressman Antthony Weiner -- yet another politician who couldn't or wouldn't control his extramarital sexual adventuring -- got monsooned, so to speak.  Televison coverage suffered a sudden case of temporary amnesia regarding Shriver and estranged husband, the ex-Governor of California. Relish it for as long as it lasts, Maria. You deserve so many more answered prayers. Even those who don't pray agree.

One Little Girl, Gone

I never anticipated getting caught in the Casey Anthony trial. I don't watch courtroom shows. Justice matters to me, but most trials move with lead-footed slowness. This time, for the Casey Anthony trial, I got my own foot caught in the courtroom door, thanks to HLN's prime-time lineup. "Dr. Drew Pinsky" is coming at it as physician, an addiction specialist, and a father who's shaken that someone murdered Caylee Anthony, age two. "Joy Behar" may be a comedian by trade, but she has the tough bulldog instincts of an exceptional courtoom-and-crime journalist. Even "Showbiz Tonight", which drives me a little crazy with its hyperbolic scriptwriting, pulls me in if the Anthony trial takes a sizable chunk of their hour. Finally there's "Nancy Grace", well-intentioned and smart and more melodramatic than all the "Real Housewives" episodes combined: she's wall-to-wall Anthony coverage, however, so I watch for a least the first fifteen minutes.  

How did HLN hijack the ear and one eye I keep on the tube? How is it dragging me over to the TV to sit down and pay full attention so often?

First, Pinsky and Behar usually provide worthwhile television, no matter what their topics of the night center on. Second, I am baffled by this trial. It twists my mind in a knot that mothers kill their children, mothers who are not suffering from post-partum psychosis. Casey Anthony makes no sense to me. If she killed her child, which seems likely at this point, I want to understand why, as well as I can. I've always been driven to comprehend the human psyche, both its darkest hours and its brightest lights. This trial and the blank-faced young woman at its center hold lessons for me, if I can watch long enough to learn them.