--- title: "The Killing" year: 2007 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-killing-2007" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 86 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-09-17T17:17:44.038759+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T17:17:44.383945+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Killing (2007) Created by Søren Sveistrup · 1h 00m · MPA TV-MA · Crime, Mystery, Drama **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 86 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Sarah Lund is trying to solve a murder and we are trying to clear the diary > Sofie Gråbøl’s Sarah Lund makes *The Killing* worth the commitment. Its patient first investigation draws strength from the family stories, though twenty episodes leave the political strand too much room. ## Synopsis Detective Sarah Lund (Sofie Gråbøl) pursues a murder investigation that reaches beyond police work into family life and politics. Jan Meyer (Søren Malling) and Troels Hartmann (Lars Mikkelsen) are among the people in a story that follows the inquiry from several perspectives. Lund wants to find the person responsible, but her persistence comes with the possibility of mistakes. The case develops alongside personal and political concerns, with a single mystery running through the first series and the people involved facing pressures of their own. ## Review Søren Sveistrup’s *The Killing* is a crime series worth the time it asks for, with one reservation: it asks for a great deal. Its first series gives a single murder investigation twenty episodes, allowing police work, politics and family life to develop together. The interest comes from how the inquiry affects people as well as from the search for an answer. Sofie Gråbøl’s Sarah Lund gives that long investigation a compelling centre. Lund is determined and fallible, and Gråbøl makes both qualities matter. Her restraint allows us to stay interested in the detective without assuming that her judgement must be sound. We felt anxious for Lund because her concentration on the case does not protect her from getting things wrong. That is a useful discomfort in a story which asks us to follow her so closely. Gråbøl holds our attention without making every moment an invitation to admire her. The family and political strands justify much of the time spent away from the police inquiry. People have concerns that extend beyond the immediate business of finding a culprit, and the series allows those concerns to occupy space. That makes the human cost of the investigation harder to put aside once attention returns to the case. The writing is strongest when these different lives make the police work more complicated, rather than simply offering a change of subject. The editing team, which includes Henrik Fleischer and Kasper Leick, keeps a patient rhythm across these competing interests. There is enough time to attend to the characters, and enough continuity in the inquiry to prevent the wider story from losing its purpose. Frans Bak’s music contributes to the unease, though we would give the performances most of the credit for sustaining it. The pace is deliberate enough to make distracted viewing feel like a poor bargain. Production designers Jette Lehmann, Charlotte Garnov and Niels Sejer help give the drama a convincing sense of ordinary life. The atmosphere works because it supports our interest in the people rather than constantly competing for attention. Against the crime genre’s appetite for exceptional detectives, the patient attention to a capable woman who can be wrong feels particularly welcome. There is pleasure in watching police work treated as difficult work, with personal and political complications that cannot simply be ignored. The reservation is about length, and the political strand exposes it most clearly. It is less compelling than Lund’s investigation, and there are stretches when we would rather return to her than spend longer with the wider story. Twenty episodes give characters room to develop, but they also make us conscious of how long an answer can be postponed. Some tightening would preserve the seriousness while reducing the sense of waiting for the case to move on. That is a caveat worth taking seriously before starting, even though Gråbøl makes the commitment worthwhile. The series rewards an interest in the people affected by an investigation as much as an appetite for solving it. We would recommend it to someone prepared to pay attention, and warn against treating it as agreeable background company. Choose it when a long, demanding mystery sounds like a pleasure. *Fi1m score 84, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (4) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (95/100, inferred): The critic calls The Killing brilliant and the best thing on television in years, praising its human story, real characters, atmospheric direction, and especially Sofie Gråbøl's mesmerising performance as the single-minded yet fallible detective Sarah Lund. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2011/mar/26/tv-review-the-killing) - **The Telegraph**, Neil Midgley (80/100, inferred): The series stands out for its ambitious single-mystery structure spanning 20 episodes and its focus on credible police work amid personal and political subplots. Sarah Lund emerges as the show's greatest strength, portrayed as a resilient, understated heroine stripped of personal supports. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8407629/The-Killing-BBC-Four-review.html) - **The Times**, Stephen Armstrong (80/100, inferred): The review positions the Danish series as the new The Wire, highlighting its slow pace, focus on the murder investigation through multiple perspectives, and departure from conventional Hollywood storytelling. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-wire-in-the-blood-g75780x0s5x) - **Den of Geek**, James Stansfield (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the 2007 Danish series as a pinnacle of Nordic Noir, highlighting its slow-burn pacing, complex plotting across police investigation, political, and family strands, and deep character work over 20 episodes. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/looking-back-at-the-killing-series-1/) ## Details - **Created by:** Søren Sveistrup - **Creator:** Søren Sveistrup - **Director:** Kristoffer Nyholm, Hans Fabian Wullenweber, Henrik Ruben Genz, Charlotte Sieling, Birger Larsen, Mikkel Serup, Natasha Arthy, Kathrine Windfeld, Morten Arnfred, Morten Køhlert - **Screenplay:** Søren Sveistrup, Torleif Hoppe, Michael W. Horsten, Per Daumiller - **Writer:** Søren Sveistrup, Torleif Hoppe, Michael W. Horsten, Per Daumiller - **Story:** Søren Sveistrup - **Editor:** Steen Schapiro, Janne Bjerg Sørensen, Carsten Søsted, Lars Therkelsen, Ghita Beckendorff, Gerd Tjur, Thomas Kragh, Bodil Kjærhauge, Martin Schade, Theis Schmidt, Rikke Selin Als, Henrik Fleischer, Søren B. Ebbe, Kasper Leick - **Music:** Frans Bak - **Production design:** Niels Sejer, Jette Lehmann, Charlotte Garnov - **Costume design:** Grith Rahbek, Anita Helene Sejersen, Malene Volf, Nancy Nickerson, Mette Meinicke, Linda Wallentin - **Cast:** Sofie Gråbøl as Sarah Lund; Søren Malling as Jan Meyer; Lars Mikkelsen as Troels Hartmann; Marie Askehave as Rie Skovgaard; Bjarne Henriksen as Theis Birk Larsen; Ann Eleonora Jørgensen as Pernille Birk Larsen; Michael Moritzen as Morten Weber; Nicolaj Kopernikus as Vagn Skærbæk - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 7 January 2007 - **Genres:** Crime, Mystery, Drama ## Where to watch in the US - Tubi: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: CA, ES, IE, PL, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Memories of Murder* (2003): Another patient investigation, with fallible detectives and an increasingly troubling sense of uncertainty. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/memories-of-murder.md) - *Prime Suspect* (1991): For another commanding detective whose work leaves little room for an uncomplicated life. - *Spiral* (2005): Police work and political pressures meet in a harsher, more argumentative crime series. - *High and Low* (1963), Fi1m 90: A kidnapping investigation gives police procedure the weight of a moral decision. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/high-and-low.md) - *The Secret in Their Eyes* (2009), Fi1m 78: An investigation keeps intruding on private lives, with romance adding a different ache. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-secret-in-their-eyes.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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