Veena Sud Isn’t Helping

As the showrunner for “The Killing,” Veena Sud adapted a massively successful Scandinavian show for an American audience, and for a while her show received critical praise for its careful pace and dark mood. Then the twist in the final scene of each episode (followed by revealing it as a red herring in the next episode) became a standard crutch. Then characters that used to be “complex” were more likely to be described as “stupid” or “maddeningly inconsistent.” Then, following an ad campaign with the tage “Who Killed Rosie Larsen?,” Sud closed the season by not revealing who killed Rosie Larsen.

The general consensus between fans and critics is that Sud woefully mishandled the show, and that she’s only helming a second season because AMC executives were high on bath salts. So it might be good for her to keep a low profile and work on fixing the show’s mistakes. OR…

“I’m flattered,” says Sud [of the uproar], “and I guess surprised a little bit. But certainly it’s a good feeling to know people are watching and talking about the show. I mean, the last time I felt this personally myself, and saw this type of reaction, was when The Sopranos ended its run [with a shockingly abrupt, ambiguous, mostly despised 2007 finale]. If the show can be in that company, it’s a deep compliment.”

“If I can alienate my show’s fans as well as a great show alienated its fans, then my show must be great, too.” Her logic is ironclad.

“The fact that people love us or hate us is a beautiful thing. I don’t want to be kinda liked. The fact that someone loves my show or hates my show is great.” Sud isn’t a big Internet reader, but heard that one thread suggests The Killing is gaining more fans than it’s losing from the Season 1 finale.

“There was a very vocal person who said, ‘I’ll never watch this show again, I’ll never ever come back for season 2.’ And on the same thread three more people popped up and said, ‘I haven’t watched this show yet but now I will because you guys are so emotional about it, it’s gotta be something to watch.’ So that’s a great thing.”

“That’s a great argument,” said eight people I just made up.