‘The Killing’ is one of the best new shows on TV

AMC has the right stuff. This channel has been pumping out quality television for a few years now, and I think it’s safe to say that it rivals HBO for original content. From The Walking Dead to Mad Men, superb boob-tube fodder can be found on AMC.

And now comes what may be the best series of all: The Killing.

Detailing the complex events surrounding a high school girl’s murder in Seattle, the drama is a pitch-perfect example of how a police procedural can excel on television. Forget about Criminal Minds. Forget about Law & Order. Forget about CSI. The Killing has reinvented the genre. It’s so good that fans will find parallels with Twin Peaks, that great show from the early 1990s (coincidentally also looking at the events surrounding the murder of a high school girl).

Rosie Larsen (Katie Findlay) is already dead when the two-hour pilot begins. She’s been murdered on the last day of patrol for Detective Sarah Linden (the beautiful and exquisite Mireille Enos), who has decided to relocate with her son and fiance to northern California. Just her luck that as she’s cleaning off her desk and welcoming her replacement (Detective Steven Holder, played with a gruff street credibility by Joel Kinnaman), news of a possible murder comes into the department. Plans to move her family are put on hold as the case becomes the center of Sarah’s life.

With each piece of evidence, the detectives begin to realize that this murder has affected quite a lot of people. There’s not just the mournful parents (played with quiet dignity by Michelle Forbes and Brent Sexton), but there’s also a high-school community that is shaken to its core. And the clues keep adding up, and more fingers are pointed. How is the murder tied to Seattle’s mayoral race? Why didn’t Rosie’s mother check in on her? Who killed this girl?

The questions posed by The Killing will likely (and thankfully!) take the entire first season to answer. This procedural drama, based on a Danish television series, takes its time with the facts, but is still able to string the audience along for many “a-ha” moments.

The acting is uniformly impressive. Everything reeks of reality. The actions of these characters feel impulsive and appropriate. This is the hard-scrabble television work that Eric Overmyer and David Simon mastered on HBO.

The Killing is quite simply one of the best television series of the season and has the potential of being one of the best of all time.

• The Killing

• AMC, Sundays at 10 p.m.

• Created by Veena Sud, based on the Danish series Forbrydelsen

• Starring Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman and Michelle Forbes

• Bubble score: 4 out of 4

• Click here for more information.

• Click here for a review of the season finale.