Hacker Cinema
The Killing
Forbrydelsen
2007 · TV series · 60 min episodes · 3 seasons
Created by Søren Sveistrup
The Killing is a Danish police procedural set in the Copenhagen main police department and revolves around Detective Inspector Sarah Lund and her team, with each season series following a different murder case day-by-day and a one-hour episode covering twenty-four hours of the investigation. The series is noted for its plot twists, season-long storylines, dark tone and for giving equal emphasis to the story of the murdered victim's family alongside the police investigation. It has also been singled out for the photography of its Danish setting, and for the acting ability of its cast.
2 positive3 neutralfrom 5 commenters
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5 comments on Hacker News
Warning: there is a US show "The Killing" that is an adaptation of the original show (originally called "Forbrydelsen"). While the US version initially starts as a shot-by-shot remake, after a few episodes the story diverges quick significantly.
- The presentation should have to be up to 2018 standards, e.g. not like Project Gutemberg or some relic from the past. Nice photos and illustrations, quotes, etc.
- Leverage the hits: e.g. Joe Nesbo has had his books made into major movies, Uberto Eco is famous worldwide, European TV series have been remade for the US market (e.g. Forbrydelsen -> The Killing), people know Fry and Laurie, and so on. One could promote those works at the first level, point to the originals, and then expand the recommendations of other works by the same authors, and then of similar authors and directors.
- Hijack on the popularity of certain themes in general (even Hollywood-inspired) culture. E.g. the recent remake of "Murder on the Orient Express" (not the best example popularity-wise, but will do for now), could be leveraged to promote works by Agatha Christi(and expand to more European crime fiction writers).
- Build the recommendation engine with a knowledge of mainstream/US/best-selling content as well -- not to promote it, but to let someone say e.g. "I enjoy John Grisham, what EU stuff should I read" and have the system recommended the relevant authors. Or "I enjoy this and this mainstream US comic" and they get a recommendation for some French graphic novel, for example.
- Excerpts and quotes from the works could be used in campaigns in places like Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, etc to hook people in.
- It could start by building critical mass by appealing to and connecting the European and american more intellectual audiences who already consume these works in some kind of social media for smarties.
- Play into the "hipster" aspect of it, e.g. embrace smart/multi-cultural/open ended, as something cool to be (in an advertising perspective).
- Have content made by featured authors and directors directly for the website,
Some ideas from the top of my head
This hasn't been the case for a long time, although for some reason it remains a common misperception. I think it's mainly a marketing problem because people are always reading comments like this online, or hearing about such-and-such series that "is on Netflix" but disappointingly isn't currently available in the UK, while simultaneously being unaware of all the content that is available in the UK but not in the US.
For example, Netflix UK has the first 2 Hobbit movies, Pixar's Up, the original Danish versions of The Killing and The Bridge, all of Stargate SG-1/Atlantis, 24 and The Shield - none of which are currently available in the US. There's a load more I can't remember off the top of my head. The UK also got Breaking Bad a few hours after it was aired in the US, whereas US customers had to wait several months, presumably due to an exclusivity deal with AMC.
Obviously the UK also gets all the Netflix original content. Occasionally a new season will launch a few months ahead in the US, but that's not really a big deal. I can only assume this is done for same marketing reasons that blockbuster movie launches are typically staggered worldwide.
There are a small number of US shows like 30 Rock and Better Off Ted that I wish were on the UK service, and Star Trek DS9 is conspicuously absent, but that list is much smaller than it was 2 years ago.
In the UK, foreign-language dramas and films are always subtitled.
Foreign language dramas are not common on British TV, but then a few years ago, the BBC broadcast the original Danish version of The Killing which gained a cult following. Since then we've had a whole raft of foreign-language dramas (mostly crime dramas, a lot of them Scandinavian).
I personally much prefer subtitles to dubbing. With dubbing, you get the distracting mismatch between the actors mouth movements and the dubbed dialogue. Plus, the dubbed language will have a different tone and inflection from the original language. At least if you watch with subtitles, the fluency of the dialogue (even when you don't understand it) will feel much more natural.
What metadata are you using to distinguish movies from other videos (and other things)?
I did a test search for two European TV shows: Forbrydelsen (aka The Killing) and Braquo. The second didn't even try for an imperfect recommendation.