The Killing in context

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Danish series the killing (2011-2014)

A thriller that focuses on a female det and her investigation of a missing young woman

The Killing in an economic context

It initiated a new distribution strategy, whereby European counties, whose media production had tended to be aimed primarily at domestic audiences, began to produce programmes that could be distributed internationally.

This was achieved by drawing on recognisable, global conventions such as genre codes and the use of suspense as well as the universal themes around the family and institutional corruption.

This economic context, in turn, affected business models in the UK, with BBC 4, where the killing was originally broadcast, following up this ratings success with a series of European imports, initially from other Scandinavian countries (e.g- the bridge, trapped - leading to the term 'Scandi Noir' to describe the phenomenon) but then also from Italy (Inspector Montalbano) and Spain (I know what you did).

While Sprial, the female-led French police procedural, had been a cult hit for BBC 4 when it was first broadcast in 2006, it was only with the killing that the exhibition of foreign series became widespread.

The influence of these successful imports was evident in other institutional contexts. Channel 4 launched in the digital platform Walter Presents, which curates tv series from Europe, the Middle East and Latin America that are likely to appeal to a UK audience. These are sometimes broadcast on channel 4, but their main exhibition platform is as digital box sets on the Walter Presents website.

In the US the success of the Scandi Noir genre led to a series of successful remakes of The Killing and The Bridge with a US setting, cast and crew - an industry pattern familiar in the film industry where successful world cinema films would be remade by Hollywood.

The popularity of these non-English language series in the UK was unexpected, partly due to the belief that English-speaking audiences would be put off by the use of subtitles. That this wasn't the case led to a shift in the way in which domestic audiences were perceived, that there was a market for foreign media beyond the US imports, which had always popular.

This openness to other cultures' media seemed to be reinforced by the increased interest in a variety of aspects of Scandinavian culture sparked by the success of The Killing. This included food, fashion (The killing's central character Sarah Lund, became a style icon due to her jumpers) and design and developed into an interest in cultural values that seemed different from our own, symbolised by the concept of hygge, an appreciation of the simple - rather than materialistic - aspects of life. 

In studying the media in context this phenomenon raises some interesting issues. 

While the success pf these non-English-language series suggested an increased interest in foreign cultures and a willingness to engage with alternative media, it is important to remember that the audiences for these series were relatively small.

Even the most successful series, Germany's Deutschland 83 had a ratings high of nearly 2.5 million. In comparison to other dramas such as the BBC's Doctor Foster (Series 2, episode 1), which had ratings of 6.3 million in its initial broadcast, this is low.

The small audience figures suggest that this phenomenon only really affected a niche part of UK society and that in placing the killing in context it might be an overstatment to read it as indicative of the UK's attitidue to foreign cultures in a more general sense. 

It is notable that the industry strategy of exhibiting a greater number of subtitled imports has coincided with the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU and the vote to leave, which might suggest a greater anxiety about non-UK culture.

While the audience for these series is small, it is also quite an influential one.

The middle class, middle aged, professional demographic that dominates this particular audience contains many media influencers - journalists, commentators, broadcasters - which might account for the media coverage that seems out of proportion to the number of people who actually consume the series. 

The Killing in social and cultural context

The process of reading a media product through a social and cultural context suggests that the  media have a direct link to the society that produced it. However, this relationship is not always a straightforward one. 

As evident in study of representation, it is impossible for the media to ever directly reflect the world around it, and the media may act as a form of aspiration or even as an attempt to shape the values of the culture it exists in. 

It is evident that The Killing, particularly in its representation of the female detective, can tell us something about Danish society at the beginning of the 21st century and, in its appeal to a UK audience, something about our own experiences and aspirations.

The representation of the detective Sarah Lund was interpreted as a new kind of female hero: professional, intuitive, isolated, a single parent, independent, perhaps reflective of increased gender equality in European societies.

This representation is evident across the characters in the series, with women playing dominant roles in all the institutions featured: female detectives and senior staff in the police force, female MPs and ministers in government, the representation of the marriage of Theis and Pernille Birk Larsen, emphasising the equality of the partnership. Darker aspects of contemporary society are evidentin the focus on the violence, intrigue and cover-ups, although these could be understood as a central aspect of the crime genre.

Task:

Many successful contemporary crime dramas centre on violent and sexual crimes against women

- choosing one or more examples how can this type of plot be read as reflecting the social and cultural context?

These plots communicate to the audience the disgusting and villainous elements that make up such actions, to highlight the deep rooted misogyny of these hate crimes and the power dynamic between men and women constructed through use of binary opposition.

In Luther (BBC 2010-2019) an episode in the first season centres around the plot of a woman being kidnapped by a sexually abusive man - a stranger who walks into her house whilst she cares for her baby. The domestic mise-en-scene such as the baby toys, front hall and her informal relaxed 'mum' costume reflect the ease with which men can take advantage of women at any age or stage in their lives. This is summed up by the diegetic sound of the doorbell, a familiar unthreatening sound which when answered led the women to rape, abduction and murder. At this time (and still today) the privilege that comes with being a man makes it easy for women to be harmed by them, something which the show reflects with this scene.

It also represents the men who do such things in a disgusting, immoral way - leaving the audience of the time with no humanity to sympathise with. This is communicated in several ways; binary opposition between the innocent loving mother figure and the dark sexually perverted stranger, mise-en-scene of the man licking her face slowly with purpose paired with the diegetic parallel sound as the women breaths heavily in fear whilst her baby sits in the background. 

Why might these representations be controversial? 

to develop ideas research some of the arguments about the BBC series the fall (2013-2017) and the launch of the Staunch book prize, a prize given for thriller novels that don't include violence against women. 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/17/jump-shark-when-good-tv-goes-bad-the-fall

http://staunchbookprize.com/

making women's abuse and torture a genre convention dilutes it to a romanticsed plot point, used to get a 'ooooh' out of the audience rather than to encourage them to stop and think about the fact this actually happens and is a fear a lot of women have.

recent stats show 97% of women have dealt with sexual harassment in some form or another, and the sensationalist depictions of this in the media reduce them to a good twist for some adrenaline. whilst is may be speaking on a real problem, it speaks on it in a way that uses it- twisting it to their advantage for ratings and spectacle (like lesbian being a porn category for heterosexual men's pleasure), especially when you think about the lowered numbers of females working in the media and production of these things. It becomes almost disturbing to think about a room full of men discussing how to weave the rape of a women into their story so graphically. 

With this genre convention comes a representation of all women in the genre- when will a storyline be crafted that doesn't overtly sexualise and objectify a female character.