Netflix Canada Selection: 207 Movies Worth Watching (2014 Update)

The long awaited part deux!

My post about the selection on Netflix Canada (from three years ago) is the most popular post on my blog. It’s viewed at least once a day, every day. That means a lot of people are interested on what’s worth watching on the service, and unfortunately, I’ve neglected to update the post because I thought “hey – I already directed people to check out New on Netflix and Instantwatcher, two Netflix title crawlers that do a better job of listing titles than I do.”

Alas, in a bald attempt to increase my page views, below is my selection of movies on Netflix Canada that you should check out (or put in your Netflix lists). Note: going through the list, I already noticed that some of these movies will expire this week (looking at you, Donnie Darko and Requiem for a Dream), so watch ’em quick! Also, I haven’t seen all of these movies, but the word I’ve heard about most of them is that they’re good/cult favourites/solid action/funny/scary. Enjoy…and watch as this post melts into obscurity in the next month!

Number	Movie Title	Year
1	The Rock	1996
2	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	2008
3	The Bourne Identity	2002
4	The Bourne Supremacy	2004
5	The Bourne Ultimatum	2007
6	Black Swan	2010
7	Shame	2011
8	Inside Man	2006
9	The Breakfast Club	1985
10	Drive	2011
11	The Hunger Games	2012
12	Accepted	2006
13	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	1999
14	Before Midnight	2013
15	Requiem for a Dream	2000
16	Midnight in Paris	2011
17	Enemy of the State	1998
18	Pulp Fiction	1994
19	Good Morning Vietnam	1987
20	No Country for Old Men	2007
21	Get Shorty	1995
22	Lost in Translation	2003
23	Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	2004
24	Zoolander	2001
25	Frances Ha	2012
26	Wedding Crashers	2005
27	21 Jump Street	2012
28	The Social Network	2010
29	Robocop	1987
30	Team America: World Police	2004
31	Vicky Cristina Barcelona	2008
32	Wet Hot American Summer	2001
33	Spring Breakers	2012
34	Titanic	1997
35	The Talented Mr. Ripley	1999
36	The Hunt	2012
37	The Rainmaker	1997
38	Room 237	2012
39	Gone Baby Gone	2007
40	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	1993
41	City of God	2002
42	Exit Through the Gift Shop	2010
43	Donnie Darko	2001
44	Ghostbusters	1984
45	Braveheart	1995
46	Major League	1989
47	Tommy Boy	1995
48	Clerks	1994
49	Jerry Maguire	1996
50	The Firm	1993
51	West of Memphis	2012
52	Starship Troopers	1997
53	A History of Violence	2005
54	Contagion	2011
55	Insidious	2011
56	Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop	2011
57	Traffic	2000
58	Punch-Drunk Love	2002
59	The Faculty	1998
60	The Hustler	1961
61	The Hunt for Red October	1990
62	Take Shelter	2011
63	Young Frankenstein	1974
64	The Raid: Redemption	2011
65	Planet of the Apes	1968
66	From Dusk til’ Dawn	1996
67	Black Hawk Down	2001
68	Hackers	1990
69	The Guard	2011
70	The Verdict	1982
71	The Station Agent	2003
72	Broken Flowers	2005
73	1408	2007
74	Star Trek: First Contact	1996
75	Bronson	2008
76	The Fly	1986
77	The Road	2009
78	Ip Man	2008
79	The Devil’s Rejects	2005
80	Terri	2011
81	This is England	2006
82	Shoot ‘Em Up	2007
83	Bobby Fischer Against the World	2011
84	The Debt	2010
85	Woody Allen: A Documentary	2011
86	21 Grams	2003
87	The Magnificent Seven	1960
88	Upstream Color	2013
89	In the Line of Fire	1993
90	Lawrence of Arabia	1962
91	The Crazies	2010
92	Cop Land	1997
93	The Crow	1994
94	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer	2006
95	The Skin I Live In	2011
96	Hoop Dreams	1994
97	Tears of the Sun	2003
98	Slacker	1991
99	13 Assassins	2010
100	The Wave	2008
101	Ravenous	1999
102	Leprechaun	1993
103	Solitary Man	2009
104	Heavenly Creatures	1994
105	The Day the Earth Stood Still	1951
106	Headhunters	2011
107	In a Better World	2010
108	The Thin Blue Line	1988
109	Margaret	2011
110	Elite Squad	2007
111	Confessions of a Superhero	2007
112	Strange Days	1995
113	City of Men	2007
114	Assault on Precinct 13	2005
115	The Illusionist	2010
116	Way of the Gun	2000
117	A Hijacking	2012
118	Don’t Look Now	1973
119	The Disappearance of Alice Creed	2009
120	North Face	2008
121	The Puffy Chair	2005
122	The Limits of Control	2009
123	The Prophecy	1995
124	The Messenger	2009
125	Iron Monkey	1993
126	The Parallax View	1974
127	Kill List	2011
128	The Naked Prey	1966
129	The White Ribbon	2009
130	The American Scream	2012
131	Drug War	2012
132	Red Riding: 1974	2009
133	Red Riding: 1980	2009
134	Red Riding: 1983	2009
135	New World	2013
136	The Man of the Year	2003
137	The Man from Nowhere	2010
138	Pan’s Labyrinth	2006
139	Amelie	2001
140	The Bicycle Thief	1948
141	A Separation	2011
142	A Prophet	2009
143	The Secret in Their Eyes	2009
144	Hero	2002
145	District 13	2004
146	Ong-Bak: Thai Warrior	2003
147	The Legend of Drunken Master	1994
148	The Protector	2005
149	Rumble in the Bronx	1995
150	Holy Motors	2012
151	Carnage	2011
152	Ip Man 2	2010
153	Blackfish	2013
154	Searching for Sugar Man	2012
155	The Central Park Five	2012
156	The Imposter	2012
157	Senna	2010
158	Inside Job	2010
159	The Queen of Versailles	2012
160	The Greatest Movie Ever Sold	2011
161	Indie Game	2012
162	Chasing Ice	2012
163	The “Up” Series	Various
164	The Terminator	1984
165	In Bruges	2008
166	The Warriors	1979
167	Life of Pi	2012
168	Hanna	2011
169	Attack the Block	2011
170	Kick Ass	2010
171	Patton	1970
172	The Fifth Element	1997
173	Pirates of the Caribbean	2003
174	Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol	2011
175	Haywire	2011
176	Fast and the Furious Series	Various
177	Escape from LA	1996
178	Jackie Brown	1997
179	Blue Valentine	2010
180	Rocky Series	Various
181	Rounders	1998
182	Breaking Away	1979
183	Fargo	1996
184	Fatal Attraction	1987
185	Father of the Bride	1991
186	The Ice Storm	1997
187	The Virgin Suicides	1999
188	Chasing Amy	1997
189	Brokeback Mountain	2005
190	Flight	2012
191	Shaun of the Dead	2004
192	The Descent	2005
193	Child’s Play	1988
194	Session 9	2001
195	The Mist	2007
196	Maniac	2012
197	Scream Series	Various
198	Moon	2009
199	Cube	1997
200	Super 8	2011
201	Blue Velvet	1986
202	Pi	1998
203	Frailty	2002
204	Sightseers	2012
205	Prince Avalanche	2013
206	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	2011
207	Tiny Furniture	2010

Crackle: Free Movies Worth Watching

We may have lost the brick-and-mortar video stores, but right now may be the best time to be an at-home moviegoer. But with thousands of films at our fingertips, and multiple (legal) streaming sites to sift through, it can be difficult to discover the true gems. There’s one site in particular I want to look at that doesn’t get quite as much press as streaming titans Hulu and Netflix: Crackle.

Crackle is a free (ad-supported) streaming service with limited selection. However, despite this major drawback, Crackle has a few hidden gems that are well worth watching. Plus, if you haven’t jumped on the Netflix bandwagon yet, this service is a good “taster” of what streaming video is like without having to provide your credit card number for a one-month free trial.

Here’s some flicks streaming on Crackle that you should check out if you haven’t seen them:

The Good

See Dennis Hopper get crazy in “Blue Velvet” for the low cost of free.

Classic Woody Allen films like Annie Hall and Manhattan. The Terry Zwigoff documentary Crumb. Dennis Hopper’s sadistic Frank Booth in Blue Velvet. A documentary about two aspiring filmmakers in American Movie. The incredible Australian crime flick Animal Kingdom (reviewed here). The Oliver Stone-penned thriller Midnight Express and his award-winning Platoon. The coming-of-age Stand by Me. The Martin Scorsese masterpiece Taxi Driver. The original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The stylish Tarantino-written flick True Romance. And twisty The Usual Suspects.

The Guilty Pleasures

Or if those are a bit too highbrow, check out these guilty pleasures: the “best worst movie” Troll 2, the original Russian invasion movie Red Dawn, Schwarzenegger’s meta-action movie Last Action Hero, or Jean-Claude Van Damme in Double Team (with Dennis Rodman!) and Kickboxer.

Check out Crackle if you’re looking for some more streaming options.

The $1.99 Oscar-nominated Documentary

“Searching for Sugar Man” was partially shot on a smartphone.

Okay, so being a $1.99 Oscar-nominated documentary is a bit of a misnomer for “Searching for Sugar Man” – the producers just ran out of money for their film and had to complete the footage using an iPhone video recording app.

Still, nice to know for anyone out there with dreams of shooting their own movie, an Oscar may just be a pocketful of change and a smartphone away.

Best 5 Movies of 2011

2011 was a pretty good year for movies, despite what the Oscar nominations would have you believe. The whole “Awards Season” shebang has become increasingly irrelevant as the nominees don’t represent the cream of the crop but mediocre fare masquerading as masterpieces. If anything, a film with none (or few) Oscar nominations is a better indication of quality than a slew of statues. So it goes.

Below are my top 5 movies of 2011 – with a sixth spot for Shame, when I finally get around to seeing it.

5. Contagion

I’ve heard a lot of people don’t like this movie. And that’s fine. But it is the greatest infectious disease ensemble thriller of all time. So there, Outbreak.

4. The Muppets

The most delightful and fun movie-going experience I had in 2011. Effortlessly enjoyable.

3. Warrior

Nick Nolte’s performance really makes the movie for me. Heartbreaking and incredible stuff.

2. Midnight in Paris

One of the few deserving nominees this year. Ironic that its theme is about moving past nostalgia and enjoying the present. And then the Best Picture this year is a black-and-white silent film. Huh.

1. Drive

Just a lean, stylish neo-noir with a killer soundtrack and a scary (yes, really) Albert Brooks. See it if you haven’t.

Nathan Rabin’s My Year of Flops

Here at Modest Movie world headquarters, I sometimes take time off from watching movies to do something entirely different: read books about people watching movies.

In Nathan Rabin’s My Year of Flops, the A.V. Club author chronicles his experiences with some of Hollywood’s most maligned films. This sorry list of cinematic failure includes the likes of relationship-ruining Gigli, tween superficiality masquerading as morality in Bratz: The Movie, and the eyeball-gouging consequences of sitting down to watch the extended cut (177 minutes!) of Waterworld, the water-logged epic that sank Costner’s career and the coffers of Universal Pictures. While doing so, he uncovers a surprising truth about some (emphasis on some) of the films – they’re actually misunderstood masterpieces.

Rabin rates the films into three categories: Failure, Fiasco, or Secret Success. Even though most of the films fall into the first two categories, the sarcastic and detailed descriptions of the on-screen insanity that Rabin witnesses makes it enticing to seek out these bastard children of celluloid and see for yourself if it really is true that John Wayne donned yellowface to play Genghis Khan in Howard Hughes’ misogynistic epic The Conqueror. Or if Rosie O’Donnell really did wear S & M gear as an undercover detective in Exit to Eden (okay maybe the cartoon depiction in the book was enough). Or experience the bizarro-world film Paint Your Wagon with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin singing and dancing in choreographed numbers rather than acting gruff and kicking ass (how does this actually exist?).

Brando in "The Island of Dr. Moreau" - Failure, Fiasco, or Secret Success?

Despite being a collection of previously published (i.e. free) material, the book doesn’t feel like a quick cash-grab, and Rabin includes 15 never-before-seen Case Files including the Jim Carrey flop The Cable Guy, Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero, and the infamous Uwe Boll’s Postal. Reading Rabin is a refreshing adventure in the oft-neglected realm of film criticism – reviewing horrible, horrible films rather than the overdone praising of usual suspects like Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Taxi Driver. A highly recommended read.

Now excuse me, but I’m going to go watch The Rocketeer and Hulk again with new-found eyes.

Free Movie Screenings: Tips on Getting Tickets (Canada)

This may come as a shock to some because of the staggering quality of this blog, but I don’t actually get paid to do this. Nor do I get sent screening passes to see movies two days before they come out. I haven’t hit the peak of the blog-o-sphere yet that hand-wringing executives send me boatloads of freebies in the hopes that my highly-esteemed opinion will be a positive one. I have to live on my wits and my ability to procure free movie screening tickets to keep this ship afloat.

And now, for the benefit of everyone who reads this blog, I’m going to give you the secrets to seeing free movies, before they come out…legally.

1) Live in a city

The most obvious, but important rule of free movie screenings (in Canada) is this: live in a city. Specifically Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal (and sometimes Halifax). If you had to chose one of these cities to live in, it would be Toronto. It has the most free movie screenings of any of the other cities, plus it gets films that the other cities don’t (I’ve seen multiple mentions of the Jesse Eisenberg flick 30 Minutes or Less screening in Toronto, but haven’t heard it being screened anywhere else). In general though, if you don’t live if one of the above cities, you won’t have as much luck getting free movies.

2) Read the Newspaper

It’s a simple one, but easily overlooked. Most newspapers have contests giving away two free passes to movie screenings. You can enter online, and it usually involves giving your full name and e-mail address. That’s about it. The competition for these contests isn’t that fierce either – my girlfriend and I entered one to see Friends with Benefits and we both ended up winning double passes.

3) Read Movie Blogs

There’s one movie blog that I occasionally contribute to called Criticize This! that has weekly contests for readers. Whether it be a Blu-ray collection, DVD, poster, or free screening, this is a good place to go. I don’t enter the contests (it seems like a conflict of interest to me) but my friends who have entered have managed to snag a free screening or two.

4) “Like” Film Companies on Facebook

Put your Facebook account to good use and like Warner Brothers Studios Canada and Walt Disney Studios Canada. Warner Bros. tends to have a monthly giveaway for a free screening, and it hasn’t been hard for me to get passes (I saw Arthur, Horrible Bosses, and Crazy, Stupid, Love thanks to liking them on Facebook) and I just recently liked Walt Disney and managed to see The Help six days before it’s general release. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

5) Watch the Freebie forum on Redflagdeals.com

This one is a little tricky because you have to constantly be on the lookout for free screening posts on the Freebie section of Redflagdeals.com forums. Generally what happens is a kind user will post a link to a free screening and it directs the user to enter their e-mail address and how many tickets they want (up to a max of four) to a screening. And then it sends the passes directly to your e-mail account. No contest needed. Of course, thirty minutes after one of these posts the screening is sold out, so you have to be quick. I recommend Bookmarking the Freebie forum and checking it periodically throughout the day – free screening posts tend to go up between 3 PM – 5 PM.

Anyway, those are the tips I’ve been using this year to see free films and they’ve been pretty successful for me thus far. Here’s the list of movies I’ve seen for free this year:

Arthur

Crazy Stupid Love

The Help

Friends with Benefits

Meet Monica Velour

Red Riding Hood

Insidious

Horrible Bosses

Win Win

Edit:

Fright Night 3D

The Debt

Drive

Contagion

The Ides of March

A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas

Netflix Canada Selection: 169 Films Worth Watching

EDIT: Check out the updated list for 2014 HERE!

EDIT: I’ve been told that a good portion of the films on this list have been taken off because of the fallout between some distributors with Netflix. If you are looking for a good Netflix Canada Selection list check out What’s New on Netflix or Instant Watcher.

Having just recently signed up for the Netflix Canada one-month free trial, I was surprised to find out that though the selection of movies is limited, there are still enough gems that it would be worth it to keep the service (at least for another couple of months).

The local movie store I go to facetiously calls Netflix “NetShitz” and rails against the corporate drivel that the service presumably shells out for $8 a month. This isn’t entirely correct. In fact, I scoured through the list and found 169 films on Netflix Canada’s selection that even a discerning cinephile should be able to appreciate (or at least find a handful they’re interested in).

NOTE: I haven’t seen all the movies on this list. Of those that I have, I liked. And of those that I haven’t, I’m interested in seeing. Also, the numbers don’t reflect a ranking system. This is just the order I found these movies in.

Netflix Canada Selection (Or 169 films worth paying $8 a month for):

1 The Game 1998 2 The Player 1992 3 Memento 2000 4 Lost Highway 1997 5 Inherit the Wind 1960 6 Paths of Glory 1957 7 The Killing 1956 8 Witness for the Prosecution 1957 9 Anatomy of a Murder 1959 10 The Apartment 1960 11 Vertigo 1958 12 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold 1965 13 The Hustler 1961 14 The Lives of Others 2007 15 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 16 On the Waterfront 1954 17 Patton 1970 18 The Last Detail 1973 19 Easy Rider 1969 20 The French Connection 1971 21 The Taking of Pelham One Two Three 1974 22 Boyz N the Hood 1991 23 American History X 1998 24 Lord of War 2005 25 American Psycho 2000 26 Taken 2008 27 …And Justice for All 1979 28 The Long Goodbye 1973 29 Donnie Brasco 1997 30 Being John Malkovich 1999 31 Raising Arizona 1987 32 Adaptation 2002 33 Office Space 1999 34 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 35 Barton Fink 1991 36 Gosford Park 2001 37 Affliction 1997 38 The Thin Red Line 1998 39 Little Children 2006 40 The Ice Storm 1997 41 Happiness 1998 42 Closer 2004 43 The Night of the Hunter 1955 44 Psycho 1960 45 Dr. Strangelove 1964 46 The Full Monty 1997 47 About a Boy 2002 48 Pleasantville 1998 49 Groundhog Day 1993 50 Donnie Darko 2001 51 Stand By Me 1986 52 Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip 1982 53 Date Night 2010 54 Superbad 2007 55 Louis C.K.: Chewed Up 2008 56 Shaun of the Dead 2004 57 Hot Fuzz 2007 58 (500) Days of Summer 2009 59 Stripes 1981 60 Dazed and Confused 1993 61 Harry Brown 2009 62 Snatch 2000 63 Spy Game 2001 64 Reservoir Dogs 1992 65 Frailty 2002 66 Dark City 1998 67 La Femme Nikita 1990 68 Das Boot: Director’s Cut 1981 69 Pi 1998 70 Cronos 1993 71 Arlington Road 1999 72 Amores Perros 2000 73 House of Games 1987 74 In Bruges 2008 75 Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai 2000 76 Miller’s Crossing 1990 77 Assault on Precinct 13 1976 78 Audition 1999 79 Ip Man 2008 80 Kung Fu Hustle 2004 81 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000 82 The 400 Blows 1959 83 M 1931 84 Exit Through the Gift Shop 2010 85 American Movie 1999 86 The Kid Stays in The Picture 2002 87 Glory 1989 88 Born into Brothels 2004 89 Capturing the Friedmans 2003 90 Taxi Driver 1976 91 Mysterious Skin 2004 92 The Last of the Mohicans 1992 93 Carlito’s Way 1993 94 21 Grams 2003 95 Traffic 2000 96 The Limey 1999 97 Out of Sight 1998 98 Monster’s Ball 2001 99 Requiem for a Dream 2000 100 The Wrestler 2008 101 Lost in Translation 2003 102 Crazy Heart 2009 103 Primer 2004 104 The Fly 1986 105 The People vs Larry Flynt 1996 106 The Paper Chase 1973 107 The Eiger Sanction 1975 108 Predator 1987 109 Aliens 1986 110 Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 111 The Thing 1982 112 Minority Report 2002 113 Blade 1998 114 12 Monkeys 1995 115 Cube 1997 116 Funny Games 2007 117 Planet of the Apes 1968 118 Gattaca 1997 119 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 2008 120 The Last Emperor 1987 121 Sixteen Candles 1984 122 Weird Science 1985 123 Revenge of the Nerds 1985 124 Hustle and Flow 2005 125 Five Easy Pieces 1970 126 The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 127 Krull 1983 128 Primer 2004 129 The Last Picture Show 1971 130 The King of Kong 2007 131 The Fog of War 2003 132 Confessions of a Superhero 2007 133 Deliver Us From Evil 2006 134 See No Evil, Hear No Evil 1989 135 Death Wish 1974 136 Pollock 2000 137 Waltz with Bashir 2008 138 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 139 Thief 1981 140 The Killing of a Chinese Bookie 1976 141 Fletch 1985 142 The Birds 1963 143 The Ghost and the Darkness 1996 144 Bully 2001 145 Brick 2005 146 Fright Night 1985 147 Bubba Ho-Tep 2003 148 Catch Me if You Can 2002 149 Boogie Nights 1997 150 Gods and Monsters 1998 151 Hoop Dreams 1994 152 Gandhi 1982 153 Repulsion 1965 154 The Crimson Rivers 2000 155 The ‘burbs 1989 156 Young Frankenstein 1974 157 Tootsie 1982 158 Mother 2009 159 The Host 2006 160 Cache 2005 161 Control 2007 162 A Prophet 2009 163 Tell No One 2006 164 Eddie Murphy: Raw 1987 165 An Education 2008 166 Rumble in the Bronx 1995 167 The Princess Bride 1987 168 Death at a Funeral 2007 169 The Straight Story 1999

Must-see Trailer: Green with Envy

This usually isn’t my type of movie, but this trailer is fantastic. Check it out.

Thoughts?

This movie defines the results of the 2011 Canadian Election

Bit of a hiatus on Modest Movie here folks (booze, sand, and all-inclusive resorts tend to do that). In the meantime, here’s a quick post about the results of the 2011 Canadian election and the movie I think most accurately describes the outcome:

Citizen Antichrist.

Yep, this election was pretty crazy and only malevolent supernatural forces can explain it. I have a feeling Damien had a hand to play in the outcome (perhaps by the landslide victories of candidates who didn’t campaign, don’t speak the language of their constituents, and didn’t even realize they had won until they came back from Las Vegas). Well played Damien, nobody expected you to set your sights on Canada.

The Killing

One of my favorite movies is David Fincher’s Zodiac. The main reason I like it is that it is a two-and-half-hour long murder mystery with multiple detectives, journalists, and citizens trying to solve the identity of the Zodiac killer. There’s not a single chase scene in it (at least not to my memory) and most of the investigation revolves around the more mundane (i.e. less thrilling) aspects of police work – interviews, paperwork, and theorizing on motive. There are a lot of false leads and dead ends along the way, and burnt-out characters drop from the case as the years continue to drag on without a solid suspect in sight. I find this aspect of a police procedural – the boring bits that are usually edited out or sped up (look at Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz for the best example of applying Michael Bay-style jump cuts and pounding soundtrack to make the mundane task of filling out a file into an action-packed sequence) – to be the most fascinating and watchable part about crime films. That makes me the perfect target for the new AMC show “The Killing.”

Unlike “CSI” and its imitators that solve a murder case every hour, “The Killing” looks at the investigation of one over an entire season. What this means is a slower pace – almost glacial – compared to the other crime dramas on television. This is the type of show where the DNA results don’t come through for three episodes. I think the show will be quite divisive among audiences. It’s interesting, the characters are well-developed and drawn (except for the political candidate’s male aide, who says lines like “let’s exploit a dead girl for political gain” and seems to have no understanding as to the absolute repulsiveness of that statement), and there’s a lot of boring police bits for people like myself to enjoy.

In the first two episodes, there’s no running from crime scene to crime scene or the chasing down of suspects. It’s all quite tame, with the two detectives (obviously with wildly different styles of policing) walking quietly around a crime scene with minimal dialogue, contemplating what’s in front of them. There’s a certain weariness they have, especially Detective Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos), who makes the unfortunate mistake of choosing to retire that day. I wonder if it happens to all retiring cops that the day they want to leave they’re caught in the middle of an important case. Probably.

Linden has been a police officer for so long, and has presumably seen her fair share of unsolved crimes and anguished families, that she’s surrounded by an aura of crushing inevitability as she begins to put the pieces together in the first episode. She finds a blood-stained sweater with her replacement, Detective Holder (Joel Kinnaman), and she has a tired, knowing look. It’s another case alright. But she just needs to make it through the next six or so hours and she can fly down to California with her son to meet up with her fiancee (Callum Keith Rennie). From the moment she sees the blood-stained sweater, she already knows whats happened – it’s inevitable. Someone’s dead – and she’ll have to put together the pieces.

It starts off with following a lead: Stanley Larsen. The name was found on a credit card left at the scene, so Linden and Holder go to his house to investigate. He’s not home, but his wife is. And she tells them that he was camping with her all weekend – he can’t be the killer. And then Linden sees a pink bicycle in the garage and starts putting the story together. “Do you have a daughter?” she asks. The credit card isn’t leading them to the culprit; it’s led them to the missing girl’s family. But if you look at Linden, you can tell she already knows that this story isn’t going to have a happy ending. It’s not going to be the case of a missing girl. It’s going to a be a murder investigation. It was inevitable from the moment she saw the bloody sweater.

“The Killing” is going to be an interesting and exciting new series (although I question calling it a “series” – I really hope that this doesn’t last much longer than two seasons – there’s only so many dead ends and police procedural work even I can handle before I want answers, damnit).