The Killing. The Killing is a 2011 Netflix original about a homicide cop who is trying to move but gets caught up in another murder case. 2011 really wasn’t that long ago, we had almost all of the technology we do today. We had smartphones, impressive laptops, flat screen TVs, and the newest iPad. So, the question is why did Netflix put so much effort into making this show look like it was filmed in the late 1990s to the early 2000s? Because, if you have seen it you would know how old this show looks.
When watching the first season of The Killing it becomes apparent that either this show was filmed some time before it was aired on Netflix or that they put more effort into making it look as if the show is older than when they filmed it. Starting with the equipment they use as props. In many of the scenes you are shown old flip phones, old box TVs, and laptops that, in comparison to the ones we have now, are huge.
In one scene the main characters are interrogating a suspect and they need to show a video. They wheel in an old box TV with a combination DVD and VHS player. Those aren’t produced anymore. To be fair, VHS tapes were made up until 2015 but by 2011 most people only used DVD players because VCR players were discontinued in 2002. So, to have this giant TV and VCR player shows just how outdated this show was becoming even as they were filming it. Plus that isn’t the only time these are seen by the audience, making it seem that they are more widely
While they were using a DVD for the video, in another scene they are reviewing a piece of evidence that was made by the deceased. A movie. This piece of evidence is a short film made with 35mm film that had to be played in an old film projector. Those kinds of projectors are viewed as antiques and are extremely valuable nowadays. In 2011, film movies were dying. People were using digital cameras to make movies. To still be using a film camera to record shows a lag in the technology available to people.
In almost every scene you see someone using a flip phone. By the time this show was made the iPhone had been out on the market for 4 years, Blackberrys had been out for 8 years, and Android had been making their phones for three years. By the time of this show smartphones were easily accessible. Some were relatively cheap. So if smartphones were readily accessible, and semi-cheap why does everyone in this show only have a flip phone?
There are many other things that indicate just how old this show is, even for it’s time period. Did Netflix make it intentionally old or was that just what was readily accessible? I’ve done the research and there were more advanced forms of technology that could have been used and were most likely being used in everyday life by detectives. This show just screams it was filmed in an older way with older tech, and is even more apparent when watching it in today’s technology. What do you think? Is it that old?
This is a really interesting take, and also drives me nuts! Don't get me wrong, I had one of those phones that slide to show the keyboard up until 2012, but even then I realized how old it was! I wonder if part of it is the influence of media on the viewers? We've all seen projectors before, and that's what the props department finds in the prop room, so they ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and run with it?
ReplyDeleteI notice a lot of transitions in your writing that are a bit fragmented: the sentences beginning with "so", "plus" etc. are somewhat jarring to read. For more formal writing, it's better to have complete sentence structure (whereas in, say, creative writing pursuits, you're more able to bend the rules to get the meter and flow you want).
The research you've done here is really good though (I can see this is a peeve of yours haha). Very nice blog piece!