The Awesome Actors of The Killing

[merryone]

I thought I'd start a thread for us to make comments about the wonderful performances we've seen.  For starters, here are some general thoughts:

Of course we love Mireille and Joel.  Their chemistry makes the show and keeps us coming back for more.  These actors do a terrific job of portraying cops with feet of clay, and each one has a foot mired in a troubled past.  They're both struggling to overcome the hands that were dealt them and their fine performances take us along for the ride.

Peter Sarsgaard is treating us to a tour-de-force performance.  Every single moment has been pitch perfect.  The character of Ray Seward will haunt me the rest of my life.

Ben Cotton has not only captured the essence of a cynical do-gooder but also that of a man whose reason for living and faith in God has been shattered.

Gregg Henry is the absolute epitomy of a career cop who's trying to cruise to retirement.  His wit and gallows humor has been delivered with the aplomb of a seasoned comic.

Amy Seimetz had us believing she was a self-centered, skanky mom.  But she fooled us.  Now, what mother can't relate to the challenges and fears she's faced?

[Genius Killing]

Bex Taylor-Klaus. I viewed her, at first, as a bit of an over-actress, but, since that first episode, she has come into her own and portrayed the protector like no one else could.

[merryone]

^^^Duty called before I could get to her.

Bex is a pixie powerhouse of a performer!  I agree with you and wasn't really taken with her at first like a lot of other fans.  But then I had to consider that the role of Bullet calls for pretense, IYKWIM.  She's a little girl trying to be a big man.

[merryone]

Time to add:

Ryan Robbins turned in a terrific performance as an opportunistic sleaze last night.  He sickened us a predator who conflates perversion with his own special brand of social service.  Ugh!

Nicholas Lea was beyond creepy when his sermonizing smarminess turned to sadistic scorn.  His malevolence is made more chilling because it's masked by benign, baby-faced looks.  Thank God for prisons!

Hugh Dillon has shown us the fury and despair of a humiliated, high-testosterone husband.  But last night the smug sadist was the picture of bald-faced bewilderment as he stood on his front lawn and watched what he hath wrought being carried away in handcuffs.  It's a juicy role and he's rolling with it.

[merryone]

Elias Koteas was a perfect choice to play the Pied Piper as it was written.  Even in the briefest of scenes, he was able to create a palpable, credible sexual tension with Linden. Her smiles were a testimony to his power of seduction. At the pivotal moment when he realized the game was up, his dark eyes subtly shifted from complacent to complicit.  It was a tacit confession.  And then his soft-voiced delivery, with its sighs and ellipses, did everything it could to convey the mindset of a monster. Considering what he had to work with, he did a terrific job and left us hungering to understand more.