Cue the Beyonce song ‘Déjà vu’ in your playlist, sit back, relax, and take a sip of your coffee or tea (or another any other beverage you like). I guess what is another country’s trash is Pittsburgh’s opportunity; but let us make sure we clarify the subject here. A previous article of mine mentioned a debut television show that started production of a pilot episode late last year 2012 titled Those Who Kill. Formerly mentioned, director Joe Carnahan is leading this endeavor to portray the American version of this Danish crime television series originally written by Stefan Jaworski, which Elsebeth Egholm then transformed the story into a screenplay with the help of four to five other screenwriters.
The American version stars leading actress Chloe Sevigny and leading actor James D’Arcy. On the Danish side, this Danish-German-Swedish-Norwegian film was known as Den som draeber, and leading roles are covered by Laura Bach and Jakob Cedergren. The last episode, which came severely early due to the falling viewer shares or television ratings, aired on Danish TV channel TV2 on May 15, 2011; a month and two days after its first episode aired. The lack of substantial audiences is what subsequently drove the Copenhagen serial murders investigative police unit to be disbanded after six short episodes.
Now let us fast forward to 2013, and weigh Carnahan’s almost exact representation of the show to its foreign counterpart and the handful of crime thrillers that already exist in the United States. To gain any kind of viewer margins here in the US, Those Who Kill, would have to gain some kind of spectators amid the CSI’s, Criminal Minds, Fringe, and countless others more. It is very hard to tell if the show will survive in this competitive viewing market; but among this competition lays an American audience obsessed with blood and gore, at least in their television shows. Those who kill television ratings will be exempt from this lucrative market, but those who capture the right amount of viewers at the right time will reap exactly what they sowed. I do not see this city hosting anything else but creepy thrillers that send chills up its audiences spines. Pittsburgh old vintage look is sure to boost ratings, as long as Joe can keep his show marginally different than the rest of the crime thrillers. Hopefully the Americans can pull this off better than the Danish did; I think they will—plus, I don’t know an American who doesn’t believe in the ‘American Spirit’.
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