3 out of 5

Developed by: Glen Morgan

covers season 1

It’s a freaking mess, and it’s rather grossly sadistic in its attempts to grab our attention, but this over-zealous freneticness is what ends up making ‘Those Who Kill’ a rather addictive, bonkers watch.  Though be warned that the bookends – the first couple episodes, the last episode – are gregariously uneven when held against the majority of the season.  ‘Those Who Kill’ is essentially a police procedural focusing on serial killers with a dash of Hannibal insanity sprinkled over the killers and the leads to give it that ‘spark’ of desperation that viewers and A&E sensed immediately, causing it to get bumped to a sister station.  Chloe Sevigny is Catherine Jensen – the ‘fractured’ (to put it lightly) but gifted detective who ropes in the fractured but gifted forensic psychologist Thomas Schaeffer (James D’Arcy) to assist on a string of murders, which just so happen to occupy about one episode a week.  Generally the formula for these shows is to have the wacko and the straight man or woman; ‘Those Who Kill’ goes for broke by making both Catherine and Thomas crazy.  The former is obsessed with proving that her stepfather, a creepily friendly Bruce Davison is actually a killer – a consuming quest that’s given her lots of fun bi-polar traits – and the latter has a slight problem where he needs to act like a killer in order to profile one, which has been plenty of fun for his family and kid when he breaks into his own house and starts waving a knife around, for example.  Crazy.  The whole thing is washed over with this insane electro-drone soundtrack that’s almost always consistently humming and a fairly bright color palette – lots of this happening during the daytime – that’s unique for gritty cop shows, and though most of the actors perform competently in fairly stock roles, you can tell Sevigny is loving the tough-girl act.  There are some fascinating moments that hint at a deeper show, had it the time and patience to find a groove, but its apparent the MO here was to go for sound and fury and, at times, some distastefully brutal violence, to grab our attention.  When it failed at first, the show slunk off to a corner and then seemed to re-emerge, bristling with the confidence of one who doesn’t really care about other’s opinions, and that’s when it gets addictive.  The last episode of the season feels a little rushed, perhaps because there’s probably uncertainty whether there will be more.  Please bear in mind that none of this is great.  It’s just crazy.  And from that craziness is borne some appealing inspired dreck.