Not Since Nick and Nora: The Killing's Linden and Holder

The Phantom loved Myrna Loy, as Nora in the "Thin Man" movies. 

What does not hold up well is the whole "Thin Man" notion that getting drunk, talking about wanting to get drunk, being drunk, seeing people take pratfalls who are drunk.

What endures, however, about that pair is the idea of a woman who is smart, quick, adventurous, competent,  unafraid, and who does not come undone at the thought of her husband playing around. 

It is hard to think of a woman who matches Nora in anything since that series, although Cary Grant had one or two women who were written to match him, there was never enough real fire to light up the screen.  With Grant you always had the idea he would simply move on to the next woman and might not be able to recall the current lady's last name, even if she looked like Grace Kelly. 

As couples go, there has never been anything to match Nick and Nora, until now.

In "The Killing" Sarah Linden (Mirielle Enos) and Holder (Joel Kinnamon) have got it. They have a slow cooked relationship. Their best scenes do not occur until the final episode of the final season, but they have been building toward this all along.

What is even more extraordinary is that their relationship escalates to the highest realm of American writing only after it has been established that they do not love each other romantically; it is only after you see Holder is really in love with his lawyer girlfriend and Sarah is in love with exactly the wrong man, that the relationship between Holder and Sarah flowers completely.

There is one scene, in particular, with Holder teasing Sarah as they drive along, in pursuit of yet another body, which is like nothing the Phantom has ever seen. The background has been perfectly laid.  You watch them through the window of a moving car, and Sarah is not completely center stage. But the execution of Holder's teasing,  which fleetingly turns Sarah into a blushing little sister whose secret has been exposed--is stunning. 

The third season ends so surprisingly, you cannot believe the season, the show is actually over. No, that can't be the final scene. There has to be more.

But all the threads have been knotted.

In its bleak, Scandinavian way, the end comes suddenly, completely, irretrievably, and like death in real life; it is not what you expected, and it is too soon, too unvarnished. It is like that scene in "The Seventh Seal" where the knight and his family are at dinner and the knock comes suddenly at the door, and someone says, "So soon?"

"The Killing" is not the greatest TV show ever made, by the Phantom's standards. It is not even the greatest police procedural. It is too ponderous, spends too much time on the angst of characters who are not as important as Wallace or Deangelo ("The Wire") and it has not been cut as ruthlessly. There are too many scenes which could be cut or shortened without losing anything important.  But it does have one thing in it which is unparalleled: The Holder (Kinnamon) Sarah Linden (Enos) thing.  Not McNulty and Ronnie ("The Wire") nor the Underwoods ("House of Cards") nor Carrie and Brody ("Homeland") have the sparkle and shine of Holder and Linden.

What a loss to the world if these two are not paired again.

The Phantom is already working on the screenplay.