Those Who Kill Episode 1 Recap: Think Outside The Box (Season Premiere)

"Those Who Kill" premiered on A&E on Monday at 10 ET. It's right after "Bates Motel" so has a good lead in. I purposefully did not read much about the show ahead of time (other than it was "must see TV"). It apparently is based on a Danish series that ran for one season.

Chloe Sevigny plays Pittsburgh homicide detective Catherine Jensen. The first "case" is a long dead woman with crossed arms that is found in a mill. Catherine goes to see Thomas Schaeffer (a professor of forensics or some such thing). He is a police consultant and Catherine needs some heavy duty consulting. Thomas seems to be some sort of empath.

More women are kidnapped. Thomas says the perpetrator is an invisible person like a repair man, delivery man, etc. (He turns out to be a security guard, cop-wanna-be). The victims were all trying to improve themselves. He cannot improve himself so makes them suffer instead. He puts the victims in boxes and slowly suffocates them. Serial killers just love boxes for some reason, don't they?

I wont list all the plot points but suffice to say Bad Dude kidnaps Catherine and subjects her to the same punishment (ie he sticks her in a box). Thomas and the other cops figure out that she is being held at an abandoned psych hospital and rescue her. She shoots Bad Dude after he slashes Supporting Cop (sorry dont remember his name). Then while Thomas takes him to the ambulance, Catherine finishes Kogh off. I personally think that was a fine ending. I'm not sure why there had to be a police investigation but whatever.

It appears that Catherine has some dark secrets of her own. She cuts herself and has flashbacks to something Her brother is missing and presumed dead. She tells Thomas that she has been locked in a box before. I look forward to seeing how her story progresses.

Most suspenseful scenes in episode 1:

When Catherine and Thomas opened the pipe, threw in the light in and it illuminated 3 dead bodies.
When Kogh popped up behind Catherine after she had released the girl from the box.
When Kogh chased the girl down the long hall until she ran out in the garbage heaps, That guy is seriously creepy.
When Catherine opened the door and Kogh burst through (yes, I should have known that was coming).

Favorite quotes:

Thomas: "You're asking the wrong question. Catherine: What is the right question? Thomas: Where are the others?"
"Can't you feel the fear in this room when she realized that the person she let in, was not who she thought they were"- Thomas
"You have to be worse than they are"- Catherine

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). Sure there were a few hokey scenes but there were also some very suspenseful ones. Overall I enjoyed the first episode. I'll check out the next few before I commit (Lord knows I have enough other shows to watch). Do we need another serial killer show? Probably not. The difference in this one might be that the "good guy" is a girl who is actually as bad as the baddies. If the show is done well, I say bring it on. PS I do not like the operning sequence. I can watch murders all day but can not look at a spider. Yes, I realize that makes no sense whatsoever.