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'The Killing' returns from the dead for Season 3

Bill Keveney
USA TODAY
Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) are now on the trail of a serial killer who preys on homeless teens in Seattle.
  • Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman return to the AMC drama%2C which was canceled and then revived
  • Details of a new murder connect to the crime of a Death Row inmate%2C raising questions
  • Peter Sarsgaard%2C Elias Koteas and Amy Seimetz join the cast

The Killing has new life.

The dark AMC drama, canceled after two seasons but then revived, returns for Season 3 Sunday (8 ET/PT) with a two-hour premiere.

Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) are back, but it's 15 months after the Rosie Larsen murder case was resolved, and they're in much different places as they explore a new case that focuses on a serial killer who preys on homeless teens in Seattle.

Linden and Holder almost didn't make it. After a second season that was down 27% in viewers (1.6 million) and 23% in young adults from Season 1, AMC decided against a third season. In an unusual move, the show's producer, Fox Television Studios, immediately said it would look into ways to continue the The Killing, perhaps on a different network.

Eventually, the Fox studio worked out a deal that offered new benefits to Netflix, including exclusivity in some foreign markets. The returns from that deal, in turn, allowed the studio to work out a licensing agreement that was favorable to AMC, leading to the renewal of the show in January.

"Literally, the day after we canceled it, our creative teams, we were having conversations about, 'Could this be rekindled? What would it take?' " AMC president Charlie Collier says. "And then the smart folks in our business affairs group and in the Fox Television Studios' business affairs group got together and cut a deal that was good for all of us. We never really lost our passion for the show."

As the season opens, Holder is a rising star in the Seattle Police Department. He dresses better, is preparing for the sergeant's exam and has a girlfriend, an assistant district attorney. Linden has left the police force, choosing a less pressured life working on a ferry and finding a younger, undemanding boyfriend. It's a lighter and, from appearances, happier existence.

Peter Sarsgard joins the cast as Ray Seward, a death row inmate 30 days away from execution, who Linden now thinks may be innocent.

When a new killing appears similar in detail to a case Linden had worked on, Holder seeks her help. Linden has always been troubled by that earlier case, which had led to her psychiatric hospitalization, and now the convicted man, Ray Seward (Peter Sarsgaard), is just 30 days away from execution.

"She didn't believe that she had put the right man away," Enos says. "The boy's mother had been killed and they put the father in jail, which left this boy orphaned. And he went into the foster system. Sarah grew up in the foster system, and it had been a very negative experience for her. So she felt like she had ruined two people's lives."

Further complicating matters, the case brings Linden back into contact with ex-partner and ex-lover James Skinner (Elias Koteas), who now heads the homicide division.

"In many ways, she and Skinner are the same animal," executive producer Veena Sud says. "Because of this crucible they're in, over the next 30 days of this serial-killing investigation, they're going to be back together in really tight quarters."

And, after being away from law enforcement, Linden doesn't have her guard up, Enos says. "The Sarah that comes back into the police force in Season 3 is much more vulnerable. She's stripped down a lot of her cop defenses and that makes coming back complicated."

Despite their different post-Rosie paths, Linden and Holder aren't that far apart in some ways, Kinnaman says.

"I always felt Linden and Holder are two sides of the same coin. Both come from very broken backgrounds, broken homes. ... Both are self-destructive at times, and they're both obsessive. And they get along really well even when they don't get along," he says. "He knows her weak sides, and he's sort of playing with her obsessive behavior and not being able to let things go. He knows that that's not good for her."

This case will be resolved over the 12-episode season, which will cover 30 days and not be broken down a day per episode the way the first two seasons were. The Rosie Larsen story took two seasons, angering some fans who felt misled when it wasn't resolved in one.

Having a different story that rewards but doesn't require watching the earlier seasons could help draw new viewers, Collier says. "I think it's the type of story you don't need to have to have seen the first two seasons to jump in."

Sud, who created the new season's story line after the first two seasons were modeled on a Danish series, was inspired by Mary Ellen Mark's photography of street kids. She also was intrigued by the story of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgway,who pleaded guilty in 2003 to murdering more than 40 women in the 1980s and 1990s.

"When I was up in Seattle doing research for the pilot, I was really struck by how many street kids there were. It's a whole world," Sud says. "I knew from the pilot that this was a world I would love to talk about and explore."

As far as Ridgway, who is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole, "I was really interested in the fact that he was able to kill as many women as he did for as long as he did and not be caught. I became very interested in the idea of victims who can disappear off the face of the Earth and no one notices," Sud says. "I was also interested in a different type of victim than Rosie Larsen. She's a nice kid from a nice family. The minute she's gone, everyone notices."

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