Is 'K Is for Killing' the worst ever episode? - Thriller (1973) Discussion

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

In my opinion 'Kill Two Birds' was by far the worst episode-but 'K Is For Killing' is one of the worst. I didn't like the latter for the same reason I didn't like the other episodes that were just straightforward crime/detective stories. I enjoyed the macabre/horror elements that permeated the majority of episode, and so disliked the minority of episodes that eschewed them in favour of a simple criminal mystery-and particularly when they did so while adopting a light-hearted tone, as 'K Is For Killing' did. The whole idea of a light-hearted overall tone (as opposed to occasional touches of humour that were either dark or designed to throw the darker elements into sharp relief)were at odds with the general dark tone of the series that gave it its edge.

reply

[–] spotlightne 13 years ago

The 'light-hearted' tone in K Is For Killing was far too excessive. And none of the humour was funny. So it shouldn't have been in there. The two main actors just didn't gel.

reply

[–] Moscoso1967 10 years ago

I quite like crime/detective stories and neither do I mind a light-hearted tone or humour in it, there are plenty of series' and films where it works wonderfully and I absolutely don't mind if occasionally a more light-hearted episode pops up in an anthology series like "Thriller" - I think "The Next Scream You Hear" is a good example that it can work absolutely fine.
But not only wasn't the humour in "K Is For Killing" particularly funny, I think the two leads were absolutely terrible (so was the guy who played the culprit, from the first moment I saw him and his manner I knew it had to be him, that definitely could have been played a bit more subtle), wooden, no chemistry between them, and they where crap at being funny. They didn't know how to deliver those lines.

I agree that it's one of the worst episodes (as it was quite boring and the performances cringeworthy), but I don't know about the worst as there were a few others which IMHO were only mediocre.
Personally I didn't like "Nightmare for a Nightingale" and "Kiss Me And Die" (those were the ones I found most boring), but I'm also not too keen on "Someone At The Top Of The Stairs" (well, but then I'm generally not such a big fan of supernatural stories and was quite annoyed by the irrational and stupid behaviour of some characters) and "The Eyes Have It" (though on the whole a good story, I found the ending quite ridiculous and Dennis Waterman's acting was quite bad),

reply

[–] dolly_the_ye-ye_bird 11 years ago

I've not seen the entire series yet, but what I have seen I've LOVED! However, I agree with 'K Is For Killing' being absolutely horrid. I'm still not through it and I've begun watching it 4 times now over the last three days. It just doesn't have the same mood or pace of the others and is frankly just tiresome and I just can't seem to commit to it even if it is only an hour! Slow, unintriguing, misplaced humour, etc...

And another thing that's bothering me is Stephen Rea. As much as I love the guy, I can't tolerate him in this! The biggest problem I have is his delivery and his accent. Is he trying to sound American? Because it's not working. He sounds odd through what I've seen of the film so far. Of course, it was very early in his career and he's since become one of my favourite actors, but watching this makes me think it's a miracle he ever got another role!

edit...Finally finished the whole thing. Funnily enough, Rea's accent is much more Irish in the last half of the film, although he still moves in and out of that weird psuedo-American accent every now and again. The ending was fairly predictable and the 'laughs' (not that they were very funny) were still just wrong for the subject matter. As it went on, it became obvious that they were parodying American detective films of the 30's and 40's, but doing it badly!
Still, the (so far for me) worst episode of Thriller is still a million times better than even the best episodes of tripe that we're subjected to on television these days.

The bee hunts in pairs....and other fruits...

reply

[–] gustobrunt 9 years ago

I vote K for Killing as the worst story.

The acting is abysmal. Like Dolly said, Stephen Rea, he's absolutely terrible in this. I'm not a man of violence, but don't you want to punch his character in the face.

As was said before, too much comedy but no laughs. I also guessed the ending ten minutes into the story.

I also found it hard to belive two of the UK's best writers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation got together to write this dross.

Trash -1/10.

reply

[–] stevetrump 9 years ago

I thought I would hate this episode but strangely I really enjoyed it, mostly due to the exquisite Gayle Hunnicutt who, I see also appeared in the classic series 'The Martian Chronicles'. Yes the dialogue is corny and yes the story is out of kilter with all the other 'Thriller' episodes I've watched. But I don't care, I enjoyed it regardless, although I can understand why people hate it. Check out the novelisation in 'More stories from Thriller' and you'll find that 'Suzy' has been ever so slightly sexed up!

reply

[–] nativenewyorker88 8 years ago

I agree. Most of the jokes fall flat. There's very little chemistry between the two leads but I liked the lead actress and the storyline wasn't all that bad. I've seen worse episodes so thought this was pretty, well...ok.

reply

[–] parkerbot (5331) 4 months ago

Ditto.

Biggest complaint was a predictable plot.

They tried something different, it didn't quite work - it happens.

reply