In the case of its premiere episode, an interesting mystery is hampered by over-production, scripted interview scenes and other signs of a show trying to please instead of just letting the action unfold.
That Killing Fields, at least by its second episode, begins to generate some whodunit interest may trace back to two of its executive producers, Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, who worked together on Homicide: Life on the Street and Oz.
This is the kind of story that builds over time, so it's difficult to tell - Discovery made only one episode available - whether the rest of the series will stay as compelling as the pilot. But it's a doozy of an episode.
Killing Fields is doing what so many other shows in the last ten years seem to be doing, and to its severe detriment: taking a compelling idea and turning it into another damn cop show.
Discovery sent one episode to critics, but it was enough to suggest that "The Killing Fields" should appeal to fans of both true-crime documentaries and fictionalized police procedurals.
"At face value, it's compelling stuff, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how cops do their jobs. Plus there's a solid justification for reopening the case now, with all the advancements in technology since the '90s .
