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Last year, AMC's breakout drama _The Killing_ debuted to enviable acclaim, earning a stellar 84 "universal acclaim" score on review aggregator _Metacritic_, and converting

viewers into passionate followers. The buzzy series promised to spend all of its 13 episodes moodily puzzling over a single question: "Who killed Rosie Larsen?" But when the

maddening finale declined to resolve that mystery, fans went from "critical embrace to critical chokehold." "YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME," roared _Huffington Post_ critic

Maureen Ryan. The writers' stingy lack of revelation "spat in the face of convention, logic, and the audience," agreed Andy Greenwald at _New York_. As the backlash grew, AMC

president Charlie Collier even offered a "pseudo-apology": "If I could do anything differently, it would be to manage expectations." The series' second season

premieres Sunday night. Can _The Killing_ win back bitter fans? NOT A CHANCE: The decision to drag on the Rosie Larsen investigation "sucks the mystery out of" the next 13

episodes, says Tim Goodman at _The Hollywood Reporter_. We have no reason to believe a suspect will be named before the season finale, creating nothing but impatience. Counting season one,

we'll have to sit through "_26 hours of television_" before being rewarded with a resolution. How many viewers will invest the time? "_The Killing_: TV review"

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From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter,

get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. MAYBE. AFTER ALL, THE SHOW IS STILL QUITE GOOD: Any viewer willing to tune in will be just as engrossed as ever, says Frazier Moore

at the _Associated Press_. The well-acted, perfectly paced Season 2 premiere is as captivating as the show's first season. More importantly, it becomes clear that the Larsen murder

investigation is merely a dramatic through-line for what's ultimately a fascinating study of grief. The show's real message and power is "the likelihood that solving the crime

will solve practically nothing." "_The Killing_, tense and gripping, back for year 2" PRODUCERS WOULD BE WISE TO FOCUS ON SUPERFANS: _The Killing_'s real problem is that

it outraged the precise segment of the audience "it wants most to entice": Superviewers, says Adam Sternbergh at _The New York Times_. The rise of online criticism and social

media "has served as a kind of electrocharged amniotic fluid for the gestation" of viewers who watch their favorite shows with an obsessively keen eye. And the

"megaphone" that is Twitter has given them dominion over that all-important industry concept, "buzz." Disappointing these superviewers can prove deadly, which is why _The

Killing_ faces an arduous journey as it tries to "stagger back to life." "Can _The Killing_ make a comeback?" A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day

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