The one hundred and seventy-second TV show: #757 Forbrydelsen
While I remember watching the first season of the American The Killing, it was quite forgettable after a strong start. The Danish original, on the other hand, managed to maintain that tension through its first twenty episode season, as it peels away the layers and masterfully reveals its different twists in a way that doesn't feel forced. There's a lot that happens, and while the suspicions in the first few episodes don't matter much later on, it feels like a lot of it builds on each other. The political intrigue that gets woven into the story helps just as much with that, by adding this other layers that feels disconnected, but show the wider impact of the murder as it ripples out.
It's a pretty dark and depressing show, the mood of the characters and so on show that. But they keep the case intriguing through most of it and it remains tense until the very end, even if it remains that harrowing. I'm not sure how the later two seasons hold up to that, but its first season is exemplary.