Evoking 'The Killing,' Ryan Murphy's 'Grotesquerie' Finale Leaves Viewers Furious

In 2011, the idea of a season-long serialized arc in a detective show was groundbreaking. Viewers had become accustomed to procedurals like Castle or Bones. There were shows like Veronica Mars that played with serialized elements, mixing case-of-the-week formats with overarching stories, but the idea of dedicating an entire season to a single murder mystery was almost unheard of (Twin Peaks being a notable exception).

AMC’s The Killing burst onto the scene during AMC’s Mad Men and The Walking Dead heyday, and it was exhilarating for exactly that reason. Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos played detectives in Seattle investigating the murder of a local teenager, Rosie Larsen. Honestly, it was exceptional television, and a huge, intelligent audience got hooked on the investigation. AMC had a massive hit on its hands, and this was still week-to-week TV—when the only binge-watching we did was on Netflix discs mailed to our doors.

And then The Killing did the unthinkable. Viewers had become obsessed with the case, and we all tuned into the finale, eager to find out who the killer was. But The Killing didn’t reveal the killer. It ended on a cliffhanger, insisting we return for season two to find out.

The outrage was real. Many viewers discovered The Killing years later and could binge the series in a matter of days, but we had to wait an entire year—and we’d only just adapted to the concept of a season-long mystery. Extending it into a second season felt like a betrayal.

Rarely have I seen a show lose goodwill so quickly. By the time it returned, much of the audience was gone, and honestly, I can’t even remember who killed Rosie Larsen (although I recall the show found its creative footing again in its fourth and final season).

The lesson here: Don’t mess with your audience like that. Even in 2024, when season-long mysteries are commonplace, stretching a murder mystery across two seasons is still a terrible idea.

And that’s why I feel so relieved I bailed on Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie midway through its first season. The show attempted to emulate a David Fincher-style serial killer investigation. The first two episodes showed promise, and I was hopeful Murphy might actually deliver a cohesive season without unraveling. That hope lasted until episode three; by episode five, which had veered into bizarre Twin Peaks territory, I was out. The show was a mess, and not even Niecy Nash could save it.

If I had stuck with it, it would have only been to find out the killer’s identity. That would have been pointless. Here’s Nash, talking to Deadline about the finale (spoilers, sort of):

“I’ve had so many people call me and say, ‘What is going on? I don’t understand what happened. Wait a minute. Is this real? Is that not real? Wait, what happened?’ So I’ve had a lot of people try to wrap their minds around it and theorize what they think. There are some groups that are all dialed in and have these big chat rooms dedicated to the show and their theories in the show. I feel like we definitely set our ending up for a season 2 for audiences to stay on the ride.

“The main thing that I think I’m looking forward to is who is Grotesquerie, because right now in therapy, the doctor says Grotesquerie is an amalgamation of all of the evils that have happened in the world in (her) mind, but then these crimes start to happen, literally. So wait a minute. So then, what does that mean? There still are a few questions I’m waiting to have answered, and all things being perfect, we would have a Season 2 to unpack it. If not, that means me sitting at a dinner with Ryan for hours telling me where he planned on this story going.”

So, not only did Murphy fail to identify the killer in season one, but what is known is a confusing mess? I cannot imagine being less interested in picking it up again. I even checked social media for reactions, and all the poor Swifties who tuned in just because the show features Travis Kelce are left lost, frustrated, and annoyed at the thought of having to wait a year and slog through another season.

Again, as I wrote of the Ryan Murphy paradox: Never watch one of his serialized shows.