The good people over at Variety have decided to break down the renewal chances for AMC’s The Killing.

Hey, better them than us. I actually enjoyed season 2 much better than the first, not because we got answers but because they made the characters more interesting and the pacing was vastly improved.

But in television success is a game of ratings…and in this instance, it’s a game The Killing was not winning.

From Variety:

Since its April 2011 debut, ratings for “The Killing” have been trending down. The series opened with 2.7 million viewers before falling to 2.2 million for the season-one finale. Season two debuted to 1.8 million following the critical firestorm and ended at just under 1.5 million.

Those numbers are well below both the recent 2.6 million season average of “Mad Men” and the 2.8 million that first-year Western “Hell on Wheels” drew for its season-one finale.

So, from a ratings standpoint, there may be little reason to bring back “The Killing.” Also, there’s little chance that AMC would see a ratings reversal, with new fans coming aboard for the first time.

But on the other hand, AMC could decide to take a gamble on its two leads, who are poised to not only have breakout film careers, but in the case of Joel Kinnaman (who plays Detective Holder) it’s possible they have a bona-fide superstar.

In making a case to renew “The Killing,” the show has two bona fide stars in Mireille Enos and Joel Kinnaman. Even when reviews were less than kind, critics usually pointed out the stellar work by the two thesps.

Swedish native Kinnaman, in particular, has breakout potential and could be a drawing card for AMC as his movie career blossoms. His pic “Easy Money,” for which he won the Swedish equivalent of a best actor Oscar, is set to debut in the States in July, and he stars in sci-fi reboot “RoboCop,” a 2013 feature entry that is sure to gain plenty of traction among the fanboy set that helped propel films such as “The Avengers” to box office heights.

Both Kinnaman and Enos, according to sources, have holding deals with AMC that extend through the latter months of the year, so the cabler may be in no hurry to make a decision on the show’s fate.

Personally, I’ve already made up my mind. Season 2 was strong enough to warrant a third season. Whether or not AMC executives agree is a different story.

What do you think? Should The Killing be back for another go-around?