HBO's True Detective

There is no way this season can live up to the first season.
No way.

 

And yet people will still bitch and complain when it doesn't. Just enjoy it for what it is. Probably not as good as the first season (for various and often idiotic reasons) but still pretty good, I'd imagine.

 

I'm definitely going to watch it, and critique it.
But I am not going to expect it to be as good. I just hope it is good.

I have to say the first season of TD surprised the heck out of me by how good it was and how much I responded to it.
The first season of TD and the first season of 'The Americans' just really struck me as the most compelling TV I can recall.
I cannot think of any Tv shows (I'm not counting comedies) I've ever found as compelling.

 

thread bumped since season two starts tonight......

 

Alan Sepinwall's review of S02E01:

Season premiere review: True Detective - The Western Book of the Dead: My least favorite life

 

Sepinwall's not gonna rip this show outright because that's not what you do with highbrow HBO shows that people will like even if it isn't very good.

But that review is more or less saying "Yeah, it isn't very good right now."

 

I'll watch the whole season, but I said to my wife about 20 minutes into the show that the immediate difference I noticed was that the first season began with a crime - the dead body ritualistically strung up - and we began learning about the characters soon after. This one started by introducing us to these characters and their personal struggles, but we still had no idea what their purpose was. We were just seeing characters doing things with no context.

So I'm sure it will get better, but it did take a while to get rolling (also, I'm not sure how worked up I'll get over the disappearance of a city manager ... not the most sympathetic victim).

 

Exactamundo on your first point.
S1 gave us a plot and story, letting the characters reveal themselves in those contexts.
S2 started out by vomitting up a bunch of character expostion and backstory.
Not a strong start.

I'll say that Rachel McAdams seems up to the material, which I didn't expect. I thought this would be ill-suited for her, but she got through most of her tough-girl scenes with some level of credibility.

 

Despite all the poor reviews, I actually liked it, though I agree with Sepinwall and Feinberg that Vince Vaughn seems a little out of his depth in this role.

Collin Farrell throwing down Johnnie Blue like it was rail bourbon was comical. "You're supposed to savor that." "Well, I'll try again." Gulp.

 

If Season 1 was Andrew McCutchen, that first episode of Season 2 was Jose Tabata.

Season 1 did not have to try to be cool; it was cool. Season 2 seems to be trying too hard.
Film noir...
Damaged characters...
Long shots at the face...
Try to get a cool song...

It's just I just don't know if I could give a shit about these characters. I also don't know if the city manager on the take is anywhere as interesting as the Yellow mother fucking King of Carcosa!

 

The challenge of Season 2 is it can't be nihilistic and philosophically hateful of mankind like Season 1.

Season 1 took pretense right up the canyon's edge. You can't repeat that and get away with it.

It's kind of like how Serial - which I loved - took meandering and the thrill of discovery, sans true payoff, as far as it could go. Season 2 of Serial won't get to be as twee as Season 1. Listeners will expect more justice.

 

So yeah....that was an interesting way to end episode TWO!