TRUE DETECTIVE on hbo - Season Two

some day i will try s2 of the bridge but i need for this fuckin' golden age to be over already

like i honestly think i'm gonna turn 50 and shut off everything new in my life, just luxuriate in the prior century and see where that gets me.
looking forward to it.

someone shd reclaim the erotic thriller genre for the prestige tv era

― lag∞n, Saturday, July 4, 2015 1:51 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow this needs to happen

― call all destroyer, Saturday, July 4, 2015 10:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

srsly

like that's the culmination of what HBO have been groping (yeah) towards for the last decade

someone call adrian lyne to make season 3 then, he hasn't worked since directing unfaithful in 2002

only if Zalman King's not available

Isnt King dead?

well damn. rip.

maybe duchovney can bring back red shoe diaries after he's done with rebooting xfiles.

This is going to turn into a Blackwater story...

Alright, I'm in for the rest of the season...as long as they keep Karaoke Elvis (who sounded like the singer from the Residents circa The King and Eye) instead of Sad Singer-Songwriter Girl.

opening scene was so lynch

Will Oldham in the closing credits -- first time he's given a song to anything but small indie features, I think.

1. The chase scene was so disjointed, dark and badly filmed; how could you not unfavorably compare to the single camera follow from s1
2. Every time they cut to the overhead highway shot, it's like they're saying "welp, not sure what more to do in this scene, so..."
3. Finally twigged W. Earl Brown (he'll always be Deadwood Dan Dority to me) in the role; looks like they're wasting him though I imagine he'll get some scenery chewing soon
4. Vaughn is hardly unbelieveable as a dangerous boss; he spent most of this ep looking more constipated than anything
5. What made Rust and Marty interesting as characters was a degree of inner complexity, which I'm coming to realize was primarily borne out of the actors. With s2's collective, it's all cardboard cutouts with quarterbox comic origin stories. "Dad locked me in the basement and rats ate me so now i wanna take over california but my dick won't get hard" is not holding my attention.
6. Seriously, what kind of "accent" was that kid supposed to have there because I genuinely didn't follow what he was going for.
7. This isn't getting dumber and it isn't getting better; it's just solidly mediocre, kinda watchable, middle of the road, pay cable drama with requisite tits / glitz / hyperconvoluted storyline that flatters itself as being less trashy than it should aspire to be and smarter than it is

http://i.imgur.com/NkcwxgB.png

"Hardly unbelievable" = heartily unbelievable

is that a fucking e-cig?

her coworkers shd be more supportive of her attempts toward shedding bad habits

velcoro's dr wd agree

lol this show
the lynchian dream
the 3rd requisite visit with (& obviously telling portrait of) true detective’s parent
the dialogue (e.g.: ‘do you want to live?’ (delcoro looks straight into camera); ‘half anaconda half great white’; ‘stridency’/ ‘apoplectic’ exchange
it’s about dealing with the past, do u see
learned tonight that gangsters work shit out with fisticuffs

What made Rust and Marty interesting as characters was a degree of inner complexity, which I'm coming to realize was primarily borne out of the actors. With s2's collective, it's all cardboard cutouts with quarterbox comic origin stories.

yes. why can’t any of the detectives have, like, at least a cat or something

looks like they're wasting him though I imagine he'll get some scenery chewing soon

he was guy taking photographs of woodrugh, right?

still, most engaging ep so far, but again mostly bc of secondary/minor characters

some clues dropped in the movie they had Ray and his dad watching ("Detective Story" from 1951)

Jim McLeod is a hard-nosed and cynical detective. He believes in a strict interpretation of the law and doesn't believe in turning the other cheek. The current object of his zealousness is Karl Schneider, an abortionist responsible for the death of several young women. Schneider's lawyer tells the precinct lieutenant that McLeod has his own personal reasons for going after his client. It turns out that his wife was a patient before they met, although Jim knew nothing of it. His world suddenly turned upside down, McLeod is too late in re-evaluating his priorities...The central character, Detective Jim McLeod, is an unforgiving, by-the-book veteran, who sees the world in black and white, good versus evil, with no shades of gray in between. Kirk Douglas brings McLeod to life in one of his finest, most powerful performances. Douglas's Oscar-caliber work is matched by a fragile, deeply felt performance by Eleanor Parker as McLeod's wife, who harbors a secret from her past that, unknown to either McLeod or his wife, connects back to an on-going police case.

coupled with

That plot reminds me of Rich Cohen in Vanity Fair characterizing this season of True Detective as an Oedipus Rex story, supported by Pizzolatto saying “the detective is searching and searching and searching, and the culprit is him.”

And what Abigail Spencer had to say about her character in Vulture:

Is that why she chooses to confront him in person?
When you have a child with someone, you just can’t text or email or talk on the phone. When you see someone face to face, it gives you an opportunity to see their humanity. Gena’s very human. She’s been living for a long time with Ray as a father. So I think there is love under it all.

When he refers to “what I did for you” — presumably meaning killing her rapist — how does that play into her feelings?
There’s a lot of inner conflict around that, which is going to play out over this season. All will be revealed about how she feels about that.

This suggests that Ray is in the dark about his wife's past and that she may not have been raped, or that the man he killed, whose identity came from Frank, wasn't the real culprit -- that there may not be a culprit. The man he was told was the rapist may have been a witness his wife and Frank wanted killed for something that has to do with her "Detective Story"-parallel past, maybe the cult. This could also apply to Ani.

About 50% of the subplots on this show probably won't be resolved or lead to anything. Remember in season 1, Marty's kids and the religious cult spreading to their school, his daughter's troubles, and how that didn't have a payoff? We were in the same position by the third episode last year, where you wondered where all this was heading and it turned out that most of it was a red herring.

fred ward? i'm in

tbf i watched the leftovers mostly for scott glenn so basically every hbo show needs a dad who was in THE RIGHT STUFF. would like to see Ed Harris on GAME OF THRONES, Dennis Quaid on GIRLS, Lance Henriksen on WESTWORLD...

...sam shepard on silicon valley

xp interesting, esp the oedipus analogy
fits with recurring themes so far
among which, eyes (this ep: "it's medicine for my eyes")
tbf, some ok amusing lines this ep

and another Oedipus Rex keyword, incest, with the scene between Paul and his mother.

Some more conjecture on where this will go [so shield your eyes in case if you don't want to see me try to play "True Doxxer" with an HBO prestige show]:

Ray's kid has bright red hair, which, again, doesn't match either Ray (who, despite being played by Irish actor C.F., who could of course have red dye in his gene pool, is not supposed to be the father ["No paternity tests for my wife -- please!" etc]) nor does it match the rapist in the photo Frank gives to Ray in episode 1:

http://i.imgur.com/vVYV554.png?1

Only man to have red hair is Frank's henchman. He's the guy to look for, for a couple of reasons, and he's given the classic shot of the Suspect in the third episode

http://i.imgur.com/nxX4Zu0.png?1

David Bordwell alludes to that kind of shot, a way to drop a clue in action/mystery/suspense films, in his "Anatomy of an Action Picture" essay where he dissects Mission Impossible 3

http://www.davidbordwell.net/img/anatomy05.jpg

"Musgrave, not Brassel, is the mole. You could argue that this twist was planted near the end of the Development, when Musgrave turned away from Brassel and stared gravely offscreen as the camera lingered on him—the classic shot of a Suspect."

Now in that shot of Red-hair -- who you'll notice has been given about as much screen time by now as season one's eventual villain was given through 3 episodes -- Frank has just shoved him, rhetorically asking "Who's coming after me?", and he doesn't stay for an answer. When Ray asks Red-hair where he's been in the previous scene Red-hair doesn't have an answer, Frank is prepared to chew him out ("Am I a teenage girl?") but before that can happen he reveals, revealingly, that Stan has been killed.

But what makes sense about Red-hair playing a big part -- if not the main villain/The Raven -- is that, as an actor, he looks like he can play dark and evil (he looks like someone who plays psychopaths on procedurals) and he's keeping the histrionics under wraps -- just like season one's initially mundane, when we first find him, villain. It's where Nic writer-guy would insert the master villain.

yeah noticed guy in pic conspicuously not redhead, but didn't look for redheads in cast; also guy look avian
good/plausible analysis
(btw semyon's wife also redhead; which makes for at least subliminal link between 2 persons closest to semyon; anyway she must have secret too)

Replacing Cary Fukunaga was going to be tough, but Justin Lin doesn't help matters with unsubtle (unsubtle in retrospect, I suppose) framing (more potential spoilers/cunga conjecture!)

[spoiler] http://i.imgur.com/WsbAAS2.png?1 [/spoiler]

"Everyone gets touched", he was told

[and then the lingering, resentful Suspect shot, although not as obvious as in episode 3] http://i.imgur.com/VMWKQAE.png?1 [spoiler]

If you watch his interactions with Frank in the third episode, you can tell they're going for dramatic irony in the way Frank abuses him.

--

And he was there at the beginning, exchanging nods with Frank when Ray walks into the bar years earlier, seeming to signal that this is the right cop:

http://i.imgur.com/2zRUB7x.png?1

--

But what makes sense about Red-hair playing a big part -- if not the main villain/The Raven -- is that, as an actor, he looks like he can play dark and evil (he looks like someone who plays psychopaths on procedurals) and he's keeping the histrionics under wraps

And guess who was on an episode of "Gotham" around the time they were casting True Detective season 2, playing one of those psychopath-serial killers who delivers monologues and stuff?

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/gotham-inc/images/4/44/Spirit_Goat_248.png/revision/latest?cb=20141029001315

AV Club on his episode of Gotham: "One on end you have a villain whose design evokes memories of torture porn horror films like Saw and Hostel and who strings up his victims in a way that will be very familiar to fans of True Detective and Hannibal."

*sigh*

http://s3.birthmoviesdeath.com/images/made/rust_garage_1200_570_81_s.jpg

(btw semyon's wife also redhead; which makes for at least subliminal link between 2 persons closest to semyon; anyway she must have secret too)

Good point. We don't know what their relationship is beyond both knowing Frank, right?

the leadup to the Suspect shot is thisL If he was just a regular henchmen I think they would've gone on a close-up of Frank, or just kept the camera on him in a single shot. So for it to be a two-shot where Vince Vaughn isn't even the focus and for him to walk out of frame, leaving that dude to linger in what is a classic clue/Suspect shot, that's what's telling. And the way he ominously looks up before the scene ends.

http://i.imgur.com/cfgO7iU.png?1

also interacts with velcoro, independently of semyon, at the table, near end of first episode (taking bottle, velcoro stops him, exchange silent glance, to strains of sadly sad sad song)

btw like ritual of the table & maybe starting to appreciate stilted badness/weirdness of dialogue there, as if intentionally unrealistic, now site of dream life too (substitution of father for semyon nice touch; reminded of table @ winkies in mulholland drive)

despite thudding thematic heavy-handedness & characterization of protagonists, maybe starting to grow on me. like the broadening noir terrain (film set, mayor’s house, street/club, etc).

also see more (intentional as well as still prob unintentional) humor in it

I agree: the surreal and trashiness ends up becoming welcome. When I finished this episode I thought -- especially considering the cheap fake-out that ended the second ep -- that this was just a boring season, that the producers of HBO demanded they put the fake-out in because otherwise you had three episodes of talkiness. But then the first season I got through in-part because I knew the 4th episode was supposed to be worth it (the last scene).

Also, the only thing I can't imagine someone saying in the TD universe is, "Sorry, I don't drink."

"Is he ok? What happened?"
"Somebody murdered him."

Will need to see this ep again as I was highly distracted while watching and coupled with the persistent mumbling I didn't get much from this ep.

increasingly toothless Frank Semyon, acquires teeth

I thought this was a good piece on pizzolatto's non-TD stuff:
http://wwwbillblog.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-kind-of-face-you-shoot-with-all-my.html

Also wanted to point out that Ray having Meister Eckahrt out on his coffee table is exactly the kind of ludicrous thing that I both love pizzolatto for and can't help but laugh at.

I think I've pinpointed vaughn's problem as being that he reads his lines too fast, like a kid forced to read out loud in class. He needs to approach it with a weary slowness!

feel like this was the most competent coherent episode yet and also the worst

no one here will agree with me, but i liked Vaughn this episode.
even before the "what kind of way is that to greet the world?!" line, which was amazing.

he was def pretty good in this one, i had a feeling once he could explode and stop being sedate he would improve

I don't think this is a great season, obviously less fun than Rust and Marty, but I'm in because I am a sucker for California noir and I love byzantine plots that turn on wonky land deals. Any show where "I had to get the financial documents for the tax incentives" is a plot point is one I can get with.

Didn't realize until this morning that the singer in the bar was not supposed to be Elvis, but Conway Twitty (who actually did record "The Rose").

"Is he ok? What happened?"
"Somebody murdered him."

― ryan, Monday, July 6, 2015 11:47 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this was wonderful! ^

it was kinda interesting watching vaughan at least slightly physicalised in this. just even taking off his jacket. the problem with his performance is he doesn't breathe. & the physicality should be everything. you need access to him as a mammal, oily mammal vaughan, like tony soprano, hairy arms, some kind of unavoidable evidence of just excessive masculinity, that he's in some sense overwhelming & untidy. but he's just glowering & perfectly presented & shaven in every scene, & the costume & the performance & the lighting & the ominous guitar noise rumbling in the background all cohesively support this.

the direction of this is still so frustrating, just in how limited the whole thing is on account of its shortfalls. so many short scenes - not just highway cutaways, but montages of kitsch visiting sex workers, every brief procedural moment, every functional expository exchange - are made useless by how dry & leaden they are, nobody given a prompt to bring any wideness or life to this kinda suffocating world. the editing suite shares space with stars of the lid's practice room & the whole thing is drizzled in narrow foreboding. i kinda enjoyed this - like very literally enjoyed, like i'm inside it enjoying watching them materialise in different locations, am enjoying watching time pass, am still curious about mcadams direction & about the potential for tangled pressure created by warring police depts - but it's so-little-less than the sum of its parts, & could be so much richer.

i hope there are ten seasons just ploughing through variations of cops/setting/directors/emphases, it's a pretty infinitely rich model

they shd try to make it better tho

Let's not get ahead of ourselves

shd do a season directed by david lynch written by david mamet starring some cool actors named david

duchovny and arguette

each one has a dark past

but srsly fuck this show, I'm out