TRUE DETECTIVE on hbo - Season Two

true detectives... with benefits.
also they shot that one guy.

Looking forward to Vince Vaughn's spin-off show as an Applebee's manager and small-time hoodlum in Crawford, Nebraska.

aka Better Call Saul / Fargo

so. this episode was great.

I wanted an entire ep of Paul's fiancée and mom alone in the hotel room.

still waiting for some fucking occult shit on here and explanation about the bird mask.

in-thread poll, to what degree will next week's ep be sex cave: reprise

a - big sex cave reveal
b - some sex cave content, also interpersonal frowning scenes
c - no sex cave, some new form of denouement incorporated

this ep sorta notable for featuring actual storytelling trickery; both of the killings were preceded by a moment at which allusions were made to something that would prevent them - somebody was gonna make a phonecall, somebody was going to turn & make some money - & you get kind of dragged along assuming they've been postponed until blam.

a friend was talking about the weird irrelevance of like ~diamonds~ in this show & how it isn't a show in which diamonds are relevant it's just a show with occasional shooting. the snaking of the plot does just feel like ... totally meaningless

also i feel like you could probably supercut in scenes of the passion of the christ between ultra-bereaved farrell frown portraits & it would not be noticeable, the depths of agony plumbed & superficially etched are profound

to the extent that I can make it out, the actual conspiracy does seem kinda weird and interesting.

someone somewhere said that pizzolatto was a crime writer who was weirdly uninterested in crime, and that feels otm sometimes.

he is interested in depressed dads

the conspiracy at this point seems pretty clear, although im not positive who killed caspere yet. there are two possibilities I suppoze

it's not exactly an original conspiracy - a combined land grab/rackets grab - but so what, like this is a certain type of noir and people either are interested in that type of story or they aren't. I personally am, because labyrinths of noir collusion and corruption are fascinating to me. as is true of this one, they're garish funhouse-mirror echoes of the more banal corruption we see in real-world political scandals but idk in many ways it feels emotionally true at times if not literally true to life.

the very surface-level of osip squeezing frank out of his business by proxy reminded me some of the plot of 'a most violent year'

there are a bunch of similarities with the long good friday too. a lot of other stuff i am sure

I wouldn't say there's much original happening here so yeah. Just watched Chinatown and there's plenty of that there too

right. but I think its bleak feelings are more earnest than cynical, and that's not necessarily common in noir - cynicism generally reigns. there's a deep sadness to the proceedings here. ross macdonald has some of that, as does the best ellroy, amid all the dour pronouncements

sometimes I wonder if nic pizza is a natural depressive, which would make a lot of sense. I also wondered this about the leftovers, another relentlessly earnestly bleak show that many people hated and/or relentlessly sought zings for

i guess we now only have two contenders for the true detective

well yea didn't a piece of good-ass kinja already determine it was mcadams

leftovers is good though.

They haven't named the director of the final episode. I'm guessing it's Friedkin or Nic P. himself.

This episode finally put three storylines together and have them a rhythm bouncing back and forth, like the best of Sopranos, Wire, etc. Finally got somewhere.

Rachel McAdams mispronouncing "fiefdom," good fucking god this show is dumb

nooooooo

;_;

that is my dramatic scene upon witnessing the demise of tim riggins

tbh i knew he was toast as soon as he went through that door with the blackwater dude

but still

;_;

how on earth do you mispronounce fiefdom

Fy-eff-DOMME??

FIFE-dom.

THUN-der-dome

when they talk about the conspiracy i have no idea which characters they are referring to. completely washes over me. normally i would rewind and make more of an effort but with this show it doesn't seem to really matter / be worthwhile.

Something about the audio mixing on this show is off -- even with the volume cranked, I have to rewind and replay to decipher some of the dialogue

Or maybe mumbling is required in the True Detective job description

There's also the possibility my attention has occasionally wandered from the scintillating exchanges of exposition

But in general the outlines of the deep dark conspiracy are clear now -- as noted above, standard California noir stuff

The show has raised its game in the episodes since the big shoot-out ... this one was the first time I really bought Vince Vaughn as a scary dangerous gangster ... I'll be happy if the finale is more of the same

I wonder if there are superfans of this that are intensely watching splendor in the grass this week for the hope of clues abt the finale

But in general the outlines of the deep dark conspiracy are clear now -- as noted above, standard California noir stuff

― Brad C., Tuesday, August 4, 2015 8:40 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is def one of those shows i watch while checking my instagram feed / playing a game. Look up when there's a shootout or whatever.

i started turning on subtitles

cheater

vaughn def brought the menace this week

i had a feeling early on that he would get more interesting the more desperate he became

i am crossing my fingers that the final showdown/$12m heist will be shot at the same malibu hills guest ranch/porn set i once visited 15 years ago

vince really does have a nice dead-eyed stare at times

Vince's verbal and physical dismantling of his redhaired crony was so cold that it almost made up for the time he and the gold-toothed guy got all Marquess of Queensbury

I like how the compliments given true detective are now resembling those given by folks who won't give up on the walking dead

lol

there's a thoughtpiece to be written about how this year is a zombie-fied version of the first season minus the occult

if you find yourself expressing sentiments like "look it's the genre" or "ok the last few episodes were pointless but the big setpiece in this one...wow"...they've already got you

(i am watching this show while answering emails at this point myself btw)

after talking w/ppl last weekend who actually think it's good, i'm very comfortable with my position that it's bad with occasional things that are good.

also it's bad in an interesting way.

bad in an interesting way is often good enough

I look forward to this show and I enjoy the hour and change I get to spend in its weird world.

and for all his faults as a writer (which really aren't all that egregious) I think the unrelieved nihilism of his pov is refreshing.

and good vs bad is just so....I dunno, binary. it doesn't always reflect what I'm getting not not getting out of a show. the best negative take on the show is certainly schlump's itt.

xp agree p much wholeheartedly although w/ a bit more skepticism of pizzolatto as a whole