TRUE DETECTIVE on hbo - Season Two

also tbf to show, one-season length imposes distinct constraints on plot & characterization
makes it qualitatively different genre from sopranos etc, basically (season to season) it's a miniseries

one of the things that makes watching this show difficult is the shadow of the first season, which was very good, & which has no presence in this season but is kind of an unavoidable presence, looming over & ruining everything, suffusing all of the bad, slack scenes with memories of better direction/performances/dialogue. i think because the show is also kind of a formal experiment

i think this is key - just in terms of viewer reception given the broadest idea of the format, multiple seasons, different stories/worlds, same writer/runner.

might be more valid to view this as proof of concept, so that more capable writers / writers w/ more resources, time, etc., can do something with it.

like, if you watch treme, you can kinda be like, cmon simon this is no wire, but you're also just barred from bringing that to bear really - it's just a different show

and if you watch a single series that has its bad episodes, even its lesser seasons, you can write it off to, well, they can't all win emmys

but in between, it's not quite that it's shows-within-a-show, and the individuality of the seasons acts like enough of a reset that you won't just allow the writer his local failures in comparison with earlier successes

vaughan's character ultimately came closest to marty from s1 (which i maintain was nic p's secret weapon) but like most of s2 he didn't really come from a recognizable place

my thing is, did we need *that* much plot?
the episodes where the focus narrowed were much more enjoyable

the final ep was a hefty bag full of offcuts and loose ends, i seriously could not give a care about 90% of what happened. and names so many goddamn names

the plot was *fine* it was just rolled out poorly.

i mean how many loose ends from episodes 1-3 did they try to tie up in episode 8, that doesn't mean they were bad ideas but it does mean they weren't really handled well

this moment actually annoyed me. I was fine with most things that verged on or blatantly were urban noir cliche but that one even my inveterate TD defender self had to go OH COME ON

true, but i still enjoyed the punchline (frank switching weapon & shooting him); what made it more than just genre cliche was specific context of frank's (& tds2's) daddy issues

I had no idea there were so many cars in Laurel canyon...or is that just the feeeway?

― calstars, Monday, August 10, 2015

feel like if u cannot tell laurel cyn from 101 u r not a cal star

xp fair point.

I mean I really enjoyed this, and I recognize what was actually bad and what was called bad for the sake of #content production, and think the latter exceeds the former. I sort of think if it'd been a novel it wouldn't have received as much criticism if any

also wonder if them going to venezuela, a notably socialist country, was just a random idea or intentional. I think it was intentional and tied to the points the show hoped to (and sometimes failed to) make

but a novel....is not a tv show

I was not happy that the end of Ani's story was life on the run as mom to Velcoro's miracle babby; her story arc got short-circuited in the interest of knitting together more strands of male fatherlessness, and Frank's wife as complacent surrogate-grandma sidekick made the sexism of the ending about as subtle as rubber buckshot

OTOH props to Pizza for wrapping it all up with a sweet Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid shout-out

I liked it. Bring on S3!

her story arc got short-circuited in the interest of knitting together more strands of male fatherlessness

otm (not just male fatherlessness but sonlessnes; her destiny serves to be vehicle for ray's posthumous happy ending: he will have had 2 true sons)

1 failson 1 coolson

someday they can face off from opposite sides of the law in true detective season 27

but a novel....is not a tv show
--call all destroyer

sometimes it kind of is tho! in this situation it was not

velcoro and semyon suiting up and doing a crime was p. cool i thought

― where the sterls have no name (s.clover)

pumping guitar riff as they drove up into the hills towards the cabin had a wire chairs missing vibe to it.

Dang. Stabbed in right in the ol' diamonds.

Biggest "how convenient" lol was the giant puddle under Ray's car, which allowed him to see the GIANT RED LIGHT on the biggest transponder they make.

A giant puddle!

I thought that was like brake fluid or some shit that came loose in the rough process of attaching the transponder, not that big a deal of all the implausible things

a giant puddle on a DRY street

"the rough process of attaching the transponder"

sexy!

it made it unclear whether the vehicle had limited range or was disabled

did they have to change the name of the catalyst group to catalast for some legal reason but didn't bother to ADR the dialogue?

man yeah, that puddle really threw me!

Brother and a friend have separately pointed out how much from video games has been borrowed from both seasons. Namely in action sequences.

Didn't someone say the 4th episode shootout was from a Call of Duty map?

But the sex house and the 8th episode of this season were essentially Splinter Cell levels. The last episode of season one, the final scene was a bit of a boss fight in the lead up to discovering his location.

The tone and atmosphere resembles horror games at times. The exposition and dialogue with characters like GTA "get a load of this guy" cut scenes.

Didn't even remember to bring up how influenced by games the famous season one crack den sequence was.

GTA V vibes the whole season

Definitely GTA V. Rick Springfield character and the drunk mayor especially as character, but the mayor's son, too, Orange Guy.

Just in the way you're introduced to them, just enough to get a sense of what their type is supposed to be and how they'll help, or won't help, the player-protagonist. The way you walk in on them being so very characteristic when you first meet them.

Contingent on stunt casting/creator collaboration, they have lost me for season three. This was a waste of time.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/08/true-detective-what-went-wrong.html

also wonder if them going to venezuela, a notably socialist country, was just a random idea or intentional. I think it was intentional and tied to the points the show hoped to (and sometimes failed to) make

They mentioned "no extradition" like 15 times.

was Ani's sister named Athena or Antigone? i've saw both referenced in yesterday's postmortems

Ani is short for Antigone. Her sisters name is Athena.

ah duh of course thanks

I am wondering how the cops/Mexicans/whoever were pretty much able to find Frank/Ray anywhere up and down California except for this one bar run by Scarface Gal, which they both frequented, possibly going back years. How was that a safe haven?

power of music

I was really hoping sad singing lady was going to tool up and join Vince and Colin when they took out the Russians

singing sadly through her gas mask, she goes down in a hail of gunfire

cut to close-up of charred and smoking vintage amp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=mz2BhtYFq7U

nic pizzolatto, walking through his neighbourhood trying to get inspired for season two, he has been writing so hard his pen has leaked ink all over his shirt, he hallucinates cary fukunaga hurling abuse at him, he is followed by vultures [message board posters]

it's funny, after everything i kinda shrugged at the finale. i did like the Heat vibes, but that just made me feel how much better all that could have come off with better direction and a bit more thoughtful writing. oh well.

can we speculate about season 3 yet??! gotta be new york, right?

feel like the last 30 mins or so needed some real cinematic lyricism, but it felt pedestrian in such way that the inherent absurdity of the situations came to the fore rather than any tragic dimension. this was all about mood and yet it fell flat in that department so often.

pleeeeeease boston pleasepleasepleaaaaasepleaseplease pizzolatto bosssstttonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
xp

pittsburgh

wichita

pahrump idaho