It certainly doesn't even hold a candle to season 1, but it's entertaining on it's own. I just don't understand why they abandoned the pulpier ideas in favor of a straight crime story. As a kind of neo-noir, Michael Mann-esque thing I think it works so far. It just really has no connection to the True Detective concept. Unless something really out there is revealed in the last few episodes, which may happen, but for some reason Nic Pizzzoozlzozoo was really insistent that they were getting rid of the occult stuff they had originally intended to put it (because why use an element that was responsible for so much of the success of the first season)

Yeah, i kind of get what he is trying to do, in making the show's location as much a character as any of the actors, and this is kind of his distilled view of "California". So the pulpy, occult stuff from the first season may have been his way of representing the deep south (in way that doesn't rely on the tropes of racism and insets) as he knows it. But, aside from the great production values, this seasons story just isn't that interesting, despite being incredibly convoluted, along with a general lack of humor. This season is just no fun. Taylor Kitsch's character is the only one i ever remotely care about. All that being said, still haven't watched this weeks episode, and i am holding out hope for some major gonzo moments in the last few that will make me re-evaluate this season.

By dumping the occult/conspiracy stuff, he got rid of the one thing that differentiated True Detective from all of the other shitty crime dramas on TV. It's amazing to me that a writer who weaved Mardi Gras, Saturnalia, satanic ritual abuse, and snuff films into a coherent, engaging story could drop the ball so hard. The finale was a massive botch job, though, so I'm not too surprised that season 2 turned out this way. I'm sure HBO put a lot of pressure on him to make season 2 more accessible.

The boring female detective? That's your favorite character?

eh, what the hell...

TD season 2 is not up to the levels of sublime batshittery of season 1 but it is still holding my interest

some good performances (and one terrible one), a plot that's interesting if you can wade through it, and some really good sequences

I put it in the hopper but the shootout scene is amazing

Yeah, it is really good.

The only reason I got into TD was because of the equally well-done raid scene.. I just thought to myself "I should watch this." The second one.. I dunno it's hard to explain. I was thinking it was just going to be Colin Farrel and Vince Vaughn driving around in a car the whole time, just in a different city. That sounds about as much fun as riding around in a car with Colin Farrel and Vince Vaughn in real life, so they went and did the opposite.

It was pretty easy for me to get the whodunit since I just torrented it and didn't watch week to week; if S2 was that above scenario but they made the ending more twisted, like it was one of their own crooked cops, people would complain about that just like they complained that S1 was too straightforward. But it's scenes like that one that draw me in, not necessarily cracking the case, forwards or backwards or whatever the fuck this show's trying to do.

I had thought the mishandling of women in season 1 was part of a theme, which tied into the Yellow King: no matter how modern we think we are, we are at most a half step removed from very old ways. The swamps were a great setting to explore that theme too, where any primordial thing could come after you at any time.

But the beginning of season 2 made me rethink that, and decide that the show is just ass at writing women.

Then the episode where Ani went undercover to the orgy happened, and I'm back to thinking that their handling of women is an attempt at a statement. There's no way you set up your lead to go through that, to rescue one of dozens of "anonymous" women, without it being a statement about women as a whole.

Tune in next week when I change my mind again.

I knew the second season wouldn't be as good but fanboys were in denial. 5 stars because I'm always right apparently.

Style can be nice on its own merits, but yeah, one thing "True Detective" ain't is deep.

I also tend to enjoy shows where characters know they're broken but still keep trying to do what's right, as best as they can. That was also what I got out of "Rome" -- two guys who knew they were pretty shitty, aspiring to be worth something.

You'd probably like Bloodline if you haven't seen it already, for shitty characters potentially redeeming themselves. It's a little too wrapped up in its plot to remember what it's supposed to be doing episode to episode, but I kinda like that. It's like watching an episode of The Waltons before an episode of True Detective followed by an episode of Modern Family and not remembering that they're different shows.

And S1 of True Detective kind of set that precedent, like it or not. Its Buddy Cop Scooby Doo ending pissed a lot of people off, but I usually got lost, to the point where I forgot what they were trying to do. Like I said it was the cinematography from the one scene that got me into the show, so I sort of thought it was just going to be any other cop show, with at least one shootout a week. So I was pleasantly surprised, since I don't really watch cop shows. So I dunno.

also: fuck you whiny morons who are expecting something else out of a procedural crime drama. you're the same type of fucks who walk into a 4am denny's and complain about the food.

untrue

Maybe unwarranted, but not untrue. Fair enough?