HBO's True Detective Season 2 - let's discuss!

[TallBill]

Here's a life pro tip for you...all television is worthless. It's pure entertainment, either you like it or you don't.

I was entertained but season 1 was way better. Would still give season 3 a shot should they make it.

 

[Auric]

I found the finale boring and cheesy. Season 1 got a bit silly but 2 was some combination of awful execution and more deliberate dime novelness.

Another incredulous thing was the chief expecting to fool the orphaned brother with plastic diamonds. Not cubic zirconia. Not crystal. Not glass. Plastic.

Yeah, another thing.. "We will guarantee the value of these diamonds...yada yada". So do I get some barcode coupon with that when I turn them in 5,000 miles away?

I guess what I find the most incredulous with the whole escape plot thing is they are going to Venezuela. I'm assuming it is based on extradition treaties since they aren't our buddies.

The diamond dealers are a global network so Frank would tell the buyer to contact the previous seller to verify the value and so end up with the agreed cash. The seller could pay a fee and even buy them back since having served their purpose to profit on the illicit international money transfer (not so much laundering in this case since supposedly untraceable).

Protection from extradition was mentioned.

 

[Charmonium]

I thought this season was incredibly convoluted, which is great if you do it well but annoying when it doesn't go anywhere. I can't call any of the plot elements red herrings but all of the exposition about the corruption and land deals ultimately didn't contribute anything to the story. They used the time worn device of having the murderer be an unknown character pulled out of their ass in the last episode.

A good story would have had the culprit be someone who was in plain sight all along. It's so much easier to right a story where you think everyone is guilty only to find out that no one was. That's just shitty writing.

Overall, I loved the ambiance that was created but ultimately, that ambiance has to connect and contribute to something in the story and here it didn't. The entire season seemed like one grand excuse for the writers to jerk themselves off.

 

[Drako]

My wife and I saw emo guitar player last week. I did not even realize it was the same chick until my wife mentioned it yesterday. :biggrin:

Lera Lynn opened for Sheryl Crow. Yeah, I know, but it was my wife's idea to go to the concert not mine. :|

 

[joutlaw]

The music was terrible the entire season.

 

[TechBoyJK]

I liked it.

I found the story to be of a massive rats nest cesspool of corruption all the way from the streets to the top of the chain.

I think it 'had' to be messy. And I think trying to shoehorn the format of this season into the framework of the last is what's causing a lot of people to dislike it.

Season 1 is Season 1. But I liked Season 2 on it's own merit.

 

[Spineshank]

I actually liked this season better than the first. Maybe because I thought the season 1 finale was awful. But in any event I liked both.

 

[OutHouse]

My wife and I saw emo guitar player last week. I did not even realize it was the same chick until my wife mentioned it yesterday. :biggrin:

Lera Lynn opened for Sheryl Crow. Yeah, I know, but it was my wife's idea to go to the concert not mine. :|

does she drag you to the Opera too?

 

[WaTaGuMp]

The train station is in Anaheim.

 

[Charmonium]

I would have posted this earlier, but it didn't occur to me. If you want to see how a show like this really should be done, check out the British series Fortitude. The opening scene seems to show you the murder but doesn't really give you any clues at all because of the perspective that you're seeing it from. It also leaves you with some very obvious questions that aren't really answered until the end. But everything about the show plays into the mindsets of the people involved. It also has long forays into other arcs that don't tie directly to the murder but they are more like major subplots

I think this is the sort of thing TD was going for but they just never quite got it.

 

[Charmonium]

Season one director Fukunaga distances himself from Season two

 

[squarecut1]

Turns out the Season 2 buried this series. There won't be any season 3.

 

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Turns out the Season 2 buried this series. There won't be any season 3.

Not surprising, but damn that season 1 was so good and season 2 soooo bad.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Given that season 1 and season 2 were completely unrelated, there's no reason for it even to have been considered a TV series. US networks should do it more like the BBC. Have a series of four, six, ten episodes, whatever. Give it a name. When it 's done it's done. But they want to milk it for all they can. Make a name, drag it out for as long as it's profitable.

I didn't hate season 2 of True Detective as much as most people. Most people expected more of the season 1 vibe, with comic-book villains and a black & white good vs. evil theme that played down to the intelligence level of today's TV viewer.