True Detective Thread

[Daradon]

Yeah, I'll do three as well if it comes. I'll be honest though, the latter of this season was a 'PVR when I get to it show', and not a 'must watch', like the first season. I feel that's the way it's going.

Also, they need a show for summer, so it may get renewed. The big ones on HBO right now are GoT, Veep, Silicon Valley, and throughout the year, John Oliver. They need summer programming anyway.

[corporatejay]

So this is amazing.

Make Up Your Most Ridiculous Vince Vaughn Frank Semyon Quote from True Detective

"You can't swap spit with the farmer's daughter and not expect to feel mama's eyes staring out the window at you while she puts that freshly baked apple pie on the sill. You gotta be a step ahead of the farmer. You gotta eat the cobbler"

[Itse]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

So this is amazing.

Make Up Your Most Ridiculous Vince Vaughn Frank Semyon Quote from True Detective

Kind of sums up the feelings the series left me with.

In the end it was pretty bad.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Itse

Kind of sums up the feelings the series left me with.

In the end it was pretty bad.

I've gotten more entertainment out of the season 2 memes than I did with the actual season itself

[Huntingwhale]

Like most others, I was a huge fan of S1 but season 2 was a let down. Not the worst show I've ever seen. But the bar was set so high last season that there really was no where to go but down.

I did find however that the season got better as it went along. But I still had to look up on IMDB the plot synopsis after each episode to figure out who the hell was who and what their role was.

I thought the ending was decent. I was rooting for Frank to make it out and I was kind of annoyed with the whole Mexicans kidnapping him bit. I guess they were doing business with the Armenians, so did those 2 Armenian guys rat Frank out? I was also kind of choked when I saw that Ray's phone didn't upload the message to his son and how his character got dragged through the mud. Typical HBO ending though.

Both Ani and Ray were fantastic characters I thought. Frank was ok. He was cool when he was using his size to intimidate people. But otherwise it felt like I kept waiting for him to spit out one of his famous Vince Vaughn Wedding Crashers-type rants. Hard to take him seriously in that kind of roll.

[GreenLantern2814]

The second season is a complete disaster from a writing perspective and from a cinematic perspective. It's a boring show to look at. The story doesn't connect to the location at all - Louisiana is as big a star of season one as Woody and Matthew.

Season 2 is preoccupied with directly addressing all the criticisms of season 1, and it's terrible for it.

The loss of Cary Fukanaga as director killed them as well.

[The Big Chill]

Nowhere near S1, obviously, but I really enjoyed S2. It was way too confusing, and I had to constantly read up on the plot and characters, but there was still a lot to like. I loved the music and the way they used it to set the scenes, the character depth, and a lot of the acting.

I'll be excitedly awaiting a third season.

[GreenLantern2814]

I'm rewatching season 1 this week - Rust has a line "Vision is meaning. Meaning is historical", which completely sums up the failure of S2. Despite everything Rust said in the previous 8 episodes, his last line of dialogue is "Well, once there was only dark. You ask me, the light's winning."

None of it meant anything. This was an emo rant about how everything in the world is corrupt and awful. And for a show called True Detective, there was almost zero detective work done. It's just a bunch of #### happening. It is in service of nothing.

I really hate this season, the more I have to think about it. It wastes two outstanding performances and a badass Leonard Cohen track.

[Knut]

^ T-Bone Burnett not Leonard Cohen

[Itse]

Originally Posted by Hesla

^ T-Bone Burnett not Leonard Cohen

The title track is Cohen. (A track called 'Nevermind' from his 2014 album Popular Problems, to be exact. Not a bad album.)

T-Bone has made the rest of the soundtrack.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

The second season is a complete disaster from a writing perspective and from a cinematic perspective. It's a boring show to look at. The story doesn't connect to the location at all - Louisiana is as big a star of season one as Woody and Matthew.

.

Yes, THIS!

Vinci isn't even a real place. I mean, yeah, we all know it's supposed to be a suburb of LA but that really irked me at first.

All of the little tiny places mentioned in season 1, like Erath, LA, are real places. I'm a geography nerd and stuff like that really helps connect the story for me. I looked at maps during season 1 to find out where those places were.

The filming of the geography in season one was stellar. This season felt very ho hum in terms of location.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

Yes, THIS!

Vinci isn't even a real place. I mean, yeah, we all know it's supposed to be a suburb of LA but that really irked me at first.

All of the little tiny places mentioned in season 1, like Erath, LA, are real places. I'm a geography nerd and stuff like that really helps connect the story for me. I looked at maps during season 1 to find out where those places were.

The filming of the geography in season one was stellar. This season felt very ho hum in terms of location.

The moment I learned Vinci wasn't a real place was the moment I lost interest in the season. You could've set this show in any one of a hundred real places. Valencia wasn't doing anything last year. Shoot it there.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

The moment I learned Vinci wasn't a real place was the moment I lost interest in the season. You could've set this show in any one of a hundred real places. Valencia wasn't doing anything last year. Shoot it there.

I used to read Louis L'Amour books when I was a kid. Part of the draw for me was that L'Amour would travel to the landscapes where he set his stories and use the real geography in his storytelling. I don't know if he did that for every book. Not all of them were set in North America, but I know he did it for many and it was a huge part of the intrigue for 10 year old Displaced Flames Fan.

[getbak]

Vinci was loosely based on the real city of Vernon, California, which has had its own corruption problems. Like Vinci, Vernon is a primarily industrial city with fewer than 200 residents. Almost all residents are city employees who live in housing supplied by the city.

All of the wide fly-over shots of Vinci were shot in Vernon. I believe many of the exterior shots in Vinci were also shot in Vernon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_California

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Daradon

I believe my initial fear going into the season was one of the failings. Too many characters. Especially for a single season. If your multiple season, with rich source content like GoT, then maybe you can get away with it, but this didn't work. To much to do all at once. Characters weren't properly fleshed out. One of the things that drove season one, was the duality of the two main characters. This season it felt like the tried to one up it by making it more complicated and having more characters. It didn't work. I never does.

One of the very first lessons you learn in drama is don't introduce more characters unless you absolutely have to. They would have done well to follow this rule. When Woodrugh died, I wasn't sad. I even said, 'well he WAS the most boring character.'

Not only did they have a ton of characters, but they felt the need to devout scenes to characters who had little to know screen time. There were several scenes in the show, where I had had no idea who they were talking about. That eulogy scene for Frank's henchman, who had been in the background of a couple of previous episodes....why not just introduce a couple of henchmen in Frank's squad and use them for the necessary plot devices?

The drawn out scenes between McAdams and Farrell were just drawn out and pointless...except for where out of the blue they would solve all of the problems in the show. We basically end up with an hour of meandering through the episode and then McAdams and Farrell figuring everything out in 2 -3 sentences, which you'd better pay attention to.

[Erick Estrada]

I enjoyed season 2. Wasn't as good as season one but it was still good summer entertainment. It was confusing at times but for the most part it all came together at the end and I always like the more realistic endings where people don't all ride into the sunset to live happily ever after. I look forward to season 3.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I enjoyed season 2. Wasn't as good as season one but it was still good summer entertainment. It was confusing at times but for the most part it all came together at the end and I always like the more realistic endings where people don't all ride into the sunset to live happily ever after. I look forward to season 3.

This sums up my thoughts as well. In comparison to season 1 it wasn't great, but in comparison to most television - it was pretty good.

[DuffMan]

wtf would you drive into the redwood forest when you are being chased by a suburban full of heavily armed dudes, and why didn't they just kill him at his kids school?
I asked myself a lot of these types of questions during this season,
VV, got better as the season went on. Sort of like it took me a few episodes of Boardwalk empire to take Steve Buscemi seriously.
There was also way too many "good timing" situations. Like the whole infiltration of the party house, where Mcwhatever Catalyst guy and the Russian explain the plot in 10 seconds, and Woodrow and Velcro happen to be there at that moment. Or Woodrow runs out the same door Burris is hiding behind, stuff like that.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

wtf would you drive into the redwood forest when you are being chased by a suburban full of heavily armed dudes, and why didn't they just kill him at his kids school?
I asked myself a lot of these types of questions during this season,
VV, got better as the season went on. Sort of like it took me a few episodes of Boardwalk empire to take Steve Buscemi seriously.
There was also way too many "good timing" situations. Like the whole infiltration of the party house, where Mcwhatever Catalyst guy and the Russian explain the plot in 10 seconds, and Woodrow and Velcro happen to be there at that moment. Or Woodrow runs out the same door Burris is hiding behind, stuff like that.

Looked like a suicide mission at that point. I think he was just trying to lead the suburban as far away from McAdams and the boat as possible. He realized that these people would never let him go and he'd become a danger to everyone around him.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

wtf would you drive into the redwood forest when you are being chased by a suburban full of heavily armed dudes, and why didn't they just kill him at his kids school?
I asked myself a lot of these types of questions during this season,
VV, got better as the season went on. Sort of like it took me a few episodes of Boardwalk empire to take Steve Buscemi seriously.
There was also way too many "good timing" situations. Like the whole infiltration of the party house, where Mcwhatever Catalyst guy and the Russian explain the plot in 10 seconds, and Woodrow and Velcro happen to be there at that moment. Or Woodrow runs out the same door Burris is hiding behind, stuff like that.

Despite the one crooked cop looking for any excuse to kill him I'm pretty sure the police forces would attempt to take him alive and they were likely hoping for him to lead them to Ani. It was Ray that chose to make it a suicide mission.