I've spent most of the Golden Age of Televised Fiction without a single channel available in the places I lived. I'm probably not alone, if television became pastime so popular that it defeated the hegemony of cinema in the heart of Mr. and Mrs. Everybody, it's because it allows them the pleasure of binge-watching inside their own home, with the company of deeper, more complex characters and storylines that are more daring and engaging than whatever cinema can ever hope of providing them.
TRUE DETECTIVE has been HBO's summer blockbuster for two years now. It's a little short on explosions, but it's got bad dudes, smart storytelling and it explores the depth of human darkness not quite like its predecessors. The first season was almost universally praised as it ran, although its simple and quiet ending provoke one of the many internet uproars we had last year. I sat through the eight episodes of Season Two as they were aired - haven't done that since I was a teenager - and here are my thoughts.
Spoilers, obviously.
TRUE DETECTIVE has been HBO's summer blockbuster for two years now. It's a little short on explosions, but it's got bad dudes, smart storytelling and it explores the depth of human darkness not quite like its predecessors. The first season was almost universally praised as it ran, although its simple and quiet ending provoke one of the many internet uproars we had last year. I sat through the eight episodes of Season Two as they were aired - haven't done that since I was a teenager - and here are my thoughts.
Spoilers, obviously.
- I've never seen an arguably well-written series receive so much criticism for the actual quality of its writing. I mean, TRUE DETECTIVE, Season 2 was a far cry from the LAW & ORDER, CSI and other network television shows of this world. I'm about to do just the same though, and I feel like blaming a girl who just got assaulted by some horny fuck at the bar for wearing provocative clothes.
- That said, I really liked Season Two. I just think it suffered from the sophomore slump a little. It's like in the music industry, you have all your life to work on your first album and only one year to work on your second one. Season Two was an extremely ambitious project, starting everything from scratch again and maybe it would've benefited spending another year in the shade.
- So, the main issue I had with TRUE DETECTIVE, Season 2 were the downtime moments, where characters thoughtfully reminisced about their lives in what Chuck Palahniuk calls the ''Big Voice''. It's a great technique to use in novels and it was meant to replace Rust Cohle's philosophy bits, but having all four main protagonists indulging in these ''moments'' without a context to their sudden thoughtfulness became incredibly jarring after a couple episodes.
- My favorite aspect of the series was the tremendous use of Californian setting. It became one of my go-to examples of setting-as-character. California is a sprawling, schizoid giant split in half my a monstrous highway (the recurrent shots of that highway were glorious, by the way). One minute you're in an industrial wasteland, the other you're in the forest, there are deserts, abandoned tunnels under cities, mountains, etc. It makes you feel like it was abandoned by God and taken over by greedy men.
- I loved Colin Farrell's character Ray Velcoro. His life was tattered by bad decisions and it made him a great deadbeat dad in the sense that he always meant well, but had way too much on his plate to pull himself together. Every other protagonist had something that bugged me: Frank Semyon was poorly acted, Paul Woodrugh was borderline not pertinent and while Ani Bezzerides had her moments, her character revealed to be underdeveloped and little cliché at times (knife fighting? c'mon). Velcoro though, he was perfect.
- Since TRUE DETECTIVE, Season 1 gave us a transcendent Matthew McConaughey, all bets were off for Season Two as to who would supercharge his career. Turned out to be Colin Farrell, who really glided through the season as tormented and compromised cop Ray Velcoro. Rachel McAdams gave a strong performance also, but it was nothing outside what we knew she could offer and Taylor Kitsch showed promise despite being handed a difficult part to blend in. Vince Vaughn ranged from terrible to decent. I didn't expect Farrell to stand out like that, but it made me inexplicably happy.
- I'm not going to go in details because it involves spoilers, but TRUE DETECTIVE, Season 2 swiped a lot of stuff from a James Ellroy novel. See for yourselves here and here. As much as I want to defend Pizzolatto, these articles make a strong point. It's too bad, because the series definitely has legs without these ''borrowed'' themes and characters. I hope the show comes back, but if this keeps up, it's going to be an issue going forward.
